A federal political action committee created by U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson is bankrolling a Colorado ballot measure this year that would make it more difficult to redraw the boundaries of the state’s congressional districts outside of the process already laid out in the state constitution.
The American Revival PAC gave $250,000 in August to the Fair Redistricting Colorado issue committee, which is working to pass Amendment 86 in November.
The leadership PAC was created by Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, in 2017. It’s funded by other political action committees tied to Johnson that serve as his fundraising vehicles for Republican candidates and causes.
The only other money Fair Redistricting Colorado has received came from Advance Colorado, the conservative political nonprofit that brought the measure. The group doesn’t disclose its donors.
A second issue committee, Brighter Colorado, is also supporting the measure. Its major donors include Advance Colorado and Common Sense America, another conservative political nonprofit that also doesn’t disclose its donors.
Advance Colorado is behind six of the 13 measures on the statewide ballot this year. And while its donors remain secret, the fact that the American Revival PAC is backing Amendment 86 is a major sign that its influence, and the people and groups influencing its work, span far beyond Colorado’s borders.
Colorado Draws the Line, an issue committee tied to Democrats, says it will fight Amendment 86. But the group, which shares the same name as a nonprofit that doesn’t disclose its donors, hasn’t reported raising or spending any money yet.
Amendment 86 was Republicans’ response to a Democratic redistricting effort in Colorado that sought to put a measure on the November ballot asking voters to amend the state constitution and redraw the state’s congressional districts for the 2028 and 2030 elections.
The initiative, funded by money tied to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-New York, would have overridden Colorado’s normal, once-a-decade redistricting process, which last took place in 2021 and resulted in a new congressional map for the state that went into effect for the 2022 election.
The new districts drawn by the Democratic proposal would have given Democrats an outsized chance at flipping three seats held by Republicans, leaving the GOP with only one of the state’s eight seats.
This story previously appeared on The Colorado Sun.
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