A new Center for Media and Democracy report found that American Majority, a tax-exempt group, trains Republican candidates and party organizations on how to win elections. But the organization’s tax-exempt status prohibits it from such activities. CMD filed complaints with the Internal Revenue Service and the Minnesota attorney general’s office, requesting a thorough investigation into American Majority’s partisan and electoral activity. 

American Majority has active offices in Arizona, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, Virginia, and Wisconsin. According to a CMD press release, “the group’s Minnesota operation provides a prime example of how it works under the cover of its tax-exempt status to build the Republican Party and get Republicans elected.”

DAVID ARMIAK; david@prwatch.org, @duboo 
    Armiak is Research Director at CMD. 

Armiak told the Institute for Public Accuracy: “It is very clear that American Majority exists and works to the benefit of the Republican Party. Because it is a 501c3, it is not supposed to be electioneering or helping to win campaigns, so it’s abusing our tax-exempt laws. We don’t expect people to take our word from the report; they will look at the evidence and do a thorough investigation. But we hope that American Majority will lose its tax-exempt status and stop operating under that status. 

“The IRS doesn’t have a great track record when it comes to taking action against tax-exempt groups that are abusing the law, but we’re hopeful. Keith Ellison [Minnesota’s attorney general] is a reasonable man. We hope he will take a strong look at this. It’s possible we might not get IRS action, but we could get action in Minnesota.” Minnesota in particular has laws on the books that designate candidate trainings as in-kind contributions; nonprofits are barred from making these kinds of contributions. Armiak noted that knowingly violating that prohibition merits a criminal charge in Minnesota. 

“American Majority operates in other states, so those states might see what happens in Minnesota and decide to investigate [the organization] and their actions in those states. A lot of the trainings and webinars held by American Majority are similar across those states.”

Electioneering by 501c3s is a “pretty big problem,” Armiak said. “This is probably an example of something that is more widespread. There are likely more of these organizations out there. I would attribute that to lack of enforcement and oversight by the tax-exempt division of the IRS. The IRS enforcement division seems to be nonexistent and unwilling to dive in and remove tax-exempt status for these groups. We filed [similar] complaints in the past, and haven’t received anything from the IRS. The IRS isn’t required to respond.”