John,

In 2021, former Trump officials and close Trump allies founded America First Policy Institute, a non-profit think tank with the objective of advancing Trump’s policy agenda. As it prepares for a potential second Trump presidency, it just launched its first state chapters in Georgia, Florida, California, Pennsylvania and Arizona.

The problem? Prominent election deniers have been chosen to lead the four state chapters that have announced leadership so far.

Considering one of its goals listed on its website is to “enhance” election integrity, the new leadership raises all kinds of questions about what exactly that means for their policy objectives on the state level. If groups like AFPI are positioning themselves in swing states to usher in more policies that will allow them to contest fair election results, we need to pay attention.

As CREW’s new investigation reveals, AFPI’s Georgia chapter is led by former Rep. Doug Collins, a longtime Trump ally and one of the 126 GOP House members who signed an amicus brief in the dismissed Supreme Court lawsuit that contested the 2020 presidential election results. Georgia’s chief election official Brad Raffensperger himself called Collins a liar during Collins’s claims of fraud in Georgia.

Former Florida State Attorney General Pam Bondi heads AFPI’s Florida chapter. She defended Trump during his impeachment trial, and later pushed false claims of election fraud in Pennsylvania alongside Trump and Rudy Guliani in the days after the 2020 election—including telling reporters that Trump had won Pennsylvania before it was called.

Leadership of AFPI’s California chapter was handed to former California state senator Melissa Melendez, who denied Biden’s win in a slew of tweets after the 2020 election including, “We all see it. We all know what you’re doing. We are not going to let you cheat and steal this election. See you in court.” and “Al Gore dragged the election out until mid December but Trump is supposed to just give up the day after? I don’t think so.”

Carla Sands, an ambassador during the Trump administration and his economic advisor during his 2016 campaign, sits on Pennsylvania’s chapter’s listed team of two. She also repeated Trump’s claims of election fraud on Twitter, including claiming that Pennsylvania “did not count” her vote. The state’s elections website showed Sands’s ballot was recorded weeks prior.

According to its website, AFPI hopes to eventually create branches in all 50 states. That would almost certainly mean placing more election deniers into the highest possible positions, where they would be in positions to assist election deniers that have been elected to state governments and who oversee a third of the US’s state election processes.

All of this lays the groundwork for states to pass measures that weaken the election system and threaten future elections.

It’s more important than ever for us to shield our election system from those who want to dismantle it. Make a donation now to help us continue to expose and fight these efforts to undermine our elections and our democracy →

Thank you,

CREW