Cleta Mitchell, the Trump attorney who participated in the notorious January 2, 2021 Georgia phone call, has built a nationwide election infrastructure that transforms election denialism into tangible policy changes through carefully cultivated relationships with state officials like West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner. Their partnership exemplifies how the Conservative Partnership Institute creates "parallel governing infrastructure" that coordinates national strategy with state implementation, turning fringe conspiracy theories about voter fraud into coordinated multi-state campaigns that fundamentally weaken election administration. Mitchell provides the national platform, training materials, legal expertise, and coordination network, while Warner delivers the state-level authority to implement withdrawals from voter roll maintenance systems, purge hundreds of thousands of voters, and influence other states to follow suit. This relationship reveals CPI's sophisticated model for capturing state election administration through what appears to be grassroots activism but is actually a well-funded, centrally coordinated operation that has already dismantled bipartisan election infrastructure across nine Republican-led states.
From Georgia phone call to election infrastructure architect
Cleta Mitchell's transformation from disgraced attorney to influential power broker happened with remarkable speed. On January 5, 2021—just three days after she participated in Trump's call pressuring Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find" 11,780 votes—Mitchell resigned from her law firm Foley & Lardner under pressure. By March 2021, she had joined the Conservative Partnership Institute as Senior Legal Fellow, earning $231,000 annually. More significantly, she founded and now chairs the Election Integrity Network, which has become the central coordinating body for election denialism translated into state policy.
Mitchell's background uniquely positions her for this role. She began as a Democratic Oklahoma state representative in the 1970s, served as the first woman to chair a state appropriations committee, then underwent a political transformation after her husband's banking fraud conviction, which she blamed on "overreaching government regulation." She switched parties, became a prominent Republican election law attorney representing the NRA, major conservative donors, and Tea Party groups targeted by the IRS. She testified before Congress calling the IRS "corrupt and rotten to the core."
Her 2020 election activities reveal her willingness to push legal boundaries. She filed lawsuits seeking to invalidate Georgia's presidential results, sent Mark Meadows 1,800 pages of documents purporting to show fraud (later debunked), contacted John Eastman to engineer legal arguments challenging electoral certification, and made false claims during the January 2 call about voters who had "moved out of state." The Fulton County grand jury unanimously recommended her indictment for conspiring to overturn the 2020 election, though she was never charged.
What distinguishes Mitchell from other election deniers is her institutional infrastructure-building capacity. She doesn't just spread conspiracy theories—she creates the organizational machinery to implement them. She serves on the Bradley Foundation board (which has spent roughly $18 million on election fraud conspiracy efforts since she joined in 2012), chairs the Public Interest Legal Foundation, belongs to the Council for National Policy's Board of Governors, and briefly served on the U.S. Election Assistance Commission Board of Advisors until public outcry forced her resignation in November 2023.
Building the Election Integrity Network as CPI's state takeover mechanism
Mitchell founded the Election Integrity Network in January 2021, weeks after the January 6 insurrection. As Marshall Yates, EIN's executive director, explicitly stated at an October 2022 summit: "We're all here because of what happened in 2020... the election objection did not go as we wanted on January 6." The organization was originally housed within CPI before splitting into an independent 501(c)(4) in 2022, allowing greater flexibility for political activity while CPI maintained its 501(c)(3) status.
The funding flows reveal tight integration with the broader CPI ecosystem. In 2022, EIN received exactly two contributions totaling $753,255: $525,000 from CPI and $228,200 from Citizens for Renewing America (another CPI-affiliated organization). Trump's Save America PAC donated $1 million to CPI in July 2021, weeks after the House established the January 6 committee. Major donor Mike Rydin gave CPI $25 million in 2021. This influx transformed CPI from a $7.3 million operation in 2020 to a $45.7 million powerhouse in 2021, with the broader CPI network raising nearly $200 million by 2022.
