The Clark Fork Group: A Decade Of Dark Money

Mapping A Conservative Dark Money Network

In modern campaign finance, money rarely travels in a straight line. A donor contributes to a nonprofit. The nonprofit gives to another nonprofit. That organization funds a political committee, which purchases advertising through a consulting firm that happens to be connected to the same network of operatives who helped establish the original nonprofit. By the time voters see a television advertisement or campaign mailer, tracing the origins of the money behind it can be extraordinarily difficult.

Over the past decade, a sprawling network of nonprofits, political action committees, limited liability companies, consultants, attorneys, and compliance specialists has emerged across federal and state elections. The organizations frequently operate under different names, pursue different policy goals, and target different races. Some focus on congressional campaigns. Others involve ballot initiatives, judicial elections, mayoral races, or issue advocacy efforts. New groups appear while older ones dissolve. Yet beneath the surface, the same individuals, vendors, and financial relationships appear again and again.

One of the most recent examples emerged during the 2024 election cycle, when a Delaware LLC named Building Our Future Today became the sole reported funder of two federal Super PACs: Progressive Century Project and Badger Values PAC. The committees would go on to spend millions of dollars attempting to influence federal elections, including efforts opposing Arizona Senate candidate Ruben Gallego and supporting Donald Trump during the presidential campaign. The arrangement eventually drew scrutiny from the Campaign Legal Center, which filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging that the LLC may have been used to conceal the true source of political contributions.

Building Our Future Today did not exist in isolation. The company occupied a familiar place within a broader ecosystem of political organizations that, when examined collectively, reveal an intricate web of relationships stretching across multiple election cycles and dozens of entities. The names change frequently, but the supporting infrastructure remains remarkably consistent.

At the center of that infrastructure sits a relatively small collection of political operatives whose influence extends far beyond any single organization. Among the most prominent is Ohio political consultant Thomas Norris, a former state-registered lobbyist for the concrete industry, founder of Cap Square Solutions and partial owner of Clark Fork Group—a consulting firm that appears repeatedly throughout the network’s history. Over the years, organizations associated with Norris have paid large suns of money to Clark Fork Group and Cap Square for services described as communications consulting, public affairs strategy, project management, and issue advocacy. While Norris himself does not appear on every organization’s paperwork, his presence is difficult to miss once the network begins to take shape.

Alongside Norris is Joel Riter, another recurring figure whose name surfaces throughout the leadership structure of numerous nonprofits. Riter, got his big break in politics as an aide to former Ohio State Treasurer Josh Mandel, after which he was recruited by Norris to form Clark Fork. Tax filings place Riter in positions of authority at organizations including Government Integrity Fund, Citizens for a Working America, and American Jobs and Growth Fund, among others. As entities emerged, expanded, and eventually dissolved, Riter repeatedly appeared somewhere within the organizational structure. His role varied from group to group, but his presence remained consistent.

Perhaps even more significant than the organizations’ officers, however, is the network’s compliance infrastructure. For years, many of the nonprofits relied upon Brad Elgin and his company, Total Business Solutions, to prepare tax filings and handle regulatory compliance. Directors and officers often changed. Organizations were renamed or replaced. Yet Elgin’s firm remained a constant presence across much of the network. The pattern is so consistent that Total Business Solutions effectively serves as connective tissue linking organizations that might otherwise appear unrelated.

Then there is Dustin McIntyre, whose role helps bridge the gap between nonprofit fundraising and electoral spending. McIntyre appears as treasurer on dozens of political committees, many of them Super PACs. In many cases, those committees received substantial contributions from nonprofits connected to the same network of organizations associated with Norris, Riter, and Elgin. His significance becomes even more apparent when considering that McIntyre’s contact information frequently references FEC Compliance Group—a fictitious business name registered by Clark Fork Group according to Ohio business records. While each individual connection may appear unremarkable on its own, collectively they reveal an infrastructure that repeatedly surfaces whenever large amounts of political money begin moving through the network.

The supporting cast extends further still. Ohio attorney Greg Finnerty played a role in the formation of both Cap Square Solutions and Clark Fork Group, and eventually as director of his own dark money group (this one especially subversive). Attorney Kimberly Land frequently appears as registered agent for organizations and LLCs connected to the network. Political operative and attorney David Langdon emerges repeatedly in connection with various nonprofits, political committees, and issue campaigns. Their roles differ, but together they form part of a recurring ecosystem that has quietly shaped political spending across multiple states and election cycles.

Personnel overlap alone would not necessarily be noteworthy. Political professionals often work with multiple organizations throughout their careers. What makes this network unusual is the extent to which personnel overlap is accompanied by financial overlap. Nonprofits fund one another. Organizations share vendors and consultants. Money moves from one entity to the next before ultimately finding its way into political committees, issue campaigns, or independent expenditure efforts. As older organizations fade from public view, newer organizations frequently emerge bearing many of the same characteristics and involving many of the same people.

Viewed individually, entities such as Government Integrity Fund, Citizens for a Working America, Jobs and Progress Fund, A Public Voice, Prosperity Alliance, American Policy Coalition, American Advancement, American Exceptionalism Institute, Safe Streets Safe Communities, Revitalization Project, American Jobs and Growth Fund, United for Clean Power, Defend US, and Ohio Works may appear to be separate organizations pursuing separate objectives. Viewed collectively, they reveal something different: a durable political infrastructure that has spent more than a decade moving money through nonprofits, LLCs, Super PACs, and advocacy campaigns across the country.

Understanding how that infrastructure developed requires going back to the beginning. Long before nonprofits like Defend US, Ohio Works, or American Jobs and Growth Fund became major political spenders, the foundations of the network were already being laid through a small collection of nonprofits that would ultimately become the building blocks for everything that followed.

Building the Machine

By the time federal regulators, watchdog organizations, and journalists began noticing recurring patterns among Clark Fork-affiliated entities, much of the underlying infrastructure had already been built. The network that would eventually stretch across dozens of nonprofits, political committees, and limited liability companies did not emerge all at once. Instead, it developed gradually through a handful of organizations that, while appearing independent on paper, increasingly shared personnel, funding relationships, consultants, and strategic objectives.

