The abortion battles underway in America today in a post-Roe v. Wade landscape have brought a modern American political reality into sharper focus. Big-money progressives are maximizing a new favorite approach to utilize their financial heft to enact law: the state referendum process.
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, a Democrat, is one of the most left-leaning governors in the country. He is also one of the richest men in the country. Pritzker is an heir to the Hyatt hotel family fortune and enjoys an estimated net worth of $3.7 billion.
Pritzker is using that money pile to promote pro-abortion referendums in eight states in 2024, none of which he happens to reside in.
Citizen Initiatives?
Pritzker’s “nonprofit group, Think Big America – which has already invested millions of dollars in abortion-rights initiatives in four states – just expanded into four more states where questions are on the ballot: Maryland, South Dakota, Nebraska and Missouri, according to plans first shared with NBC News,” the network reported Oct. 29.
The dollar amounts involved are impactful.
“The group previously donated seven figures separately in Arizona, Florida and Nevada, which all are attempting to codify abortion rights in their states,” NBC News continues. “In the rest of the states, which also include Montana, the investments are in the six figures. Think Big would not provide more specifics about donation amounts; a recent filing in South Dakota revealed last week it gave $500,000.”
Any kudos to NBC for highlighting this individual multi-billionaire pouring his outside money into states on behalf of abortion are tempered by the fact that the network has regularly joined the big-box media chorus presenting the post-Roe political climate as being primarily marked by a widespread, spontaneous, and wholly organic movement of outraged ordinary women in states throughout the country seeking to secure their “civil rights.”
This narrative was hyped into overdrive in 2023 when Ohio passed its abortion rights referendum, thanks largely to an enormous avalanche of cash dropped onto the state by progressive globalist billionaire George Soros. Adding up all the dark money and other murky activist organizations he funded in the effort, Soros poured at least $16 million into getting the Ohio referendum passed.
Inspiring a Post-Roe Progressive Abortion Action Plan
The groundwork has been laid for years, but a crucial victory in Florida six years ago undoubtedly opened progressive eyes to the vast possibilities of money-bombing state referendums. In 2018, a campaign heavily funded by outside dollars passed an amendment to the state constitution allowing convicted felons to vote.
The motivation was simple enough. “A 2014 survey by The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science found that 73% of convicts who would participate in a presidential election say they would vote Democrat,” Liberty Nation News noted in 2019.
“At least $9 million of the Florida campaign’s $16 million war chest came from major donors out of state,” the left-leaning Center for Public Integrity reported in October 2018. “Five members of the billionaire Bonderman family – four children of private equity titan David Bonderman along with his wife, psychologist Laurie Michaels – contributed $3.2 million. In addition, hedge fund manager James Simons and his daughter Liz Simons gave a combined $1 million to the campaign.”
CPI featured quotes from those expressing misgivings about big outside money influencing 2018 state referendums that seem almost quaint in the post-Roe world of 2024.
Facebook multi-billionaire Mark Zuckerberg and his wife gave $1 million to an effort to water down drug possession laws in Ohio via their Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative.
“We think setting criminal justice policy by constitutional amendment is a terrible idea, and I think what makes it even worse is that it’s not being proposed by Ohioans. It’s being driven by money from out of state,” Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association Executive Director Louis Tobin said. “We’re going to have to live with the unintended consequences of this.”
California hedge fund titan Tom Steyer heavily funded a wind and solar power initiative in Arizona.
“We believe strongly that a California billionaire coming into Arizona and spending $10 to $20 million to cram this thing down our throats is problematic,” Matthew Benson, who opposed the referendum, told CPI.
This is what JB Pritzker is doing on the abortion issue in eight different states this year. Heck, he was even inspired by Steyer.
“Think Big America is modeled after NextGen America, a dark money group founded by billionaire Tom Steyer that advocated on climate change,” Politico reported in 2023.
This is not a level playing field. It is incredibly expensive to craft, organize, mount and successfully get a referendum placed on the ballot. For the average citizen, it is an exceedingly difficult if not impossible venture. For the Tom Steyers and JB Pritzkers out there, it’s loose change under the cushion.
For pro-lifers who spent decades clamoring for the overturn of Roe v. Wade, it must be a bitter pill to swallow. Is this how returning abortion to the states was meant to turn out?