EIN's operational structure demonstrates sophisticated organizing capacity. In 2022 alone, Mitchell's network conducted statewide summits in Georgia, Arizona, Florida, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Michigan, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Nevada, and New Mexico. These weren't typical conferences—they were multi-day training sessions teaching activists to interrogate local election offices, file FOIA requests, challenge voter registrations, recruit poll workers, and document alleged irregularities. Each summit launched "permanent election integrity coalitions" in partnership with Tea Party Patriots, Heritage Action, FreedomWorks, and Turning Point USA.
The training materials reveal the strategic sophistication. EIN's 19-page "Citizens Guide to Building an Election Integrity Infrastructure," distributed at a December 2021 ALEC meeting, instructs activists to research local election officials and classify them as "friend or foe." The guide details how to create state and local task forces, work with local GOP organizations, and build permanent workforces of election challengers. EIN's website offers a 21-lesson masterclass covering everything from becoming an election worker to "get knee deep in voting by mail" to understanding the role of USPS in elections.
Mitchell coordinates this infrastructure through multiple channels. Her weekly "Who's Counting?" podcast provides a platform for state officials, activists, and conspiracy theorists—NPR called it "a central hub for stolen election narratives." She runs weekly Friday coordination calls with "election integrity leaders from across the country." She organizes private conference calls on voter roll challenges attended by 100+ activists from at least 15 states. She leads National Working Groups via Zoom on topics like "Citizens Only in American Politics and Voting," "Banning Third-Party Election Interference," and "Voter Roll Maintenance."
The RNC coordination is explicit. Josh Findlay, RNC National Director for Election Integrity, stated at a leaked March 2022 Pennsylvania summit: "Cleta Mitchell, she's like the best election and election law expert out here. We're not going to tell her what to do. But hopefully we can provide some infrastructure and some muscle." Andrea Raffle, RNC director for Pennsylvania, discussed connecting election workers to the RNC "war room." This represents clear coordination between a supposedly nonpartisan 501(c)(3) organization and the Republican Party—activity that tax law experts say could jeopardize CPI's tax-exempt status.
The Mitchell-Warner collaboration: Timeline and documentation
The relationship between Cleta Mitchell and Mac Warner demonstrates how national coordination translates into state policy changes. The partnership began in 2021 when Mitchell met Warner after he testified before the US Senate Rules Committee against HR 1/S 1 (the For the People Act). Mitchell praised his "powerful testimony" as "sobering" and called Warner "indeed, honorable," "a true American patriot and hero," and "a leader among his peers serving in the highest level of election administration circles in the country."
January 2022: First major platform. Warner appeared on Mitchell's "Who's Counting?" podcast for an extended interview discussing federal election legislation and his opposition to what he characterized as federal takeover of elections. This early podcast appearance established Warner as an "election integrity" leader within Mitchell's national network and gave him credibility with conservative activists nationwide.
June 17, 2022: The critical coordination meeting. Mitchell convened a secret four-hour summit at CPI headquarters bringing together Republican Secretaries of State or their representatives from Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Missouri, Texas, West Virginia, and Wyoming. Heather Honey—a Pennsylvania-based "open-source investigator" who had worked on the Arizona audit and is closely associated with Mitchell—presented a 29-page report calling ERIC "a threat to election integrity." On the same day as this summit, Honey spoke with Donald Kersey, Warner's general counsel, regarding concerns about ERIC data sharing. The coordination was explicit: Mitchell's organization paid for at least some officials' travel and lodging to attend.
This meeting proved pivotal. As NPR's investigation concluded, Mitchell and her network were "central in the effort to discredit and dismantle ERIC." The first five states to withdraw from ERIC all had representatives at this June 2022 meeting. Jim Womack, head of North Carolina's Election Integrity Team and a regular Mitchell collaborator, also attended.
March 2023: The coordinated withdrawal. In early March 2023, Warner appeared on Mitchell's podcast again for an episode titled "Mac Warner: Turning Over The Rocks of Election Integrity's Critical Infrastructure." They discussed federal agency bias, "disinformation about election security," and Warner's work removing 365,000 names from West Virginia's voter rolls. CPI's press release noted the episode was recorded "just a few days" before Warner's announcement.