The earliest foundations can be traced to Citizens for a Working America, Government Integrity Fund, Jobs and Progress Fund, and eventually A Public Voice. During the first half of the 2010s, these organizations would repeatedly fund one another, exchange personnel, and help establish many of the relationships that would later define the broader network.

Government Integrity Fund, founded in 2012, appears to be one of the earliest organizations directly associated with Thomas Norris. Tax records list Norris as president during the organization’s formative years. The following year, Joel Riter joined the organization alongside Brad Elgin, whose Total Business Solutions would ultimately become one of the most important compliance firms within the network. While Government Integrity Fund’s public profile remained relatively modest, its financial activity offers an early glimpse into the strategy that would later become commonplace among Clark Fork-affiliated organizations.

In 2013, Government Integrity Fund made one of its first notable grants: a $25,280 contribution to Jobs and Progress Fund. On its face, the transfer was unremarkable. Nonprofits routinely make grants to other nonprofits. Yet what makes the transaction noteworthy in retrospect is the overlap that surrounded it. That same year, Norris himself joined Jobs and Progress Fund as a director. The money was moving between organizations that increasingly shared leadership, personnel, and strategic relationships.

The following year, those relationships deepened. While Norris departed Government Integrity Fund in an official capacity, the organization’s financial activity accelerated. Tax filings show Government Integrity Fund contributing $750,000 to Mid America Fund, a nonprofit that would later become the subject of scrutiny regarding its political spending in Illinois. According to a complaint filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Mid America Fund spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on advertisements targeting candidates during the 2014 Illinois Republican gubernatorial primary while allegedly underreporting the extent of its political activity. Government Integrity Fund’s contribution represented a substantial portion of Mid America Fund’s revenue during its inaugural year.

Government Integrity Fund also directed $410,000 to Citizens for a Working America, establishing another financial relationship that would continue for years.

At the time, Citizens for a Working America was still evolving into what it would eventually become. Founded in 2011, the organization initially operated on a relatively modest scale. By 2013, however, revenue had surged beyond $4 million. Even before Clark Fork-associated personnel formally entered leadership positions, the organization’s financial relationships suggest an emerging connection. During that year, Citizens for a Working America contributed $600,000 to Government Integrity Fund and another $378,000 to A Public Voice, helping establish a pattern of interconnected funding among organizations that would later become central pillars of the network.

The personnel connections followed shortly thereafter.

In 2014, Joel Riter appeared as principal officer of Citizens for a Working America. By the following year, he had been joined by Tyler Moore and Chris Hines, both of whom simultaneously held significant positions at A Public Voice. The overlap was notable not because any single individual served multiple organizations—something that occurs throughout the nonprofit world—but because the overlap was becoming increasingly systemic. The same names appeared repeatedly across organizations that were simultaneously exchanging money, consultants, and compliance services.

By 2016, Riter had become president of Citizens for a Working America, while Brad Elgin had assumed responsibility for compliance matters. The organization began expanding its political footprint, directing money toward Super PACs involved in congressional races across Ohio, Arizona, Missouri, North Carolina, and eventually national elections. Over the next several years, Citizens for a Working America would become one of the network’s most active political spenders, ultimately directing millions of dollars toward Republican and conservative political committees.

While Citizens for a Working America was growing, another organization was quietly becoming one of the network’s most important hubs.

A Public Voice traces its origins to an Ohio-based organization called Protect Your Vote Ohio, which gained prominence during battles over congressional redistricting in their namesake state. In its earliest incarnation, the organization spent millions attempting to influence state-level political issues. At that stage, direct connections to the emerging Clark Fork network were limited. Yet one important link already existed: compliance specialist John Lind (who prepared tax documents for Government Integrity Fund at its inception), whose role would later be assumed by Brad Elgin as many of the organizations became increasingly intertwined.

The transformation accelerated in 2014 when Chris Hines and Tyler Moore joined A Public Voice’s leadership. Their arrival created direct personnel overlap with Citizens for a Working America and helped establish relationships that would persist long after both men departed formal leadership positions. That same year, A Public Voice reported more than $4 million in revenue and directed $1.1 million to Mid America Fund.

The significance of that grant becomes clearer when viewed alongside Government Integrity Fund’s earlier contribution. Combined, Government Integrity Fund and A Public Voice provided nearly all of Mid America Fund’s known funding during its first year of operation. What initially appeared to be isolated grants now resembled coordinated streams of financial support flowing through organizations connected by overlapping personnel and consultants.

By 2015, Brad Elgin had assumed compliance responsibilities at A Public Voice as well. Over the next several years, the organization’s grantmaking increasingly focused inward. In 2016, A Public Voice directed $840,000 to Government Integrity Fund and another $85,000 to Citizens for a Working America. In later years, additional grants flowed toward American Policy Coalition, Revitalization Project, and other organizations that would become integral components of the expanding network.

The result was a growing ecosystem in which money frequently circulated among a familiar collection of organizations before ultimately being directed toward political expenditures.

Jobs and Progress Fund occupied a similar role.

After joining the organization in 2013, Norris became part of another nonprofit that increasingly overlapped with the same emerging network. Tax filings from 2014 reveal that Jobs and Progress Fund directed approximately $1.7 million to Citizens for a Working America PAC, a Super PAC associated with a nonprofit then under Joel Riter’s leadership. The organization also contributed $500,000 to Government Integrity Fund and another $80,000 to Hometown Freedom Action—who's registered agent was David Langdon, who would become a frequent collaborator as years progressed.

Again, viewed individually, the grants appear ordinary. Viewed collectively, they reveal an increasingly dense web of financial relationships connecting the same organizations, the same personnel, and many of the same political objectives.

As the decade progressed, the pattern became difficult to ignore. Government Integrity Fund funded Citizens for a Working America. Citizens for a Working America funded Government Integrity Fund. Both organizations interacted financially with A Public Voice. Jobs and Progress Fund funded organizations led by many of the same individuals. Personnel moved between organizations. Compliance responsibilities consolidated under Brad Elgin and Total Business Solutions. New relationships formed while older ones deepened. What emerged was not a hierarchy with a single organization at the top. Instead, the structure more closely resembled an ecosystem. Money flowed in multiple directions. Leadership roles shifted. Organizations expanded and contracted. Yet the same names continued appearing throughout the system.

