As the 2024 presidential election draws closer, a fringe property rights organization has become increasingly brazen in flouting its tax-exempt nonprofit status, openly opposing Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and attacking her as a “Marxist” and a socialist.
In a fundraising email sent Aug. 17, the right-wing American Stewards of Liberty described Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, as “a Marxist Dream Team” and solicited donations to avert a “bleak outcome” in the presidential race.
“Do you think we can trust these two with hundreds of millions of acres of US land? With Harris and Walz in the White House, Americans will be hobbled by unreasonable burdens, lose their businesses, and be escorted off their ranches and property,” the email read. “But you can help us prevent this bleak outcome by making a generous contribution to American Stewards of Liberty today!”
American Stewards is a Texas-based, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit that for the last few years has led a disinformation-rich crusade against the Biden administration’s goal of conserving 30% of lands and waters by 2030, known informally as “30x30.” Without evidence, it has repeatedly claimed that the 30x30 target is a federal “land grab” in disguise .
Under IRS rules , all 501(c)(3) nonprofits are “absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office.” Barred political activity includes “contributions to political campaign funds or public statements of position (verbal or written) made on behalf of the organization in favor of or in opposition to any candidate for public office.”
Craig Holman, a government affairs lobbyist and ethics expert at the nonprofit consumer group Public Citizen, told HuffPost the fundraising email is a clear violation of American Steward’s tax-exempt status.
“ The mass communication refers specifically to the presidential election, and makes an unambiguous appeal as to how the recipients should vote in that election,” he said in an email. “It does not use express advocacy, which would make it an actual campaign ad, but the IRS definition of electioneering activity does not require express advocacy.”
Other recent communications also appear to skirt tax code rules.
In an Aug. 1 blog post , American Stewards wrote that “a potential Harris Administration will continue Biden’s destruction of our nation’s private property and the livelihoods of millions of American landowners.”
“If elected president, Kamala Harris will continue with Biden’s plan to carry out what Karl Marx first imagined in his ‘Communist Manifesto,’ the ‘abolition of private property.’ They wish to destroy capitalism and as Barak [sic] Obama said ‘…fundamentally transform[ing] the United States of America.’”
Holman said the post is just as problematic as the fundraising email, noting it “ refers to a specific election and a specific candidate, impugns the character of the candidate, and leaves the reader with an unambiguous message of how to cast one’s ballot.”
In a post to X (formerly Twitter) promoting its blog on Harris, American Stewards wrote that “to implement socialism in America they must gain control of our land, and therefore our liberty — the clear intent of 30×30.”
This isn’t the first time American Stewards has faced such scrutiny. In May 2021, Accountable.US, a progressive watchdog group, filed a complaint with the IRS, accusing American Stewards of skirting federal rules by lobbying against 30x30 at the federal, state and local levels. In May 2022, it amended its complaint to include internal communications, which HuffPost first obtained via a public records request, that showed American Stewards Executive Director Margaret Byfield had worked behind the scenes to guide then-Republican Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts’ response to 30x30, including helping craft an anti-30x30 executive order that Ricketts signed in 2021.
Byfield did not respond to HuffPost’s request for comment Tuesday or when HuffPost reached out in 2022 about the group’s lobbying activities.
Along with spearheading an opposition campaign against 30x30, Byfield contributed to Project 2025, the sweeping policy blueprint that the Heritage Foundation and dozens of other right-wing organizations compiled to guide former President Donald Trump and his team should he win reelection in November. Trump has tried to claim he knows “nothing about Project 2025,” despite at least 140 people who worked in the Trump administration playing a role in its creation, according to a CNN review .
“From their contributions to Project 2025 to this latest outburst of extremism, American Stewards of Liberty’s aims are clear: They will stop at nothing to end protections for the great outdoors, even if it means running afoul of the law,” said Chris Marshall, as spokesperson for Accountable.US. “The only true winners in their plans are the corporate special interests who would benefit from their dangerous plans for public lands.”
Marshall told HuffPost the IRS never responded to its initial complaint related to American Steward’s lobbying activities.
“We’re still examining our options this time around — the most likely outcome is we’ll file a new complaint just on electioneering, since this is the first time we’ve seen them do that,” he said.
A spokesperson for the IRS told HuffPost that tax law precludes the agency from disclosing tax information, including whether the IRS is investigating any specific organization.
Accountable.US has proven to be a relentless thorn in the side of the right-wing nonprofit.
As HuffPost previously reported , Trump-era Interior Secretary David Bernhardt slammed Accountable.US founder Kyle Herrig during a keynote speech at American Stewards’ annual “Stop 30x30 Summit” in Nebraska in 2022. “I don’t like bullies,” Bernhardt said. And in an email to one of Ricketts’ top staffers in 2021, Byfield warned that Accountable.US had been scrutinizing her organization’s tax status and filing public records requests for the organization’s communications with counties in numerous states.
“Your office may receive a similar request,” she told Ricketts’ staffer in an email that HuffPost obtained as part of its records request.
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