On March 6, 2023, West Virginia withdrew from ERIC in a coordinated announcement with Florida and Missouri—all three states announced the same day, citing each other's decisions. Warner's public statement echoed the talking points developed at Mitchell's June 2022 summit, calling ERIC an organization with "opportunity for partisanship" and questioning third-party influences. Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft's press release was titled "Ashcroft Leads Missouri, Florida and West Virginia Out of ERIC," emphasizing the coordination. Gateway Pundit, which had published the initial false claims about ERIC in January 2022, was pre-notified of the announcements.
Days after the March 6 withdrawals, Warner participated in an "Election Integrity Leaders" call with Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd and Virginia Commissioner of Elections Susan Beals, further coordinating the multi-state campaign.
May 2023: Active coordination on ERIC alternatives. Warner spoke at a convening of the Voter Rolls National Working Group hosted by Virginia Institute for Public Policy (VIPP), where Mitchell's EIN was being partially folded. Warner shared West Virginia's steps for maintaining voter roll accuracy post-ERIC. The same week, Warner and his general counsel presented at a webinar hosted by EIN and the Virginia Fair Elections coalition, moderated by Hayden Ludwig of Restoration of America, discussing "what WV is doing to clean their voter rolls in their post-ERIC world."
On May 19, 2023—approximately one week after Warner's working group presentation—Mitchell directly emailed Warner's general counsel Donald Kersey and Chief of Staff Chuck Flannery with a specific request: "You made reference last week to some databases that your office and clerks used in your efforts to clean voter rolls. Do you mind sending me those databases and any information about them, so I can forward them to the National Working Group on Voter Rolls?" This email, obtained through public records requests by American Oversight, reveals Mitchell directly seeking access to West Virginia's voter databases to share with her national network, demonstrating that Warner's methods were being packaged and distributed to other states considering ERIC withdrawal.
Also in May 2023, Virginia withdrew from ERIC. Days later, Warner emailed Virginia Commissioner Susan Beals: "Susan, first congratulations on your departure from Eric. I've got another situation I'd like to run by you when you have a moment." This shows Warner actively congratulating and coordinating with other officials who left ERIC, serving as an encourager and validator for the coordinated withdrawal campaign.
June 2023: Continued coordination on alternatives. Julia Hecht from EIN emailed Donald Kersey mentioning that Kersey had requested a handout shared with VIPP's voter rolls working group by Rick Richards, founder of EagleAI. Hecht sent Kersey a copy of the handout and a recording of a meeting between VIPP, EIN representatives, and EagleAI. This coordination is particularly significant because EagleAI—a software tool for identifying alleged "voter fraud" that Georgia's Elections Director called inaccurate due to high false positive rates—is being promoted as an ERIC alternative. The nonprofit Valid Vote, which supports EagleAI, was formed by Compass Legal Group, a firm associated with Mitchell.
May 11, 2023: Third podcast appearance. Warner appeared on Mitchell's podcast for a 41-minute episode titled "MAC WARNER CALLS ON SECRETARY OF STATE TONY BLINKEN TO RESIGN," further cementing his role as a voice for election conspiracy theories within Mitchell's network.
Throughout this documented collaboration, Mitchell publicly praised Warner effusively. She told The Federalist in 2024: "He speaks the truth — he is a true patriot and I only wish we had 50 state election officials just like him." She called Warner "a national hero and a treasure."
How the Mitchell-Warner partnership influenced the multi-state ERIC exodus
The ERIC withdrawal campaign represents Mitchell's most significant policy achievement and reveals how the Warner partnership fit into a broader coordinated strategy. Before the campaign began, ERIC included 32 member states plus DC—a bipartisan partnership formed in 2012 by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (a conservative) and supported by Pew Charitable Trusts. ERIC helped states identify outdated voter registrations by cross-referencing motor vehicle and Social Security death records across state lines, detect double voting, and identify eligible but unregistered citizens.
The campaign followed a clear pattern. Phase 1 began in January 2022 when Gateway Pundit published false articles claiming ERIC was funded by George Soros and represented a "left-wing conspiracy." NPR's analysis found ERIC mentions on far-right social media exploded only after Gateway Pundit's coverage. Seven days later, Louisiana Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin announced suspension of ERIC membership—the first withdrawal.