By the end of the decade, the network had evolved beyond a handful of interconnected nonprofits. New organizations were appearing. Revenue was increasing dramatically. Political spending was accelerating. The infrastructure had been tested, refined, and expanded. The next phase would transform a regional network of interconnected nonprofits into a national political operation capable of moving tens of millions of dollars through elections, issue campaigns, advocacy efforts, and political committees across the country.

The expansion was about to begin.

The Expansion

By the late 2010s, the organizations that had helped establish the network’s foundation were no longer operating in isolation. The personnel relationships had been established. The compliance infrastructure was firmly in place. Money had already begun moving between nonprofits with increasing frequency. What happened next was not the creation of a new system, but the rapid expansion of an existing one.

Beginning around 2018, a second generation of organizations emerged that would dramatically increase both the scale and reach of the network. Revenue climbed from the low millions into the tens of millions. New nonprofits appeared at a remarkable pace. Existing organizations began making larger grants, funding more Super PACs, and experimenting with increasingly complex structures involving limited liability companies, state-level advocacy efforts, and issue campaigns. If the earlier years were spent building the machine, the period between 2018 and 2024 was when that machine reached full operating capacity.

One of the first signs of this expansion came through Prosperity Alliance.

Founded in 2018 by Tyler Conner, Prosperity Alliance initially resembled many of the other nonprofits already operating within the network. Early spending focused primarily on state-level committees and advocacy efforts. Yet within only a few years, the organization had become one of the most prolific political spenders in the entire ecosystem. According to campaign finance records, Prosperity Alliance has contributed nearly $6 million to Super PACs since its formation, while simultaneously acting as a major funding source for numerous Clark Fork-affiliated nonprofits.

Its grantmaking history reads almost like a roadmap of the network itself. In 2020, Prosperity Alliance directed more than $773,000 to American Advancement, a relatively new organization that would quickly become one of the most important hubs within the network. A year later, Prosperity Alliance contributed to American Exceptionalism Institute and Jobs and Progress Fund. By 2022, it had directed $1 million to A Public Voice and another $600,000 to American Advancement.

The organization’s most significant year came in 2023. Revenue exceeded $11 million, allowing Prosperity Alliance to distribute millions of dollars throughout the network. American Jobs and Growth Fund received $700,000. American Policy Coalition received $2.75 million. Safe Streets Safe Communities received $2.25 million. Defend US received $500,000, while Defend US PAC received another $1.75 million. Revitalization Project received $325,000. The organization also paid Clark Fork Group directly. What emerges from these disclosures is not merely evidence of political spending, but evidence of a funding ecosystem in which organizations repeatedly support one another while simultaneously directing money toward electoral activity.

Running concurrently, Greg Finnerty (the same Ohio attorney who acted as registered agent for both Cap Square Solutions and Clark Fork when those organizations were incorporated) took control of United For Clean Power in 2018 from Erin Cummings, its founder. Prior to Finnerty’s involvement, UCP’s only known donor was an organization named Freedom Frontier—whose principal agent was none other than Joel Riter. Through the use of multiple shell organizations—OK Progress, Ohioans for Effective Government, and Keep US Green—the organization spent thousands on online messaging trying to derail Democratic lawmaker’s spending bills (notably Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act) from the left on basis of inadequate climate change considerations.

The messages were cryptic, yet seemingly pointing that Biden’s agenda wasn’t progressive enough—but as years went on, it has been proven that the organization and its shell corporations have been entirely funded by right-wing dark money nonprofits—nearly all of which in the Clark Fork Network. That year (2022) was the organization’s largest in terms of revenue and spending, with over $1.3 million going out the door for “issue advocacy communications” mostly regarding the attempt to squash that reconciliation bill. In 2023, United for Clean Power gave $50,000 to two Georgia-centric federal super PACs, as well as $135,000 to an LLC named Right Direction 2030—who in turn used that money to spend over $50,000 supporting a Democratic judge in his bid to win a seat on the Texas 127 District Court, as well as $30,000 attempting to influence the 2023 race for Nashville, TN mayor.

2024 activity was low, other than fully funding a Pennsylvania independent expenditure committee PA Fulcrum PAC, which spent of $160,000 of the $190,000 it received from UCP on supportive text messages for the last-place-finishing attorney general candidate in PA. Like nearly all other entities here, compliance issues are also handled by Elgin.

American Advancement followed a similar trajectory.

Founded by Evan Handy in 2018, the organization rapidly evolved into one of the network’s largest financial engines. In 2020, American Advancement reported approximately $7 million in revenue and distributed substantial grants throughout the growing ecosystem. Among the largest recipients was American Exceptionalism Institute, which received nearly $1.9 million. Another significant recipient was Security Is Strength LLC, which would later participate in spending efforts supporting South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham.

Two years later, American Advancement’s revenue exceeded $16 million, and the scale of its grantmaking reflected the broader expansion underway throughout the network. More than $3.8 million flowed to American Exceptionalism Institute. American Policy Coalition received $2.1 million. Prosperity Alliance received $2.15 million. Defend US PAC received $1.5 million. Safe Streets Safe Communities received another $500,000.

By this point, the organizations were no longer merely connected through overlapping personnel. They were actively financing one another on a massive scale.

American Policy Coalition provides another example of how these relationships evolved.

Founded in 2016, APC quickly became one of the network’s most politically active organizations. Its early years were marked by substantial grants to politically engaged nonprofits and Super PACs, including a $2 million contribution to Seals For Truth, a committee that would later become embroiled in controversy surrounding former Missouri Governor Eric Greitens.

The Greitens episode is notable because it offers one of the earliest public glimpses into the broader relationships connecting many of the network’s key players. Court documents and reporting examined by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington later revealed interactions involving Norris, David Langdon, Freedom Frontier, and organizations associated with the same emerging ecosystem. While the details remain complex, the controversy highlighted how frequently the same individuals and organizations appeared together across seemingly unrelated political efforts.

