How 'dark money' funded the far-right campaign against Gretchen Whitmer’s COVID-19 policies: report

In 2020, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s COVID-19 policies and efforts to save lives in her state made her a major target of the pandemic denialist movement. Armed members of far-right militia groups showed up at rallies in Lansing, the state capitol, to protest against the pandemic-related restrictions she ordered in Michigan, and Whitmer even became the target of a kidnapping plot. In late December 2022, far-right extremist Barry Croft, Jr. was sentenced to 19 years in prison for his role in that plot; his ally Adam Fox received a 16-year sentence.

The pandemic restrictions that Whitmer imposed in Michigan weren’t nearly as severe as the restrictions imposed in places ranging from Australia to Italy in 2020. Regardless, the far right and the MAGA movement attacked Whitmer’s policies as everything from anti-business to anti-religion, and her allies feared for her safety.

In 2020, the anti-Whitmer campaign wasn’t limited to fringe militia groups. According to The Guardian’s Tom Perkins, a utility company was linked to the “dark money nonprofit” behind the Unlock Michigan campaign — which vehemently opposed her COVID-19 policies. A spokesman for that energy company, however, insists that it supported Whitmer’s policies during the pandemic.

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Perkins, in an article published by The Guardian on January 10, reports, “A dark money nonprofit linked to power utility DTE Energy funded a group behind the effort to repeal the emergency order powers of Michigan’s Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, and end the state’s COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions. Internal Revenue Service records revealing a $100,000 donation made in 2020 were not publicly available until late 2021, and show the funds were contributed to another dark money nonprofit that served as a primary funder of the Unlock Michigan repeal campaign.”

Utility companies, Perkins reports, “generally opposed lockdowns” in 2020 and requirements that they “stop shutting off service to financially struggling customers” during the pandemic.

According to Perkins, “Unlock Michigan was ultimately successful, complicating Whitmer’s efforts to order restrictions and ending any serious discussion of shutoff moratoriums that included DTE, the state’s largest energy utility…. Michigan was a global flashpoint in the cultural and political fight over how governments should handle COVID. Whitmer’s lockdowns were effective at controlling the virus’ spread, but right-wing opposition to the restrictions culminated with multiple protests and armed protesters storming the state legislature in mid-2020. Against this backdrop, the DTE-affiliated dark money group made its contribution.”

Peter Ternes, a DTE spokesman, stressed to The Guardian that DTE itself did not make the nonprofit donation in question. Although DTE is linked to the nonprofit, Perkins reports, the DTE spokesman told The Guardian that it “unequivocally” did not that make that donation and said that “we do not speak for” the dark money nonprofit that donated to the Unlock Michigan campaign.

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Ternes told The Guardian, “DTE unequivocally is not financially supporting the Unlock Michigan/MI Citizens For Fiscal Responsibility campaign. Furthermore, DTE has worked hand-in-hand with the governor to protect our customers, employees and the public throughout the coronavirus pandemic. The actions taken by the state have slowed COVID transmission and death rates.”

But Perkins reports that “state and federal records show how the money probably moved between DTE and Unlock Michigan.”

“IRS records reveal a 2020 donation made by Michigan Energy First, a DTE-linked dark money nonprofit, to a dark money nonprofit called Michigan Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility,” according to Perkins. “Michigan Energy First’s three officers are DTE executives who work with an attorney, federal records show, and company executives have controlled the nonprofit since it was created in 2014. Michigan Energy First has funded DTE allies in the state legislature, promoted the company’s interests on social media, funded community organizations whose leaders in turn support DTE in regulatory hearings, and financially backed or opposed political initiatives, like Unlock Michigan.”

Perkins adds, “Though DTE denies involvement with Michigan Energy First, its argument is based on technicalities, and it’s widely considered to be DTE’s dark money nonprofit, said Matt Kasper, deputy director of the Energy and Policy Institute, a national nonprofit that tracks utilities’ political spending.”

Kasper told The Guardian, “When they say they don’t control (Michigan Energy First) or it’s not part of the company.… sure, it’s not part of the utility corporation itself, but they’ve had their top lobbyists running it for eight years. Customers see right through it, and regulators and lawmakers do too.”

MAGA opposition to Whitmer’s COVID-19 policies in 2020 and 2021 didn’t prevent her from being reelected in the 2022 midterms, which found her defeating far-right Republican challenger Tudor Dixon by around 11 percent.

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