Phase 2 involved Mitchell's infrastructure building. Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen campaigned on withdrawing from ERIC in 2022. Mitchell organized her June 17, 2022 secret summit bringing together officials from the states that would withdraw. Heather Honey's anti-ERIC report circulated through conservative networks. Local EIN chapters in Michigan, Florida, Pennsylvania, and other states began organizing pressure campaigns on state legislators, with materials like Michigan EIN's "How to Discuss ERIC with Your State Legislator" guide and Florida's "top 10 reasons to get out of ERIC" fact sheet.
Phase 3 saw the coordinated March 6, 2023 mass withdrawal. Florida, Missouri, and West Virginia announced simultaneously, with statements cross-referencing each other's decisions. Alabama had already withdrawn in January 2023 when Allen took office. Within 11 days, Ohio and Iowa followed despite their Secretaries of State having previously called ERIC "one of the best fraud-fighting tools" (Ohio's Frank LaRose) and "a godsend" (Iowa's Paul Pate).
Phase 4 completed the cascade with Virginia's withdrawal in May 2023 (with Warner congratulating them) and Texas in July 2023. By the end, nine Republican-led states had withdrawn from what had been a 32-state bipartisan partnership.
Warner's role was that of enthusiastic collaborator and validator rather than independent originator. His value to Mitchell's campaign was threefold. First, as a West Point graduate and military veteran with an image of integrity, Warner provided credibility for conspiracy theories about ERIC. Second, his willingness to testify before the US Senate and appear repeatedly on Mitchell's podcast gave him a national platform to influence other officials. Third, his coordination of 54 of 55 West Virginia county clerks to oppose federal election legislation (HR 1/S 1) demonstrated his ability to mobilize local officials—a model Mitchell wanted to replicate nationwide.
The common talking points across all withdrawing states reveal coordination. Every state cited "partisanship," "data privacy concerns," and "Soros connections"—all false or misleading claims developed in Honey's report and amplified through Mitchell's network. Missouri staff had privately called Gateway Pundit articles "horrible and misleading" and said they were "glad to be part of ERIC," yet the state withdrew anyway. Ohio's deputy director told colleagues "I really worked as hard as I possibly could to avoid this," suggesting external pressure overcame internal assessments. American Oversight's analysis concluded: "Documents show how election officials defended ERIC behind the scenes while publicly caving to a pressure campaign led by some of the same people who sought to keep Trump in power in 2020."
The consequences have been significant. According to a December 2023 Votebeat report, "Nine Republican states that have left ERIC are struggling to find a suitable replacement." States lost their primary tool for detecting cross-state double voting, have less accurate voter rolls, face higher costs for maintaining data, and have rushed into inadequate bilateral agreements. Georgia's Elections Director called EagleAI—one Mitchell-promoted alternative—inaccurate due to high false positive rates. Former Utah county clerk Josh Daniels mockingly summarized the absurdity: "These states have decided that instead of using a wheel, they're going to invent a spherical device that will allow them to easily transport and roll items from A to B."
Mitchell's broader influence within the CPI ecosystem beyond EIN
Mitchell's role extends far beyond the Election Integrity Network. She serves as CPI Board Secretary, one of the key officers alongside Jim DeMint (Chairman, $545,000 salary), Ed Corrigan (President/CEO, $382,000), and Mark Meadows (Senior Partner, $559,000). This positioning gives her influence over CPI's broader strategic direction.
CPI has grown explosively under Meadows' leadership, from $7.3 million in revenue in 2020 to $45.7 million in 2021, with the broader CPI network raising nearly $200 million by 2022. The organization has purchased $41 million in properties near the Capitol to create "Patriot's Row"—a conservative campus where the House Freedom Caucus and Senate Republican Steering Committee meet weekly. CPI also acquired a 2,200-acre compound in Cambridge, Maryland for training events, "researcher bootcamps," and "legislative director retreats."
