Right-Wing Nonprofit Goes Against IRS Policy To Attack Kamala Harris

As the 2024 presidential election draws closer, a fringe property rights organization has become increasingly brazen in flouting its tax-exempt nonprofit status, openly opposing Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and attacking her as a “Marxist” and a socialist.

In a fundraising email sent Aug. 17, the right-wing American Stewards of Liberty described Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, as “a Marxist Dream Team” and solicited donations to avert a “bleak outcome” in the presidential race.

“Do you think we can trust these two with hundreds of millions of acres of US land? With Harris and Walz in the White House, Americans will be hobbled by unreasonable burdens, lose their businesses, and be escorted off their ranches and property,” the email read. “But you can help us prevent this bleak outcome by making a generous contribution to American Stewards of Liberty today!”

American Stewards is a Texas-based, tax-exempt 501©(3) nonprofit that for the last few years has led a disinformation-rich crusade against the Biden administration’s goal of conserving 30% of lands and waters by 2030, known informally as “30x30.” Without evidence, it has repeatedly claimed that the 30x30 target is a federal “land grab” in disguise .

Under IRS rules , all 501©(3) nonprofits are “absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office.” Barred political activity includes “contributions to political campaign funds or public statements of position (verbal or written) made on behalf of the organization in favor of or in opposition to any candidate for public office.”

Craig Holman, a government