Foreign Billionaires Are Treating Missouri Like a Test Lab
Foreign Billionaires Are Treating Missouri Like a Test Lab
When Missourians head to the ballot box, they deserve to know the ideas they are voting on come from their neighbors, not from foreign billionaires with political agendas.
One name keeps showing up behind the curtain of America’s ballot fights: Hansjörg Wyss, a Swiss billionaire who is quietly bankrolling liberal causes across the country.
Who Is Hansjörg Wyss and Why Is He Targeting Missouri?
Wyss made his fortune in medical devices, but his political influence comes from a sprawling network of nonprofits and dark-money groups. He cannot vote in the United States, and he cannot legally donate to candidates. Instead, his foundations pour tens of millions into liberal advocacy networks like the Sixteen Thirty Fund, which then send money to ballot campaigns in states like Missouri.
The Sixteen Thirty Fund funneled $4.59 million into the Missouri Abortion Industry’s 2024 Amendment 3 campaign, the measure that enshrined abortion into the state constitution. Another $3.5 million went to Proposition A on the minimum wage.
In total, Wyss gave the Sixteen Thirty Fund $243 million from his network and they spent about $130 million on ballot initiatives in 25 states.
Foreign nationals and foreign dollars are shaping what ends up on our ballots.
Missouri Became the Perfect Testing Ground
Why Missouri?
Liberals understand that they can no longer elect their candidates statewide.
A permissive initiative petition process means ballot measure campaigns are easier, cheaper, and deliver more immediate results than investing in candidates.
National operatives see Missouri as a testing ground. If they can pass a policy here, they can use that success to push it nationwide.
Groups funded by Wyss-backed networks used Missouri as a launchpad for progressive experiments, hiding behind friendly-sounding committee names and slick messaging.
The data bears it out.
Missouri was the number three target of foreign spending on ballot measure campaigns between 2014 and 2024.
Wyss-backed Liberal campaigns in Missouri have taken to using names with a track record of success in the top-two targeted States of Michigan and Ohio.
Ohio’s Liberal redistricting campaign in 2024 was known as “Citizens Not Politicians,” foreshadowing Missouri’s Liberal “People Not Politicians.”
Lawmakers Fought Back, But It Was Not Enough
To their credit, Missouri conservatives took action. In 2025, the legislature passed Senate Bill 152, which banned foreign nationals from donating to ballot measure campaigns and required committees to certify that their contributions are free from foreign influence.
It was a strong start, but it did not stop the problem.
Formal complaints have been filed against People Not Politicians, accusing them of taking foreign-linked donations and funneling that money into signature-gathering efforts.
Rather than accepting contributions from the Sixteen Thirty Fund directly, as Missouri committees did last year, People Not Politicians accepted contributions from Sixteen Thirty Fund-backed entities.
Even with the new law, powerful networks still find ways to push cash through nonprofit front groups that hide their true sources.
These contributions demand investigation and demonstrate the need for a constitutional ban on foreign funding of ballot measure campaigns so that future Liberal administrations can’t change the rules.
The Real Solution Is Amendment 4
Missourians must vote YES on Amendment 4 in 2026. This constitutional amendment will finally give our state the power to:
- Ban foreign funding of ballot initiatives once and for all, closing every loophole bad actors exploit.
- Require full transparency so voters can see exactly what is in every ballot measure.
- Punish fraud and deception in the initiative process, including fake signatures.
Amendment 4 is not just another policy tweak. It is a safeguard for Missouri’s self-governance against foreign nationals like Hansjorg Wyss.
Andy Bakker
Executive Director
Liberty Alliance USA