Over time, American Policy Coalition became one of the largest grantmakers within the network. In 2022 alone, the organization raised nearly $7 million and distributed millions through Super PAC contributions and nonprofit grants. Significant beneficiaries included American Advancement, Safe Streets Safe Communities, Defend US, and several committees associated with Dustin McIntyre. The following year, APC raised more than $11 million and continued distributing funds throughout the ecosystem while simultaneously financing outside political projects in states such as Ohio and Louisiana.

The pattern was becoming increasingly familiar. Organizations raised money. They funded one another. They funded Super PACs. They funded issue campaigns. They funded LLCs. And frequently, the same names appeared somewhere along the chain.

No organization illustrates the scale of the expansion better than American Exceptionalism Institute.

Although founded in 2018, the organization’s transformation began after Justin Myers assumed leadership in 2020. That year, revenue surged to approximately $13 million. The organization immediately began moving extraordinary sums of money. Millions of dollars flowed to major conservative organizations including Club for Growth, One Nation, Georgia Life Alliance, and the 45 Committee.

The significance of American Exceptionalism Institute, however, extends beyond its direct political spending. Beginning in 2021, the organization became deeply embedded within the broader Clark Fork ecosystem. It paid Clark Fork Group hundreds of thousands of dollars in consulting fees. It distributed millions to organizations such as American Policy Coalition and Safe Streets Safe Communities. It received substantial funding from American Advancement, Revitalization Project, Prosperity Alliance, and other entities throughout the network.

By the middle of the decade, AEI had effectively become one of the largest financial crossroads in the system.

Revitalization Project occupied a somewhat different role.

Originally founded in 2015, the organization remained relatively quiet until the early 2020s. Once revenue increased, however, Revitalization Project rapidly emerged as another major distributor of funds throughout the network. Tax records show substantial grants to American Exceptionalism Institute, American Jobs and Growth Fund, Safe Streets Safe Communities, Ohio Works, and A Public Voice. The organization also paid Norris-affiliated consulting firms for strategic services and maintained relationships with numerous other Clark Fork entities.

Perhaps most interestingly, Revitalization Project demonstrated the network’s increasing willingness to utilize LLCs as vehicles for state-level advocacy efforts. Entities such as Affordable Energy Fund, Build and Protect OKC, Safe and Regulated Indiana, and Teachers First appeared under its umbrella, each pursuing different policy goals in different jurisdictions. Some focused on elections. Others focused on ballot measures or legislative initiatives. Together, they illustrate the network’s growing sophistication and willingness to deploy specialized entities for targeted political objectives.

Safe Streets Safe Communities provides another example of this evolution.

Founded by Norris in 2019, the organization experienced explosive growth in 2022, reporting revenue exceeding $12 million. Large grants flowed to A Public Voice, United for Clean Power, and a newly created entity known as Leadership Action Fund. The latter would eventually attract scrutiny from the Campaign Legal Center, which alleged the organization may have functioned as a vehicle for concealing the true source of contributions to a federal Super PAC supporting Oklahoma Senate candidate T.W. Shannon.

The episode highlights an increasingly common theme within the network’s history: the appearance of newly formed organizations that rapidly receive large sums of money before directing those funds toward political activity. As these organizations multiplied, another development was occurring beneath the surface: The network was becoming increasingly dependent on political committees rather than nonprofits alone.

For years, nonprofits had served as the primary vehicles for fundraising and grantmaking. By the early 2020s, however, a growing share of political activity was being routed through Super PACs. The individuals facilitating that transition would become some of the most important figures in the network’s history.

At the center of that transformation was Dustin McIntyre.

By the time the expansion era reached its peak, McIntyre’s name had become nearly impossible to avoid. His role would ultimately help transform a collection of interconnected nonprofits into something far larger: a nationwide political spending apparatus capable of influencing elections from Arizona to Oklahoma, Louisiana to Ohio, and virtually everywhere in between.

To understand how that happened, it is necessary to follow the money from the nonprofits into the PACs themselves.

The PAC Factory

For most voters, the world of campaign finance is largely invisible.

Nonprofits raise money. Political advertisements appear on television. Mailers arrive in mailboxes. Text messages flood cell phones in the final weeks before an election. Somewhere in the background, millions of dollars move through a maze of organizations that most people have never heard of.

The nonprofits examined thus far—Government Integrity Fund, Prosperity Alliance, American Advancement, American Policy Coalition, American Exceptionalism Institute, Revitalization Project, Safe Streets Safe Communities, and others—represent only part of the story. While these organizations raised and distributed tens of millions of dollars, they were often not the entities directly purchasing political advertisements or reporting independent expenditures to election regulators.

That responsibility increasingly fell to a sprawling collection of Super PACs. Some existed for only a single election cycle. Some focused on a single race. Others appeared suddenly, spent heavily, and disappeared almost as quickly as they arrived.

On paper, these committees appeared independent of one another. They carried different names, operated in different states, and often focused on entirely different candidates or political issues. Yet when examined collectively, a familiar pattern emerges.

The same treasurer appears. The same compliance infrastructure presents itself. Again and again, the money traces back to the same collection of nonprofits—and the trail consistently leads back to Clark Fork.

At the center of that system sits Dustin McIntyre.

While Thomas Norris helped build much of the nonprofit infrastructure and Brad Elgin maintained much of the compliance architecture on the nonprofit side, McIntyre increasingly became the operational hub through which political spending flowed.

By the 2023, McIntyre began not only taking over treasurer duties at established Clark Fork-related political committees (the overwhelming majority of them Super PACs), he also developed a knack for appearing on “pop-up” PACs. Some were active. Some never spent a dime and remained dormant. Others appeared only briefly before disappearing from the political landscape altogether. Yet collectively they represented an extraordinary concentration of campaign finance activity under a single compliance umbrella. At time of writing, McIntyre is listed as Treasurer on 74 registered political action committees.

The significance of that number cannot be overstated.

Political committees routinely share vendors, attorneys, and consultants. But few treasurers appear across such a large and geographically diverse collection of committees. McIntyre’s committees have operated in congressional races, Senate races, gubernatorial races, judicial elections, ballot initiative campaigns, and issue advocacy efforts spanning multiple election cycles and numerous states.

