Kyle Herrig

Herrig has a background in leadership roles with several New Venture Fund-associated organizations, also having previously served as managing director for New Venture Fund from 2014 through 2019 as well as a board member. ^{3 4} Herrig is also as a board member of American Oversight, a left-wing judicial activist organization, as of 2023. ⁵ In addition, he served on the advisory board for Restore Public Trust and was a strategic adviser for advocacy group Allied Progress. ⁴; Both organizations became part of left-wing advocacy organization Accountable.US. ⁶

As of 2023, Herrig is the senior advisor and former president for Accountable.US as well as the Executive Director of the Congressional Integrity Project (CIP), a government watchdog group that has received roughly $1.5 million in donations from nonprofit group, Sixteen Thirty Fund, which, like New Venture Fund, is managed by philanthropic firm Arabella Advisors. ^{7 8}

Career

New Venture Fund

Herring served as the managing director of New Venture Fund from 2014 through 2019. ³ The New Venture is a nonprofit organization that helps fund various groups and other organizations that claim to be independent but appear to be mere financial projects of the same organization. ⁹

The New Venture Fund also funnels money to outside left-of-center organizations such as Media Matters for America and the Center for American Progress. The New Venture Fund has been described as a “dark money conduit” since it shields the identity of its donors. ^{10 11} The nonprofit

American Oversight

Herrig was appointed to the board of directors to American Oversight, a New Venture Fund-sponsored organization, in 2017. As of 2023 he still sits on the bord. ^{5 10} He previously served as the interim Executive Director of the organization from January through July 2022, following Austin Evers departure from the position, until Heather Sawyer was appointed. She serves as Executive Director of the organization as of 2023. ^{12 13}

The organization was created in 2017 and opposed Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court in the fall of 2018. ^{9 11}

The group’s model is based on that of the conservative Judicial Watch, which uses lawsuits and Freedom of Information Act requests to stymie the agenda of its target. American Oversight would in turn become the model for various other left-wing organizations used to target the President Donald Trump administration. ^{10 4}

Restore Public Trust

In 2018, various Democratic and left-wing operatives and activists formed Restore Public Trust to attack cabinet officials of the Trump administration. Restore Public Trust was a project of nonprofit group New Venture Fund. ¹¹

The group claimed to seek allegedly unethical and corrupt behavior by Trump administration officials. ¹⁴ Herrig was on the board of the group during its inception, while also working with New Venture Fund. ¹⁵

Restore Public Trust sued the Trump administration demanding the documents about the process to include the question on the census. ¹⁶ Herrig issued a statement on behalf of the group stating, “The American people have a right to know what Secretary Ross and the rest of Trump’s political appointees discussed behind closed doors as they devised a scheme to make the census less representative for all Americans.” ^{17 4}

By 2020, however, Restore Public Trust became part of left-wing advocacy organization Accountable.US. ⁶

Allied Progress

Herrig was a quoted spokesman for the New Venture Fund project, Allied Progress. In February 2019, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau scrapped an Obama administration rule that would limit how much people could borrow from payday lenders. The rule would’ve required lenders to determine if borrowers could pay off the loans and limit attempts to withdraw the loan amount from the borrowers’ account. ^{18 4}

Herrig, on behalf of Allied Progress, denounced the rule change as favoring special interests over consumers. “The people in power have chosen to side with payday lenders over consumers,” said Herrig. ¹⁸

By 2020, Allied Progress became part of left-wing advocacy organization Accountable.US. ⁶

Congressional Integrity Project (CIP)

In 2020, Herrig was appointed as Executive Director of the Congressional Integrity Project (CIP), a left-of-center activist organization as well as government watchdog group that previously received roughly $1.5 million in donations from nonprofit group, Sixteen Thirty Fund. As of 2o23, Herrig still serves as Executive Director. ^{5 8}

Sixteen Thirty Fund, like New Venture Fund, is a nonprofit group created and managed by philanthropic firm Arabella Advisors. ^{7 8} Other members of CIP’s board include Melanie Sloane and Brad Woodhouse: Slone was a founding executive director of agitation group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), while Woodhouse is the executive director of Protect Our Care, a project of Sixteen Thirty Fund. ^{19 20}

Accountable.US

In 2019, Herrig was appointed as president of Accountable.US, a self-described “nonpartisan watchdog group” and a former financial project of Arabella Advisors-managed nonprofit New Venture Fund. ^{7 6} He served in the position until July 2023 when Caroline Ciccone, former executive director of the group, was appointed. At the same time, Herrig became a Senior Advisor for the organization, a position he serves as of October 2023. ^{7 21}

Activities

Statement on George Santos

When asked to comment on the FEC complaint filed against Rep. George Santos (R-NY) for misusing campaign fund, Herrig states, “With each passing day, Congressmen Santos’s rap sheet of potential crimes and outlandish lies continues to grow. The FEC has an obligation to hold him accountable — Speaker McCarthy and his MAGA majority certainly won’t, especially after gutting the Congressional Ethics Office.” ²²