Mitchell trains congressional staffers through CPI, which hosted at least four trainings in 2022 exclusively for House Freedom Caucus members and staff on topics including "election integrity," "effective research into Presidential appointees," and "proper oversight." She coordinates with CPI's network of approximately 24 affiliated organizations sharing CPI's Capitol Hill address or close financial ties, including America First Legal (Stephen Miller), Center for Renewing America (Russ Vought), American Accountability Foundation (opposition research on federal employees), State Freedom Caucus Network (replicating the House Freedom Caucus in state legislatures), and American Moment (cultivating conservative staffers).
The media infrastructure reveals CPI's sophistication. CPI maintains a production studio that films content for Newsmax and PragerU, and hosts podcasts for The Federalist, Representatives Matt Gaetz and Andy Biggs, and of course Mitchell's "Who's Counting?" This allows the network to create and amplify its own narratives without relying on mainstream media.
Mitchell's board memberships multiply her influence. As a Bradley Foundation board member since 2012, she has overseen approximately $18 million in spending on election fraud conspiracy groups, including major funding to Heritage Foundation, ALEC, Federalist Society, Honest Elections Project, FreedomWorks, True the Vote, and Turning Point USA. Bradley gave CPI $200,000-$300,000 over multiple years and funded VIPP's Virginia Fair Elections project that served as Mitchell's original model. As Council for National Policy Board of Governors member, Mitchell participates in secretive meetings where conservative strategies are incubated before being promoted publicly. As chairman and co-founder of Public Interest Legal Foundation, she directs an organization focused on purging voter rolls, with John Eastman serving on the board.
Mitchell's strategic coordination across this ecosystem is evident in her ALEC work. In 2019, she told an ALEC session they should "treat redistricting as 'political adult blood sport'" and advised legislators on "how to gerrymander." In December 2024, Mitchell led an ALEC panel urging state lawmakers to fight legislation protecting election workers from threats, with EIN's Sharon Bemis claiming the threat environment was "overblown by the media"—this despite documented harassment that drove the Fairfax County registrar to resign.
Warner's strategic value to Mitchell's national election integrity strategy
Warner provides Mitchell with multiple strategic assets. First, military credibility: As a West Point graduate, Army JAG Corps veteran with deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, and recipient of the Bronze Star, Warner offers biographical credentials that make election conspiracy theories more palatable to mainstream audiences. Mitchell leveraged this repeatedly, introducing Warner as "a true American patriot and hero" and holding him up as proof that "good governance is possible."
Second, state-level implementation authority: Unlike activists or commentators, Warner has actual power to change election administration. He withdrew West Virginia from ERIC, removed 365,000+ names from voter rolls (in a state with only 1.8 million residents), coordinated 54 of 55 county clerks to oppose federal legislation, and created a "See Something, Text Something" program making "every citizen an extension of our investigative unit." These concrete actions provide proof-of-concept for Mitchell's theories about how states can resist federal election standards.
Third, influence with other election officials: Warner testified before the US Senate Rules Committee, participated in coordination calls with Florida and Virginia election officials, congratulated Virginia's commissioner on leaving ERIC, and shared West Virginia's post-ERIC methods at Mitchell's working groups. His willingness to collaborate publicly with Mitchell's network gave cover to other officials considering similar actions. When a sitting Secretary of State endorses leaving ERIC, it legitimizes the decision in ways that activists alone cannot achieve.
Fourth, amplification of federal conspiracy theories: Warner distinguishes himself as "the only current sitting secretary of state to publicly embrace Trump's false claims that the election was stolen," according to Route Fifty. At the February 2024 National Association of Secretaries of State meeting, Warner alleged the CIA and FBI "covered up" stories that would have prevented Trump from winning—an extraordinary claim from a sitting election official. These statements, amplified through Mitchell's podcast and CPI's media infrastructure, mainstreamed conspiracy theories that would otherwise remain fringe.
Fifth, electoral political integration: Warner ran for Governor in the 2024 Republican primary (he lost), receiving an endorsement from Lt. General Michael Flynn citing "Secretary Warner's work on election integrity and security has set the example for what is needed right now across this entire country." Flynn—a key figure in post-2020 election denial—explicitly connected Warner's election administration work to broader MAGA movement goals. Warner did not recuse himself from administering the election in which he was a candidate, demonstrating the partisan nature of his office.