The overlap becomes even more striking when considering the compliance infrastructure surrounding those committees.

Federal campaign finance records repeatedly reference FEC Compliance Group as a contact point for many of the PACs associated with McIntyre. According to Ohio business records, FEC Compliance Group is a fictitious business name registered by Clark Fork Group.

That connection does not establish wrongdoing—it does, however, establish infrastructure. The same consulting ecosystem that appears throughout the nonprofit network also appears throughout the PAC network. The same individuals who helped build the fundraising apparatus also appear connected to the committees spending the money.

The result is something that resembles less a collection of independent organizations and more a vertically integrated political operation.

Money enters through and between nonprofits. Money exits through PACs. Sometimes, the names change—but the underlying infrastructure remains.

One of the clearest examples is Defend US.

On the nonprofit side, Defend US remained relatively modest. Founded by Thomas Norris in 2022, the organization never reached the scale of Prosperity Alliance, American Advancement, or American Exceptionalism Institute. Tax records show only a handful of grants and expenditures, along with substantial payments to Clark Fork Group for consulting services.

The real significance of Defend US lies not with the nonprofit itself, but with its affiliated Super PAC.

The PAC’s origins predate the nonprofit. Originally formed in 2017 by former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, the committee eventually came under Norris’ control. By 2018, the PAC was spending heavily in federal elections, supported largely by organizations already appearing elsewhere within the network.

The following election cycle provided an early glimpse of what would become a recurring pattern.

Defend US PAC’s fundraising came almost entirely from Clark Fork-affiliated entities. Citizens for a Working America contributed $75,000. A Public Voice added another $125,000. The committee then spent that money influencing state-level elections.

Control of Defend US PAC shifted to Dustin McIntyre. Fundraising exploded to more than $4 million. The overwhelming majority of those funds came from organizations already examined—American Advancement ($1.55 million); Prosperity Alliance ($1.25 million); American Policy Coalition ($500,000); Safe Streets Safe Communities ($400,000).

Additional money arrived from other network-affiliated entities and committees.

Taken together, the fundraising history of Defend US PAC illustrates one of the most important findings to emerge from the broader network analysis: the same nonprofits repeatedly funded the same political committees.

The same phenomenon appears repeatedly throughout committees associated with McIntyre.

American Jobs and Growth PAC received significant support from nonprofits connected to American Jobs and Growth Fund. Hometown Freedom Action repeatedly received support from organizations throughout the network.

Committees focused on Oklahoma races received funding from the same cluster of nonprofits that funded committees in Arizona, Ohio, Texas, Louisiana, and Georgia. What changed from race to race was not the infrastructure—what changed were the targets.

The scale of this system becomes especially visible when examining the donation data as a whole rather than organization by organization.

Across multiple election cycles, nonprofits associated with the Clark Fork ecosystem repeatedly directed money into a relatively small universe of political committees. Those committees then spent heavily on independent expenditures supporting or opposing candidates across the country..

Defend US PAC itself received money from multiple organizations within the network before making expenditures of its own. Rather than functioning as isolated entities, these organizations increasingly resembled interconnected nodes within a broader political financing system.

The arrangement offered several advantages: Nonprofits could raise money without publicly disclosing their donors; PACs could then report expenditures while listing nonprofits as contributors; The public could observe where the money was spent without necessarily learning where the money originated.

Each layer added distance between the original source of funds and the final political expenditure—This is one of the reasons watchdog organizations have repeatedly focused attention on structures involving nonprofit-to-PAC transfers.

The issue is not that such transfers are inherently unlawful. They are common throughout modern campaign finance. Rather, the concern is that complex organizational structures can make it difficult for voters to identify the true source of political spending.

Several controversies involving organizations connected to the broader network illustrate this concern.

Building Our Future Today became the subject of a Campaign Legal Center complaint after serving as the sole reported contributor to two federal Super PACs. Leadership Action Fund attracted similar scrutiny after rapidly appearing and then directing substantial sums toward a committee supporting Oklahoma Senate candidate T.W. Shannon. Earlier controversies involving Missouri political organizations revealed overlapping relationships among some of the same individuals appearing elsewhere throughout the network.

None of these episodes alone defines the network. Together, however, they reveal a recurring theme: A shadowy nonprofit either funds a target political objective directly, or starts up a shell company to pass the funds through—but the same personnel, consultants, attorneys, compliance specialists, and political committees appear somewhere along the path.

By the mid-2020s, the system had evolved into something far larger than the handful of nonprofits that helped launch it a decade earlier.

The network was no longer merely funding elections—it was operating across multiple states simultaneously, influencing federal races, gubernatorial campaigns, ballot initiatives, judicial elections, mayoral contests, and issue advocacy efforts. To fully appreciate its reach, it is necessary to leave Ohio and follow the network into the states where it increasingly exercised political influence.

There, the true scale of the operation comes into focus.

State(s) Of Play

By the early 2020s, the Clark Fork network had evolved beyond a collection of interconnected nonprofits and political committees. The organizations were no longer merely funding federal Super PACs or supporting congressional candidates. Instead, they had begun deploying resources across a wide range of state-level political battles, often through newly formed nonprofits, limited liability companies, and independent expenditure committees tailored to specific races, ballot initiatives, or policy fights.

What makes these efforts notable is not necessarily the amount of money involved—though in many cases the sums were substantial—but the consistency with which the same network infrastructure reappeared. Different states presented different political opportunities. The messaging changed. The entities changed. Yet the underlying relationships frequently remained the same.

Nowhere is that more evident than in Oklahoma.

Over the past several election cycles, Oklahoma has become one of the network’s most active theaters of operation. Organizations connected to Clark Fork repeatedly directed money toward Oklahoma-focused political committees, issue campaigns, and advocacy groups. Some efforts involved statewide races. Others focused on municipal elections, ballot measures, or policy disputes. Taken together, they reveal a sustained investment in Oklahoma politics that extended far beyond any single election cycle.

