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 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a series of 17 policy objectives for all United Nations (UN) member states to achieve as part of the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Agenda calls for creating critical race theory-influenced “just, equitable and inclusive societies,” reducing fossil fuel subsidies, and supporting the Paris Climate Agreement. The United Nations Foundation and the Brookings Institution are leading advocates in favor of expanding SDG-related projects within the United States.
• The Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC) is an advocacy organization that favors legalizing all illegal immigrants within the United States as well as ending immigrant deportations. MIRAC not only opposes U.S border enforcement policies but also supports making Minnesota an “ICE free state” by restricting U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations within state.
• Larry Alcoff is a lead union negotiator for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Following the October 7, 2023 Hamas terror attacks against Israel, Alcoff participated in a pro-Palestinian protest that shut down the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City where he accused Israel of committing “genocide.” According to the Washington Free Beacon, he attended with his wife, professor Linda Martin Alcoff, and his son Jose Alcoff, the latter of whom is reportedly connected to the radical Antifa movement.
• Stop the Coup 2025 is a coalition of left-leaning organizations and foundations that oppose Project 2025, a conservative coalition that they claim aims to replace large numbers of government employees during the next Republican presidential administration. Groups involved with Stop the Coup 2025 reportedly include the Center for Popular Democracy, Human Rights Campaign, CPD Action, Vocal New York, and Rise and Resist.
• Texas Majority PAC is a Houston-based Political Action Committee (PAC) seeking to elect Democrats to state-level offices, including in both Texas state legislative chambers. The organization was founded by alumni from former U.S representative Beto O’Rourke’s (D-TX) failed 2022 gubernatorial campaign against incumbent Governor Greg Abbott (R). Since 2022, Texas Majority PAC has received at least $1.4 million directly from major liberal political funder and philanthropist George Soros, as well as $850,000 from Soros’s own Democracy PAC II.