The secretive billionaire network funding ‘Stop the Steal’ 2.0

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. When Donald Trump refused to concede the 2020 election, he and his allies led a chaotic effort to overturn the results, spreading conspiracy theories, filing dozens of unsuccessful lawsuits and encouraging “Stop the Steal" protests that culminated in the assault on the Capitol.

Next month will likely play out differently if Trump loses again. The former president and his allies have spent the last four years laying the groundwork for a more organized, better funded and far broader effort to contest the outcome—a Stop the Steal 2.0—if the vote doesn’t go his way.

A secretive network of GOP donors and conservative billionaires have fueled the effort, giving more than $140 million to nearly 50 loosely connected groups that work on what they call election integrity, according to a Wall Street Journal review of Federal Election Commission filings, tax filings and other records. Among the donors are organizations linked to Wisconsin billionaires Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein and Hobby Lobby founder David Green.

Those groups have been scrutinizing voter registrations on an industrial scale and working to slow down the vote count, bury local election officials in paperwork and lawsuits and elect like-minded politicians at the state and local levels who will support efforts to contest the vote. Many election officials worry those moves could sow chaos at the polls and confusion about the results.

In 2020, Trump seized on the uncertainty as votes were still being counted to declare, “Frankly, we did win this election." At the time, many top Republicans and even Trump’s own aides privately expressed skepticism about his claims and his frantic, haphazard effort to contest the results. Subsequent