One of the most significant examples emerged in 2022 through Safe Streets Safe Communities. That year, the organization reported more than $12 million in revenue and distributed substantial sums throughout the broader network. Among its largest grants was nearly $3 million to an entity known as Leadership Action Fund, a newly created organization that quickly became involved in federal politics. Leadership Action Fund would later attract scrutiny from the Campaign Legal Center, which alleged the organization may have served as an intermediary through which contributors concealed the original source of funds flowing into a Super PAC supporting former Oklahoma House Speaker T.W. Shannon’s campaign for the United States Senate. The complaint went before the FEC, and even was referred to the US Justice Department. In the end, the issue went more or less unresolved, and Leadership Action Fund would largely disappear from public records after the election cycle in question—but its brief existence offers a revealing glimpse into the mechanics of the broader system.

The network’s involvement in Oklahoma extended beyond federal races. Revitalization Project utilized entities such as Build and Protect OKC to participate in Oklahoma City municipal elections, supporting city council candidates through independent expenditure activity. Safe Streets Safe Communities maintained ties to Oklahoma Grassroots Conservatives and other state-focused organizations. American Policy Coalition contributed heavily to Sooner State Leadership Fund, a dark-money organization that spent millions opposing Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt. Even Defend US and several McIntyre-associated committees would eventually become involved in Oklahoma political contests.

Viewed individually, these efforts appear disconnected. One involved a Senate race. Another involved municipal government. Others focused on gubernatorial politics or issue advocacy. Yet all were financed through organizations that repeatedly appeared elsewhere within the Clark Fork ecosystem. The result was a sustained political presence that extended across multiple levels of government and multiple election cycles.

A similar pattern emerged in Louisiana.

While Oklahoma illustrates the network’s willingness to invest repeatedly in a single state, Louisiana demonstrates how the same infrastructure could be adapted to entirely different political circumstances. Over the past decade, organizations associated with Clark Fork have repeatedly surfaced in Louisiana elections, often through committees and nonprofits created specifically for individual races or policy objectives.

One notable example involved Louisiana Leadership Fund, an organization funded almost entirely through contributions originating from Clark Fork-affiliated entities. The group’s primary objective was to oppose the gubernatorial campaign of Jeff Landry. Their ads were ultimately taken down at the ruling of Louisiana courts, on the basis they were essentially defamatory. Despite substantial spending, the effort ultimately proved unsuccessful, and Landry was elected governor. Yet the significance of Louisiana Leadership Fund lies less in the outcome than in its structure. Once again, a state-specific organization appeared, received substantial financial support from entities within the network, engaged in political activity, and then largely disappeared from view.

The same pattern would continue into the current 2025-26 cycle, as A Public Voice has become the sole reported funder of Louisiana First Victory, a Super PAC supporting congressional candidate Rick Edmonds. While the committee itself is new, the financial relationships behind it were familiar. Money originated from one of the network’s longstanding nonprofits before flowing into a committee dedicated to a single race in a single state.

Louisiana is not unique in this regard. Similar examples can be found across Texas, Arizona, Ohio, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere. The details vary from state to state, but the broader pattern remains remarkably consistent. Organizations associated with the network repeatedly identify political opportunities, deploy resources through nonprofits, LLCs, or Super PACs, and rely upon a familiar collection of consultants, compliance specialists, and political operatives to execute those efforts.

By the middle of the decade, the network had evolved into something far more sophisticated than the organizations that launched it years earlier. What began as a handful of interconnected nonprofits had become a flexible political infrastructure capable of operating simultaneously in multiple states, across multiple levels of government, and through multiple organizational forms.

And as the network expanded geographically, it increasingly attracted the attention of watchdog groups, journalists, and campaign finance regulators who began asking the same question: where was all of the money really coming from?

The Watchdogs

For most of its existence, the network operated in plain sight.

That may sound contradictory. After all, the organizations discussed throughout this investigation are not secret. Their tax returns are public. Their campaign finance reports are public. Their business registrations are public. Their grants, expenditures, officers, and consultants are often disclosed in filings available to anyone willing to search for them.

The challenge is not secrecy. The challenge is fragmentation.

A grant appears in an IRS filing. A PAC contribution appears months later in an FEC report. An LLC is registered in another state under a different attorney. A compliance contact appears on dozens of committees. A consultant’s name surfaces in tax documents years apart. Each piece exists in public view, but rarely in the same place.

Understanding the broader picture requires assembling thousands of individual disclosures spread across multiple regulatory systems.

For years, few people attempted to do exactly that. When outside scrutiny did occur, it usually happened because a particular race, organization, or political controversy drew attention. Investigators would begin examining one transaction, one nonprofit, or one campaign, only to discover familiar names and organizations appearing elsewhere. Over time, those isolated investigations began producing a remarkably similar cast of characters.

One of the earliest and most revealing examples emerged in Missouri.

Missouri and the Greitens Affair

In 2016, Missouri gubernatorial candidate Eric Greitens was riding a wave of outsider momentum. A former Navy SEAL with a compelling biography and national profile, Greitens positioned himself as a reform candidate capable of disrupting traditional politics. Behind the scenes, however, a sophisticated network of nonprofits and political organizations was helping shape the political landscape around his campaign.

One of those organizations was American Policy Coalition.

That year, APC directed $2 million to a federal Super PAC called Seals For Truth. The contribution represented essentially the entirety of the committee’s funding. Seals For Truth would then route nearly all of that money in the form of a donation to the Greitens campaign.

At first glance, the arrangement appeared unusual but not necessarily extraordinary. Large contributions to Super PACs occur regularly in modern politics. What transformed the episode into something more significant was what emerged later through litigation and investigative reporting.

Documents examined by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington offered a rare glimpse into relationships that are normally hidden from public view. According to CREW’s analysis of court records and settlement documents, individuals associated with the Greitens staffers were directed to communicate and coordinate with political operatives connected to organizations that repeatedly appear throughout the Clark Fork network—with the intention of concealing the true identities of donors who wanted to contribute, but not publicly. Among the names appearing in those disclosures were Thomas Norris and David Langdon.

The documents suggested that donors were being directed toward Freedom Frontier, another politically active nonprofit connected to Joel Riter. Langdon himself played a role in both Freedom Frontier and American Policy Coalition. Several officers and directors appeared across multiple organizations simultaneously.