Mitchell described Warner to The Federalist as someone who "speaks the truth" and "a national hero and a treasure," stating "I only wish we had 50 state election officials just like him." This reveals Mitchell's strategic vision: replicating the Warner model across all states would mean 50 Secretaries of State willing to withdraw from bipartisan election infrastructure, purge voter rolls aggressively, coordinate with conservative activists, testify against federal election standards, and embrace election conspiracy theories while maintaining an image of military-backed integrity.
Documentation of specific joint appearances and coordinated activities
Beyond the podcast appearances and coordination meetings already detailed, Mitchell and Warner's collaboration involved multiple formats and venues demonstrating sustained partnership.
The June 2022 anti-ERIC briefing was the most consequential coordination meeting. Held at CPI's headquarters in Washington, DC, the four-hour event brought together election officials from states that would collectively dismantle ERIC over the following year. Heather Honey's presentation provided the intellectual justification, but Mitchell's convening power—bringing together secretaries of state, paying for travel and lodging, and creating a private forum where officials could coordinate—was the critical infrastructure. American Oversight obtained emails and agendas documenting the meeting through public records litigation.
The February 14-15, 2023 Heritage Foundation Secretaries of State Conference demonstrated how Mitchell's network extends beyond CPI into the broader conservative ecosystem. Warner attended the two-day conference in Washington, DC, co-hosted by Heritage Foundation, Honest Elections Project, and Public Interest Legal Foundation (which Mitchell chairs). The agenda included sessions on "Realistic ERIC fixes and reforms" and "mapping the opposition." Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd—who had appeared on Mitchell's podcast and participated in the March 6, 2023 coordinated ERIC withdrawal—also attended. The Guardian criticized the conference as a secretive gathering to push election denialism.
The Voter Rolls National Working Group meeting in mid-May 2023, hosted by VIPP, represents how Mitchell created permanent infrastructure for coordination. Warner's presentation on West Virginia's post-ERIC voter roll maintenance methods became a blueprint distributed to other states. The webinar that same week—with Warner, his general counsel, and EIN representatives presenting on post-ERIC strategies—formalized the knowledge transfer from state implementation to national network.
Mitchell's subsequent email requesting West Virginia's voter databases "to forward them to the National Working Group on Voter Rolls" shows the coordination loop: Warner implements a strategy, shares it at Mitchell's events, and Mitchell then packages it for distribution to election officials and activists in other states. This creates a self-reinforcing system where successful state-level actions become templates for national replication.
The "Election Integrity Leaders" call in late March 2023, bringing together Warner, Florida's Byrd, and Virginia's Beals, demonstrates peer-to-peer coordination among state officials facilitated by Mitchell's network. These weren't formal government coordination—they were organized through Mitchell's private infrastructure, allowing officials to align strategies without public accountability or transparency.
Warner's third podcast appearance in May 2023 calling for Secretary of State Tony Blinken's resignation further demonstrated his willingness to make increasingly extreme public statements amplified through Mitchell's platform. Each podcast appearance built Warner's profile within the conservative movement while reinforcing Mitchell's positioning as the central coordinator of election integrity efforts.
The coordination extended to materials and alternatives. When Warner's office received EagleAI materials from EIN in June 2023, it revealed how Mitchell's network promotes specific alternatives to the infrastructure they dismantle. EagleAI, despite concerns about accuracy, becomes the recommended replacement for ERIC—another Mitchell-connected tool that her network can influence and that creates opportunities for voter challenges based on unreliable data.
The Mitchell-Warner partnership as exemplar of CPI's broader strategy
The Conservative Partnership Institute has pioneered what The New Yorker called "an alternative, fully self-sufficient ecosystem" for the right. Jonathan Blitzer's July 2024 investigation concluded CPI is "maybe the most influential group in Washington that you've never heard of" and represents "the next Trump Administration 'in waiting.'" Unlike traditional think tanks like Heritage Foundation or American Enterprise Institute, CPI is "an incubator and an activist hub that funds other organizations," creating permanent infrastructure rather than just producing policy papers.
