Leaked Video Exposes Heritage Action's $24 Million Voter Suppression Campaign Coordinating State Legislation

A leaked video obtained by the watchdog group Documented and shared with Mother Jones revealed that Heritage Action for America, the advocacy arm of the Heritage Foundation, was orchestrating a coordinated $24 million campaign to push voter restriction legislation across eight key battleground states following Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory. In the video, Heritage Action Executive Director Jessica Anderson bragged to donors that Republican state lawmakers were using Heritage’s language and model provisions in restrictive voting bills, and that Heritage had helped draft legislation “quietly” so that “nobody even noticed.” The revelation exposed the systematic coordination between Heritage, Republican state legislators, and corporate funders to restrict voting access under the guise of “election integrity.”

Anderson’s presentation to donors detailed Heritage Action’s plans to spend $24 million in 2021-2022 pushing anti-voter policies in eight states: Arizona, Michigan, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Nevada, Texas, and Wisconsin—all states that Biden had won or that Republicans viewed as critical to 2024 electoral prospects. She stated explicitly that Heritage Action’s goal was to “right the wrongs of November” 2020, making clear that the voter restriction push was motivated by partisan aims rather than genuine concerns about election integrity.

The leaked video provided specific examples of Heritage Action’s legislative coordination. Anderson boasted that Georgia’s voting bill, signed by Governor Brian Kemp on March 25, 2021, contained “eight key provisions that Heritage recommended.” She revealed that Heritage Action had met with Governor Kemp just days before he signed the bill, coordinating strategy to ensure passage despite national outcry over the legislation’s voter suppression provisions. Georgia’s law imposed strict new ID requirements for absentee voting, limited drop box availability, restricted mobile voting centers, criminalized providing food or water to voters waiting in line, and gave the Republican-controlled state legislature power to override county election officials.

Regarding Texas legislation, Anderson stated that a bill making its way through the legislature included “19 provisions” from Heritage recommendations. Texas’s proposed legislation (which would eventually become law) imposed similar restrictions: new ID requirements for mail voting, banned 24-hour voting and drive-through voting (both of which had increased turnout among minority voters in Houston during 2020), restricted election officials’ ability to send unsolicited absentee ballot applications, and empowered partisan poll watchers.

Perhaps most revealing, Anderson described Heritage Action’s work in Iowa: “Iowa is the first state that we got to work in, and we did it quickly and we did it quietly. We helped draft the bills….Honestly, nobody even noticed.” This admission confirmed that Heritage Action wasn’t merely advocating for voter restrictions but was actively writing legislation for Republican state lawmakers. Iowa’s law, signed by Governor Kim Reynolds on March 8, 2021, shortened early voting periods, closed polls an hour earlier on Election Day, imposed new restrictions on absentee voting, and criminalized technical errors by election officials.

The leaked video exposed Heritage Action’s operational strategy, which involved multiple coordinated components. Heritage provided specific legislative language and provisions to be included in bills, supplied state legislators with research and talking points to defend the legislation, coordinated with Republican governors and legislative leadership to ensure passage, and worked to minimize public attention and opposition during the drafting and initial committee processes. Anderson described this approach as working “quietly” to implement restrictions before voter rights advocates could organize opposition.

Heritage Action’s work built directly on infrastructure that Heritage Foundation’s Hans von Spakovsky had developed over the preceding 13 years since joining Heritage in 2008. Von Spakovsky, who managed Heritage’s Election Law Reform Initiative, had worked with ALEC to create model voter ID legislation following Obama’s 2008 election. The 2009 ALEC Voter ID Act template had resulted in 34 states introducing nearly identical restrictive bills in 2011. The 2021 Heritage Action campaign represented a more sophisticated version of the same coordination: rather than relying solely on ALEC’s model legislation process, Heritage Action directly embedded its staff in state legislative processes, writing bills and coordinating with governors and legislative leadership.

The $24 million budget Heritage Action announced for this campaign represented a massive investment in voter suppression infrastructure. Funding sources included major conservative donors who contributed to Heritage Foundation and Heritage Action through dark money channels that shielded their identities. The scale of investment demonstrated that restricting voting access had become a core strategic priority for conservative movement funders, comparable to judicial appointments, tax cuts, and deregulation.

Anderson’s leaked video also revealed Heritage Action’s longer-term strategy beyond 2021-2022 legislation. She discussed building “permanent capabilities” in target states, establishing ongoing relationships with state legislators and governors, and creating infrastructure that could continue restricting voting access over multiple election cycles. This approach reflected the conservative movement’s institutional orientation: building permanent organizational capacity rather than relying on temporary campaign efforts.

The leaked video provoked significant backlash when published in May 2021. Voting rights organizations including Fair Fight Action, the ACLU, and the Brennan Center for Justice highlighted the video as evidence that Republican voter restriction claims about “election integrity” were pretextual—the real motivation was partisan advantage through voter suppression. Democratic legislators cited the video in congressional testimony and floor speeches opposing Republican voting bills.

However, the video’s exposure did not slow Heritage Action’s legislative campaign. By the end of 2021, 19 states had enacted 34 laws restricting voting access, many containing provisions that Anderson had described Heritage Action writing or recommending. The coordination between Heritage Action, Republican state legislators, and governors proved more powerful than public opposition, particularly in states where Republicans controlled governorships and legislatures.

The Heritage Action campaign revealed in the leaked video represented the culmination of a strategic voter suppression project that extended back to 2008-2009, when conservative organizations responded to Obama’s election by developing infrastructure to restrict voting access. The progression from ALEC’s 2009 model legislation, through state-level implementation in 2011-2016, to Heritage Action’s sophisticated 2021 direct drafting campaign, demonstrated how conservative movement infrastructure had evolved to more effectively translate partisan objectives into enacted law.

The leaked video also exposed the coordination between different components of conservative infrastructure: Heritage Foundation provided research and intellectual justification (through von Spakovsky’s Election Law Reform Initiative and Heritage’s “election fraud” database); Heritage Action provided direct legislative drafting and lobbying; ALEC continued providing model legislation templates; the Council for National Policy coordinated overall movement strategy; and conservative media amplified voter fraud narratives to provide political cover for restrictive legislation.

Anderson’s statement that Heritage Action’s goal was to “right the wrongs of November” 2020 contradicted Republican public claims that voter restriction legislation responded to widespread voter fraud or legitimate election integrity concerns. Despite numerous investigations, audits, and court cases finding no evidence of significant fraud in the 2020 election, Heritage Action and its Republican allies pursued restrictions explicitly designed to reduce voter turnout among demographics that had supported Biden—particularly minority voters in urban areas.

The leaked Heritage Action video became a key piece of evidence in multiple voting rights lawsuits challenging restrictive state legislation. Plaintiffs cited Anderson’s admissions that Heritage had drafted bills and coordinated with governors as evidence that the legislation was motivated by partisan intent to suppress Democratic-leaning voters rather than legitimate state interests in election integrity. While courts varied in how they weighted this evidence, the video demonstrated the systematic coordination behind state-level voter suppression efforts.

The Heritage Action campaign revealed in May 2021 represented one of the most significant deployments of conservative movement infrastructure to restrict democratic participation. By directly writing legislation, coordinating with state-level Republican officials, investing $24 million in implementation, and building permanent organizational capacity in target states, Heritage Action demonstrated how the institutional advantages that conservative donors had built over 48 years (since Heritage’s founding in 1973) could be leveraged to systematically restrict voting access and entrench Republican electoral advantages despite demographic changes favoring Democrats.