InfluenceWatch Friday

InfluenceWatch, a project of Capital Research Center, is a comprehensive and ever-evolving compilation of our research into the numerous advocacy groups, foundations, and donors working to influence the public policy process. The website offers transparency into these influencers’ funding, motives, and connections while providing insight often neglected by other watchdog groups.

The information compiled in InfluenceWatch gives news outlets and other interested parties research to use in reporting on significant topics that are often overlooked by the American public.

CRC is pleased to present some of the most significant additions to InfluenceWatch in the past week:

• The Colorado Education Association (CEA) is the state-level affiliate of the National Education Association (NEA) teachers union in Colorado, representing roughly 40,000 teachers within the state. During its annual convention in 2023, the CEA passed a resolution calling for the dismantling of capitalism, claiming that it “inherently exploits children, public schools, land, labor, and resources.” One member claimed the resolution meant the CEA could “advocate and lobby for anti-capitalist policies” at the Colorado capitol.
• The Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel (IBSI) is an advocacy organization that claims to support strengthening relations between people of African descent and the Jewish people. Following the Hamas terrorist attack against Israel on October 7, 2023, IBSI’s founder and CEO Dumisani Washington denounced pro-Palestinian messages posted by Black Lives Matter Grassroots and Black Lives Matter’s Chicago chapter, stating that both groups were supporting “evil beyond description.”
• Equality New Mexico is an advocacy organization that promotes left-of-center policy and legislation on topics including gender identity and other LGBTQ interests. In 2024, the group advocated against “tough-on-crime” bills, claiming that increased policing and jail sentences do not work. The previous year, in 2023, the group supported legislation passed by the state legislature that restores voting rights to all felons upon release from prison and creates a permanent vote-by-mail list.
• The Housing Partnership Network (HPN) is a collaborative of community development organizations claiming to support affordable housing. According to a three-year plan published by the group, it aims to use housing to promote racial equity while calling the U.S housing industry, “one of the greatest perpetrators of systemic racism in America.” The group also supports decarbonizing communities, funding zero-emission technology, and leveraging the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.
• Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25) is an international political movement that calls for a “radically progressive” and “postcapitalist” Europe. It advocates for far-left policies including unconditional basic income, a Green New Deal for Europe, and banning Israel from international sporting events. In 2018, the group partnered with the Sanders Institute, a think tank formed following U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders’s (I-VT) failed 2016 presidential campaign, to create the radical-left Progressive International.