The Mitchell-Warner model exemplifies CPI's three-tier strategy for capturing state election administration. Tier 1 is national coordination, with Mitchell providing training materials (the 19-page "Citizens Guide"), hosting statewide summits in battleground states, offering strategic and legal expertise, creating communication channels (podcast, working groups, coordination calls), and developing unified messaging. Tier 2 is state-level coalitions built in Georgia, Arizona, Florida, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Michigan, Nevada, and New Mexico, integrating Tea Party Patriots, Heritage Action, Turning Point USA, state-specific groups, and coordination with GOP officials and RNC state directors. Tier 3 is local activist mobilization, recruiting poll watchers and election workers, monitoring election offices with FOIA requests, challenging voter registrations, and classifying officials as "friend or foe."
This structure creates what appears to be grassroots activism but is actually centrally coordinated. As Documented's investigation noted: "Rarely, if ever, do these activists disclose that they are mobilizing as part of a national effort." Local activists demanding their state leave ERIC don't mention they received talking points from Mitchell's network, attended training sessions organized by CPI-funded groups, or are implementing a strategy coordinated across multiple states. The appearance of spontaneous local concern provides political cover for officials like Warner to claim they're responding to constituent pressure when they're actually implementing a national strategy.
The "Virginia Model" pioneered this approach. Mitchell's network claimed to train 4,500 poll watchers and election workers, organize 18 local task forces, and cover 85% of polling locations on Election Day 2021 plus 45 days of early voting in Virginia. The Bradley Foundation provided $125,000 to VIPP to support the "Virginia Fair Elections project" that served as the template. The result was aggressive: Fairfax County registrar Scott Konopasek resigned, citing EIN coalition disruption. Konopasek described the activists: "Everything they saw that they didn't understand was fraud in their minds... It was always accusatory." Marshall Yates boasted at an October 2022 summit: "Fairfax County ran their registrar out" and "we've had numbers of [election officials] fired across the country"—celebrating harassment as a strategic success.
CPI's State Freedom Caucus Network provides legislative muscle in parallel to EIN's administrative pressure. Founded in December 2021, the network now operates in 12-13 states with 175+ state legislators as members. These caucuses introduce legislation aligned with EIN priorities: restricting mail-in voting, removing ballot drop boxes, enabling voter roll challenges, withdrawing from ERIC. In Missouri, the Freedom Caucus created legislative gridlock resulting in the fewest bills passed in 30 years. The combination of activist pressure from below (EIN), legislative pressure from above (State Freedom Caucuses), and administrative coordination through officials like Warner creates overwhelming momentum for policy changes that weaken election administration.
The financial architecture enables sustainability. CPI raised $45.7 million in 2021 and distributed funds throughout its network: $525,000 to EIN, $228,200 from affiliated Citizens for Renewing America to EIN, grants to state-level organizations like VIPP, funding for legal defense through Personnel Policy Operations ($1.15 million in 2022), and support for 24 affiliated organizations sharing CPI's address or close financial ties. Major foundations like Bradley ($850 million endowment, Mitchell on board) provide ongoing funding to multiple network organizations simultaneously, creating redundancy and resilience. Dark money flows through Donors Trust, which Mother Jones called "the dark-money ATM of the right," allowing wealthy donors to fund politically controversial activities while remaining anonymous.
The legal structure provides protection. CPI maintains 501(c)(3) status for tax-deductible donations and "educational" activities like training and summits. EIN split into a separate 501(c)(4) allowing explicit political advocacy and coordination with candidates. Other affiliated organizations handle opposition research, legal defense, and direct candidate support. This distributed structure makes it difficult to challenge any single organization while allowing the network to function as an integrated whole. When NPR investigated CPI's apparent coordination with the Republican Party—activity that could jeopardize 501(c)(3) status—CPI simply deleted all its tweets before March 2022.
The personnel infrastructure extends beyond election administration. CPI maintains a database of vetted "America First" staffers for placement in congressional offices and future administrations. As Axios reported in July 2022, CPI expected to "wield substantial influence on makeup of a potential second-term Trump administration," with Ed Corrigan noting: "In 2024 if Trump is the nominee, it gives you a huge advantage in that you know the kind of people that Trump's going to want to pick." Multiple CPI figures were appointed to Project 2025 roles (Russell Vought, Ed Corrigan, Stephen Miller), demonstrating how CPI functions as a personnel pipeline for authoritarian policy implementation.