None of this necessarily established criminal conduct. Nor did it necessarily prove that the various organizations functioned as a single coordinated entity. What it did provide was something arguably more important: a rare look at how several organizations connected to the network interacted behind the scenes.

Missouri offered an early glimpse beneath the surface. Years later, other investigators would encounter similar patterns elsewhere.

The Straw Donor Question

One of the most persistent concerns raised by campaign finance watchdogs involves the possibility that intermediary organizations can obscure the true source of political money.

The issue is not new. Federal law generally requires disclosure of contributors to political committees. Yet modern campaign finance increasingly involves multiple organizational layers. A donor may contribute to a nonprofit. The nonprofit may fund another organization. That organization may contribute to a Super PAC. The public sees the final contributor but often not the original source of funds.

Watchdog groups frequently refer to certain arrangements as potential “straw donor” structures, alleging that intermediary entities exist primarily to conceal contributors rather than conduct independent activity.

Several organizations associated with the broader Clark Fork ecosystem have attracted scrutiny under precisely that theory.

One of the most prominent examples involved Building Our Future Today.

The Delaware LLC emerged in 2024 with virtually no public profile. Despite its obscurity, it quickly became the sole reported contributor to two federal Super PACs: Progressive Century Project and Badger Values PAC. The committees subsequently spent millions attempting to influence federal elections.

The unusual nature of the arrangement attracted the attention of the Campaign Legal Center.

In a complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission, the organization argued that Building Our Future Today appeared to have little observable activity beyond serving as a funding vehicle for political committees. The complaint alleged that unknown contributors may have used the LLC to conceal the true source of the money flowing into the PACs.

The Campaign Legal Center pointed to several factors it considered suspicious. Building Our Future Today appeared shortly before the committees began operating. It served as their sole reported funding source. Public records offered little indication that the company conducted significant independent business activity.

What matters for purposes of understanding the network is that Building Our Future Today did not emerge from a vacuum. The company appeared within a political ecosystem already populated by organizations, consultants, and operatives connected through years of overlapping activity.

The same dynamic surfaced elsewhere.

In 2022, a newly created entity called Leadership Action Fund received nearly $3 million from Safe Streets Safe Communities. The organization had almost no public profile. It had little operational history. Yet within a short period of time, substantial sums began flowing through it into federal political activity.

Again, the arrangement attracted the attention of the Campaign Legal Center.

In another complaint to the Federal Election Commission, watchdogs argued that Leadership Action Fund appeared to function primarily as an intermediary between unknown contributors and Fighters for a Strong America PAC, a committee supporting Oklahoma Senate candidate T.W. Shannon. The complaint described the organization’s creation, funding, and political activity as consistent with a straw-donor structure intended to obscure the true source of contributions.

The significance? The same investigators who encountered one set of organizations in Missouri were now encountering another collection of organizations connected to many of the same political networks years later.

Different state.

Different election.

Different organizations.

Familiar patterns.

Ohio’s Shadow

No state appears more frequently throughout the network’s history than Ohio.

That is hardly surprising given the concentration of consultants, attorneys, compliance firms, and political operatives connected to organizations examined throughout this investigation.

Ohio has also served as the backdrop for some of the most consequential dark-money controversies in modern American politics, most notably the scandal surrounding former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and the nuclear bailout legislation known as House Bill 6.

There is no evidence presented here that Clark Fork organizations were involved in the conduct that ultimately sent Householder to federal prison, but there are connections when it comes to some of his top aides at the time—mainly Brett Buerck, who owns Majority Strategies, one of the largest Republican-aligned media consultancy firms in the country. Clark Fork network entities and their associated super PACs have shelled out millions to Majority Strategies over the last decade. There is also a reason to believe, per documents involving the Greitens scandal, that Buerck’s long time fundraising partner Kyle Sisk has a relationship with Norris and Riter as well. On top of that, Sisk’s consulting firm, Capital Cornered, is named as an independent contractor in the tax documents of several of the network’s nonprofits.

The significance of Ohio lies elsewhere.

The Householder scandal demonstrated the extraordinary influence that nonprofit organizations, issue advocacy groups, consultants, and undisclosed political spending can exert on state politics. It also drew national attention to the increasingly complex structures through which political money moves.

Against that backdrop, it becomes easier to understand why organizations operating within Ohio’s political ecosystem have attracted heightened scrutiny from journalists, regulators, and watchdog organizations.

The environment itself encourages questions: Who funds these organizations? How are they connected? What role do consultants play? How independent are the various entities? And where does the money ultimately originate?

Those questions remain central to understanding the Clark Fork network.

After more than a decade of activity, certain facts are beyond dispute: Millions of dollars moved between organizations that frequently shared officers, directors, consultants, attorneys, and vendors.

Public records establish all of those facts.

What remains less clear are the questions that have animated watchdog groups for years. To what extent do these organizations operate independently versus collaboratively? How centralized is decision-making? Who ultimately provides the original funding that enters the system? When money moves through multiple layers of nonprofits, LLCs, and political committees, how much visibility does the public truly have into its origins?

Those questions have generated complaints, investigations, and scrutiny. Yet despite years of attention, the network remains active. The organizations continue raising money. New entities continue appearing. New political committees continue forming.

And in the 2025-26 election cycle, the network entered perhaps its most ambitious phase yet.

The Network Today

More than a decade after the first organizations began appearing in tax records, campaign finance filings, and corporate registrations, the Clark Fork network shows few signs of slowing down.

If anything, the opposite appears true.

Many of the organizations that helped build the network’s foundation have dissolved, been restructured, or faded from public view. Government Integrity Fund is gone. Jobs and Progress Fund no longer exists. Other entities have experienced leadership changes, periods of dormancy, or dramatic shifts in activity. Yet the disappearance of individual organizations has not resulted in the disappearance of the network itself. Instead, newer entities have emerged to occupy many of the same roles, often involving familiar personnel, familiar consultants, and familiar funding patterns.

The continuity is striking.

