America Works USA

Background

America Works USA has been referred to as “an arm of the Democratic Governors Association,” an “affiliate,” and “created by” it, and the DGA itself refers to America Works USA as “allied” with it. ^{4 5 6 3}

In its 2022 tax returns, America Works USA did not list any paid staff members. ⁷ Its director and treasurer is DGA chief financial officer Stephen Hill, and the other director is DGA chief operating officer Jillian Edelman. ^{8 7}

Union Connections

America Works USA has received significant amounts of funding from unions including the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), ⁹ National Education Association, ¹⁰ International Association of Fire Fighters, ¹¹ Service Employees International Union, ¹² American Federation of Teachers, ¹³ and International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers. ¹⁴

The National Education Association’s annual filings with the U.S. Department of Labor list $2,725,000 in payments to America Works USA between 2012 and 2023. ¹⁵

America Works USA has engaged in advocacy outside of its primary focus on supporting Democratic governors to promote state-level union policy priorities such as opposition to right-to-work laws. ² One of its first campaigns after its founding in 2011 was the successful effort to repeal Ohio Senate Bill 5 that year. ²

In 2016, the Commonwealth Foundation, a right-of-center think tank in Pennsylvania, identified America Works USA as a “pass-through” organization that allowed the Pennsylvania State Education Association to use its members’ union dues to support political campaigns, which the think tank said would be illegal for the union to do directly under Pennsylvania law. ^{16 17}

Funding

In addition to its union funding, America Works USA has also received grants from left-of-center funders and organizations with interests in state-level policy issues including Center for American Progress Action Fund, Center for Innovative Policy, Education Reform Now Advocacy, Energy Action Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), and Sixteen Thirty Fund. ^{18 19}

America Works USA has received significant funding from Democratic governors’ “leadership PACs” that are nominally separate from governors’ campaign organizations but are functionally controlled by the governor. ²⁰

In New Jersey, the leadership PAC of Gov. Phil Murphy (D) donated $315,000 to America Works USA in 2020. Murphy was the chairman of the Democratic Governors Association in 2019 and 2020, and then again in 2022 and 2023. ²¹

In 2022, America Works USA received $11.2 million from Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s leadership PAC “Road to Michigan’s Future.” ²² This single grant was more than ten times larger than America Works USA’s total revenues of $1,097,500 in the previous year, and more than three times its reported 2020 revenues of $3,036,774. ^{7 23} Whitmer was criticized by campaign finance regulation advocates for making this donation while Michigan’s Democratic Party-controlled state legislature was passing financial transparency legislation that did not meet her campaign promises for transparency and openness. ²⁴

Political Activities

A 2013 analysis by the left-of-center journalism group Center for Public Integrity criticized America Works USA for devoting too high a percentage of its expenditures to political causes, which runs counter to IRS rules that broadly require 501(c)(4) nonprofits to devote the majority of their activities to “social welfare.” ² The analysis found that America Works USA was using what Center for Public Integrity called a “Russian nesting doll” technique in which its funding of state-level nonprofits are categorized as grants rather than political expenditures in its IRS reporting, even though those nonprofits largely use the grants to fund state-level political campaigning. ²

In addition to this funding of third-party organizations and its own direct involvement in campaigns, America Works USA also operates affiliated America Works PAC federal and state political action committees. ^{25 26} In addition to governors’ races, these PACs occasionally support other Democratic candidates such as eight Congressional candidates and 25 candidates for U.S. Senate in 2022. ²⁷

In 2015, America Works USA ran mailers, advertisements, and other campaign-style tactics in Pennsylvania to support Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf in budget negotiations with the state legislature, where Republican leaders opposed a proposed 0.33 percent income tax increase. ⁶ These tactics angered many Republican legislators, contributing to what was referred to as “a historic partisan gridlock.” ^{28 29}

America Works USA often works closely with the Democratic political group Priorities USA, and in 2022, the two organizations announced a joint $2 million ad buy in Georgia to attack the policies of Gov. Brian Kemp (R). ³⁰