TO: Umar Farooq
RE: Press request from Middle East Eye
Date: Tuesday, November 5, 2024

Dear Umar:

Sorry for our delay in responding! You reached out to us on Sunday at 7:30pm ET and requested a response by Noon ET the day before the election, a deadline we were not able to meet.

We are writing to offer some corrections to your story:

“The Uncommitted National Movement, which promised to leverage constituents' votes to force the Democratic Party to change its position on Israel, received more than $400,000 from a Democratic-aligned PAC that explicitly prevents beneficiaries from endorsing a candidate other than Kamala Harris, Middle East Eye can reveal.”

The words above in bold are not factually accurate. Movement Voter Project exists to invest in power-building groups that are rooted in communities and, unlike political campaigns, work year-round in the communities where politicians come around every four years to ask for votes. We invest in organizations that use elections as one tool in their toolbox and that work in races up and down the ballot as a means to win progressive policy change. 

We have updated the dated and inaccurate FAQ you found on our website so that it better reflects how we actually operate, and how we operated as a funder of the Uncommitted movement. To be clear, we have not “explicitly prevented beneficiaries from endorsing a candidate other than Kamala Harris,” nor have we made supporting particular candidates a requirement of our funding. As a matter of course, we provide general operating support, as we have with the Uncommitted movement. Much of our funding is not partisan at all, and is intended to support community organizations to pursue their own progressive issue organizing and advocacy.

“Beneficiaries of funding from the Movement Voter Project are explicitly told to support the Democratic Party.”

This is not true and goes against how our funding process works in practice. We are very respectful of our partners. We understand why many of them are angry with Biden and Harris, and we believe the Democratic Party needs to be pushed in a progressive direction, which is why we supported the Uncommitted movement, and called on Biden to step aside despite receiving criticism for doing so. There are numerous examples of our partners explicitly challenging the Democratic Party both on policy and electorally.

"We don’t expect any of our partners to endorse third-party candidates. And we would not support groups to get out the vote for such candidates," the Movement Voter Project says on its website, in response to a question about whether it funds groups that support third-party presidential candidates.

This again is quoting from the original FAQ. As indicated above, your article prompted us to update it.

We’d love for you to correct these points so that your readers may have a more accurate picture.

Thank you for your consideration.