Throughout the course of this investigation, dozens of organizations have appeared and disappeared. Some existed for only a few years. Others operated for a single election cycle before fading into obscurity. Yet the underlying infrastructure has remained remarkably durable. The names on the paperwork change. The organizational charts evolve. New committees emerge. New nonprofits are incorporated. New LLCs appear. But the same ecosystem continues functioning beneath the surface.

The 2025-26 election cycle offers perhaps the clearest example yet.

One of the most significant developments has come through Ohio Works, an organization founded only recently but which has rapidly become one of the largest political spenders within the network. In 2025, the organization formally changed its name to America Works Fund, a move that symbolically mirrors the broader evolution of the network itself. What began as a collection of Ohio-centered organizations has increasingly expanded into a national operation, and America Works Fund’s spending reflects that reality.

During the current election cycle, the organization directed approximately $8.5 million to Texans for a Conservative Majority, a Super PAC supporting incumbent Texas Senator John Cornyn during his ultimately unsuccessful primary campaign against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Regardless of the outcome, the scale of the expenditure is remarkable. A decade ago, organizations connected to the network were moving hundreds of thousands of dollars through state-level political efforts. Today, individual contributions can exceed the annual budgets of many of the nonprofits that helped launch the system.

America Works Fund is not alone.

American Jobs and Growth Fund has continued operating as one of the network’s principal financial engines. During the current cycle, the organization contributed more than $6 million to Keep America Great PAC, a committee aligned with former President Donald Trump’s political coalition. Defend US added another $2 million. The committee has already become active in federal races, including efforts supporting Kentucky Congressman Andy Barr during his successful Republican Senate primary campaign.

Meanwhile, A Public Voice—a nonprofit whose history stretches back to the earliest days of the network—continues to play an active role in contemporary elections. The organization became the sole reported contributor to Louisiana First Victory, a Super PAC supporting congressional candidate Rick Edmonds. It also provided funding to Fight On Iowa and Gets It Done PAC, the former having no expenditures as of time of writing, and the latter spending heavily in a competitive race.

The pattern is familiar because readers have seen it throughout this investigation. An established nonprofit raises money. That nonprofit contributes to a political committee. The committee focuses on a specific race, candidate, or geographic region. Another nonprofit appears elsewhere and funds another committee.

Different names. Different states. Similar infrastructure.

Gets It Done PAC provides a useful illustration. During the current cycle, the committee has received substantial support from organizations examined throughout this investigation, including A Public Voice and American Policy Coalition. Together, those entities account for the overwhelming majority of the committee’s fundraising. The PAC has since spent heavily supporting Georgia congressional candidate Houston Gaines, demonstrating once again how organizations originating within the network continue to influence elections far beyond Ohio’s borders.

The same dynamic appears elsewhere. American Advancement has directed substantial resources toward First Principles PAC. Revitalization Project continues financing committees and political efforts tied to organizations throughout the ecosystem. American Values First PAC has attracted contributions from multiple Clark Fork-affiliated entities. New committees continue appearing while older committees become inactive. The architecture remains recognizable even when the individual components change.

That continuity may be the most significant finding of all.

Throughout modern campaign finance, organizations routinely rise and fall. Political committees form around a specific race and disappear once the election concludes. Nonprofits become inactive. Consultants move on to new projects. Most political operations are temporary by nature.

The Clark Fork network appears different—if nothing else, it has proven itself to be resilient, adaptive, and increasingly secretive.

What emerges from more than a decade of records is not the story of a single nonprofit, a single PAC, or even a single election cycle. It is the story of an infrastructure. The organizations matter, but they are not the central story. The committees matter, but they are not the central story either.

The infrastructure is the story.

Over the years, that infrastructure has demonstrated a remarkable ability to adapt. When one organization dissolves, another emerges. When one election ends, attention shifts elsewhere. New states become priorities. New candidates emerge. New committees are formed. Yet the same consultants, compliance specialists, attorneys, nonprofit executives, and political operatives continue appearing throughout the system. The money flows in amounts not quite large enough to be a national headline or trending on social media—but just large enough to make a substantial difference. Whether the objective at hand ultimately succeeds or fails, the network moves on.

That does not necessarily imply constant coordination among every organization. Nor does it prove that every grant, contribution, or expenditure originated from a centralized strategy. Public records alone cannot answer those questions—but they can help close the loop if one digs deep enough.

Case in point: Republican Richard Woods, current State Superintendent of Georgia Public Schools, is running for reelection this year. In the days leading up to his primary on May 19, Georgia state airwaves were bombarded with ads and negative messages regarding his tenure—and supporting his main competition, Bubba Longgrear.

Those messages came from committee linked to a newly formed Ohio LLC, Conservatives For Strong Schools (CFSS), who spent over $800,000 on the independent expenditures. The registered agent of CFSS? Attorney Kimberly Land, who has played the same role in several pop-up LLCs funded by Clark Fork entities over the years.

The connections don't end there. On Georgia campaign finance disclosures, the person listed as the committee chairman is Alex Melendez, director of Revitalization Project. The committee treasurer? Dustin McIntyre. Where did CFSS get the funds to disseminate these political ads? America Works Fund, who donated $900,000 in April.

The race for Georgia State Superintendent is currently headed for a June runoff.

For more than a decade, a recurring group of nonprofits, PACs, consultants, attorneys, and political operatives has built a durable political infrastructure capable of moving millions of dollars through federal and state elections across the country. The organizations have changed names. The committees have changed names. The political battles have changed. The states have changed.

The infrastructure has endured.

Whether viewed through the lens of Government Integrity Fund in 2012, or America Works Fund in 2026, the same underlying reality emerges. Money enters the system. Organizations fund one another. Political committees spend the money. New entities replace old ones. The cycle repeats.

The full scope of the network may never be known. Nonprofits are not required to publicly disclose their donors. Many of the organizations discussed here will likely continue evolving. Others will disappear and be replaced by entities that do not yet exist. Future election cycles will produce new committees, new political fights, and new financial relationships.

But after examining years of tax filings, campaign finance disclosures, business registrations, watchdog complaints, and nonprofit records, one conclusion becomes difficult to escape.

The story is not about any single organization.

It is about the machinery behind them.

And that machinery is still running.