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:

• Be A Good Influence LLC is a political consulting firm that recruits social media influencers to promote the campaigns of Democratic Party candidates and left-leaning causes. According to its website, it has worked with left-of-center organizations including MoveOn.org, the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), the William J. Brennan Center for Justice, and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). As of 2024, Josh Cook, who was previously a digital strategist for former president Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign, serves as president of the firm.
• The Oil and Gas Action Network is an environmental activist group that organizes protests against oil and gas energy projects. It has received donations from private foundations including the Schmidt Family Foundation, the Arca Foundation, and the Winslow Foundation. In 2024, the network organized pro-Palestinian protests outside Chevron’s company headquarters in San Ramon, CA, demanding that the company divest from its operations in Israel.
• The Uncommitted National Movement is a voter mobilization project of the Listen to Us PAC that worked to increase the “uncommitted” vote in the 2024 Democratic presidential primary in states such as Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, and Wisconsin. Layla Elabed, the younger sister of U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), is co-director of the Uncommitted National Movement, as well as treasurer of Listen to Us PAC. In 2024, the Uncommitted National Movement organized the “Not Another Bomb” campaign to push delegates at the Democratic National Convention into supporting an arms embargo against Israel.
• VOCAL-NY Action Fund Inc. (VAF) is the political affiliate of New York-based charitable advocacy group VOCAL-NY. VOCAL-NY Action Fund advocates for left-of-center policies including decriminalization of drug possession, rental assistance for illegal immigrants and felons, and ending qualified immunity for police. It has previously received funding from the Open Society Policy Center, a lobbying group associated with the Open Society Foundations founded by billionaire George Soros.
• Shut It Down for Palestine (SID4P) is an advocacy coalition that organizes protests and boycotts against companies that do business in Israel. The group was created in November 2023, following the October 7 Hamas terror attacks against Israel. The far-left group People’s Forum was one of SID4P’s convenors. Numerous left-of-center groups have endorsed SID4P including American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), the American Party of Labor, CODEPINK, and National Students for a Democratic Society.