https://readsludge.com/2026/10/26/musk-linked-dark-money-network-funded-the-group-behind-cornel-wests-ballot-push/

Musk-Linked Dark Money Network Funded the Group Behind Cornel West’s Ballot Push

By Donald Shaw | Published on Oct 26, 2026

Summary: People Over Party raised $7.7 million in 2024, all of it from the nonprofit behind the Fair Election Fund, which in turn got every dollar from a Musk-funded dark money group.

The nonprofit that helped get Cornel West on presidential ballots in 2024 received all of its funding that year through a conservative political network that has been bankrolled by Elon Musk, tax records reviewed by Sludge show.

People Over Party helped pay for petition drives to get the left-wing West onto state ballots in 2024 as Democrats warned he could play spoiler by drawing votes from Kamala Harris and helping Trump. A nonprofit called Interstate Priorities disclosed a $7.7 million grant to the group on its 2024 tax return, accounting for all of the revenue that People Over Party reported raising that year.

Building America’s Future, a dark money group that has received millions from Musk, disclosed on its 2024 tax return giving Interstate $10.1 million, exactly matching Interstate Priorities’ entire reported annual revenue that year.

The Wall Street Journal reported that tens of millions of dollars that moved through Building America’s Future in 2022 came from Musk. In 2024, the group took in $74.5 million from a single anonymous donor, as Sludge previously reported. There is no direct evidence Musk made that donation, but it came the same year Musk spent about $290 million to elect Trump and Republicans while working with consultants tied to Building America’s Future. This cycle, Musk has spent nearly $450 million to help Republicans keep control of Congress.

Interstate Priorities, Building America’s Future, and People Over Party did not respond to requests for comment.

The groups that financed People Over Party also employed consultants and directors with ties to Musk’s political operation.

Interstate director Ray Zaborney also serves as treasurer of Future Coalition PAC, a super PAC funded largely by contributions from Building America’s Future. In 2024, the super PAC targeted voters with contrasting messages about Harris’s position on Israel, emphasizing her support for Israel to Muslim voters and questioning her support for Israel to Jewish voters. Zaborney’s consulting firm, Red Maverick Media, has also been paid about $1.7 million by Musk’s America PAC, primarily for political mailers, according to FEC records.

Interstate disclosed paying $420,000 in 2024 to a firm called P2 Pathway for public affairs and management consulting. The firm was co-founded by Phil Cox and Generra Peck, political strategists whom Musk enlisted that year to help lead his America PAC and organize voters for Trump. P2 principal Katie Miller also served as a senior adviser to Building America’s Future during the 2024 campaign, as Sludge previously reported. She went on to work alongside Musk at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) before leaving government in May 2025 to work for him in the private sector. Victoria “Tori” Sachs was a director for Interstate in 2024 and subsequently joined P2 as a vice president in March 2025.

Another vendor paid by Interstate Priorities in 2024 was IMGE LLC, a consulting firm where Cox is a senior partner and that works with America PAC on text messaging and digital media campaigns. The company was paid $1.1 million by Interstate in 2024.

Floodlight reported in August 2024 that People Over Party had ties to Paul Hamrick, a Republican operative and lawyer who helped arrange ballot-access assistance. John Plishka, an officer of People Over Party, told Floodlight that he handled its finances and was bound by a nondisclosure agreement. The Associated Press documented a broader effort by Republican lawyers and operatives to help third-party candidates including West and Jill Stein qualify for ballots as Democrats warned that those candidacies could siphon votes from their nominee.

People Over Party reported on its tax return paying Hamrick’s firm $522,437 in 2024. It also disclosed $5.9 million in payments to SYNAPS GROUP for ballot-access consulting and $316,945 to Philadelphia law firm Kleinbard for legal consulting.

The Democratic National Committee filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission in July 2024 naming People Over Party, Wells Marketing, and Blitz Canvassing, and arguing that the petitioning work done for West amounted to illegal, unreported in-kind contributions to his campaign.

Interstate also operated the Fair Election Fund, which said it had a $5 million fund to reward people who could find evidence of election fraud. The group’s senior adviser and spokesperson was former Rep. Doug Collins, who is now Trump’s secretary of veterans affairs. The Fair Election Fund launched a six-figure advertising campaign attacking Democratic election lawyer Marc Elias in October 2024, according to a February 2025 investigation by Documented’s Brendan Fischer and Emma Steiner. Elias’s law firm and its client Clear Choice Action were working at the time to keep West off the ballot in North Carolina, Virginia, and Michigan.

Its advertising also promoted ballot access for third-party candidates. Documented reported that Fair Election Fund spent $175,000 on a campaign criticizing North Carolina election officials over delays in approving ballot access for West and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Cornel West ultimately received approximately 83,000 votes nationwide. His vote totals in Michigan, Wisconsin, and North Carolina were each smaller than Trump’s margin of victory.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5915380&forum_id=2#50208332)