The 85 Fund
501(c)(3) organization based in Washington D.C.
The 85 Fund, also known as the Honest Elections Project, and formerly known as the Judicial Education Project, is a 501(c)(3) organization based in Washington D.C. It is among a network of conservative organizations associated with Leonard Leo, a longtime prominent figure in the Federalist Society, that are funded mostly by anonymous donors. The 85 Fund had revenue of over $65 million in 2020 and, with the Concord Fund, acts as a funding hub for other organizations in the Leo network.
As the Honest Elections Project, it participated in lawsuits during the 2020 United States presidential election and ran advertisements against mail-in voting. It is a proponent of the independent state legislature theory that posits state legislatures have sole authority to establish and enforce state election laws and rules. Leo has said that the fund-raising prowess of Arabella Advisors, a liberal consulting firm, was an inspiration for the 85 Fund to serve a similar function on the right.
Organization and finances
The secretary of The 85 Fund is Carrie Severino, who is the president of the Concord Fund. Both funds are closely connected to Leonard Leo, the chairman of CRC Advisors and former vice president of the Federalist Society. The group's 2017 tax return listed a payment of $675,000 to the BH Group, an employer of Leo. Neil Corkery formerly served as president of the group.
Between 2012 and 2017, the group raised $46 million.
The public source identifies “The 85 Fund” as 501(c)(3) organization based in Washington D.C. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Fund, organization and based.
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This entry incorporates text from “The 85 Fund” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.