FIRST ON DAILY SIGNAL—A conservative watchdog is calling for a Republican organization that took more than $1 million from the Soros network’s Open Society Action Fund to “sever its relationship.”
The Open Society Action Fund, typically known for donating for leftwing causes in both the United States and abroad, contributed $1.67 million to the International Republican Institute for a 19-month grant that began in 2023. The fund described the grant as “to support the grantee’s work on capacity building for East Asia diaspora communities.”
The GOP-aligned group says the money was to support persecuted Uyghurs in China.
The National Legal and Policy Center flagged the unusual pairing of a Soros-backed Republican organization.
“I write to ask that the International Republican Institute (IRI) sever its relationship with the so-called Open Society Action Fund, and any other entities founded and/or funded by George Soros,” National Legal and Policy Center President Peter Flaherty said in a letter Thursday to International Republican Institute Chairman Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska.
The letter, first shared with The Daily Signal, asks the GOP group to “publicly commit to refraining from any further solicitation or acceptance of grants from Soros-related groups or from the giving vehicles of other Left-wing billionaires.”
“Contrary to his embrace of the ‘open society,’ Soros, and many of the groups and projects he funds, seek to undermine free expression, individual rights, the rule of law and democratic norms,” Flaherty’s letter continued. “[International Republican Institute] compromises its own mission by accepting support from Soros entities that also support governmental censorship, illegal mass immigration, ‘lawfare,’ and socialism.”
The Open Society Action Fund is the 501(c)4 advocacy arm to the Open Society Foundations, which is classified as a 501(c)(3) education organization. The letter notes that the Open Society Foundations has funded far-left organizations such as the Indivisible Project and MoveOn.
It continued noting that Alex Soros is now running the organization and has vowed to be “much more political” than his father.
The grant was for supporting the Uyghurs in China, which aligns with GOP policy, and the Trump administration, according to the International Republican Institute.
“IRI received a one-time grant to support persecuted Uyghurs in China, whose abhorrent treatment of Uyghurs was declared a genocide by the first Trump administration,” a spokesman for the International Republican Institute told The Daily Signal.
“The project in question is closed; IRI does not work with [Open Society Foundations] and has no intention of doing so again,” the institute spokesman continued. “IRI has been sanctioned by the Chinese Communist Party due to its unwavering support for religious freedom in China, and we will never yield in defending the cause of freedom in the face of the totalitarian CCP.”
The International Republican Institute was founded in the 1980s in response to then-President Ronald Reagan’s call to establish infrastructure for democracy throughout the world in the midst of the Cold War. The institute’s experts work with countries on democracy development.
An Open Society Foundations spokesperson said the organization is not aligned with any political party.
“We are a nonpartisan, non-profit philanthropy that is proud to support a wide array of organizations when their projects align with our mission of promoting human rights and advancing freedom, equality, and democracy in the United States and around the world,” the spokesperson told The Daily Signal.
Flaherty had questions about the stated purpose for the grant.
“I’m relieved to learn this is a one-time acceptance of a grant,” Flaherty told The Daily Signal. “The Uyghurs are certainly a worthy cause. But, if that is what the grant was for, why didn’t it say that on the Open Society database? There is something not above board about the whole thing.”