The physical infrastructure creates permanence. CPI purchased $41 million in properties near the Capitol through shell companies (LLCs) to create "Patriot's Row"—a conservative campus where House Freedom Caucus and Senate Republican Steering Committee hold weekly meetings. The 2,200-acre Maryland compound hosts multi-day training events away from public scrutiny. The media production studio creates content for Newsmax, PragerU, The Federalist, and Member of Congress podcasts, building an alternative media ecosystem. This infrastructure survives election cycles and individual politicians, creating institutional capacity that traditional campaigns lack.
Mitchell's role in this ecosystem is that of architect and coordinator. She doesn't just lead EIN—she sits on CPI's board, chairs PILF, serves on Bradley Foundation's board, belongs to CNP's Board of Governors, trains congressional staff, coordinates with ALEC, works with Heritage Foundation, and maintains relationships with dozens of state-level operatives. This positioning allows her to identify successful tactics in one arena and replicate them across others, coordinate messaging across organizations, connect funders with implementers, protect activists from consequences through legal defense funds, and scale local successes into national campaigns.
The Mitchell-Warner partnership demonstrates how this ecosystem converts national coordination into state policy. Warner provides legitimate authority as an elected official. Mitchell provides platform amplification, training resources, coordination with other states, legal and strategic guidance, and connection to funding networks. Together they accomplish what neither could alone: dismantling bipartisan election infrastructure, purging voter rolls, mainstreaming conspiracy theories, and influencing other states to follow suit—all while maintaining an appearance of independent state action responding to local concerns.
As The New Yorker's investigation concluded about CPI's strategy: "The goal is 'de-risking public service on the right' via financial and legal support." This means building infrastructure where conservative officials can implement increasingly authoritarian policies without facing professional or personal consequences. When Warner makes false claims about CIA/FBI election interference, Mitchell's network provides validation. When Warner purges hundreds of thousands of voters, EIN holds him up as a model. When Warner faces criticism for administering an election in which he was a candidate, CPI's ecosystem provides defensive messaging and alternative media amplification.
This represents a fundamental transformation in how policy change happens. Traditional models involve legislators responding to constituents, agencies implementing laws, and courts adjudicating disputes. CPI's model creates parallel infrastructure that circumvents these democratic processes through coordinated pressure campaigns that appear grassroots but are nationally orchestrated, legal organizations that challenge election administration while claiming nonpartisanship, media ecosystems that amplify conspiracy theories while dismissing factual reporting, training programs that convert activists into poll workers with authority over elections, and coordination networks that allow officials to implement changes simultaneously across multiple states while maintaining plausible deniability about coordination.
The ultimate goal, as Marshall Yates explicitly stated, is forcing election officials out: "Fairfax County ran their registrar out" and "we've had numbers of [election officials] fired across the country." Replace professional election administrators with partisans, dismantle bipartisan infrastructure like ERIC, create opportunities for challenges through unreliable tools like EagleAI, restrict voting access through legislative changes, and position compliant officials like Warner to implement these changes while claiming to protect election integrity. The irony is profound: an organization created because "the election objection did not go as we wanted on January 6" claims to protect election integrity while systematically dismantling the infrastructure that actually ensures accurate elections.
The Mitchell-Warner partnership is not an outlier—it's the template. Mitchell told The Federalist she wishes for "50 state election officials just like" Warner. CPI's infrastructure is designed to make that vision achievable through sustained investment in state-level organizing, coordination across multiple states simultaneously, legal and financial protection for compliant officials, media amplification of successful examples, and replication of proven tactics. The ERIC withdrawal campaign succeeded in nine states within 18 months. The Virginia model has been adapted in ten states. The State Freedom Caucus Network operates in twelve states with 175 members. This is how minority-supported policies become reality despite public opposition—through infrastructure, coordination, persistence, and the systematic capture of administrative authority.
The partnership reveals that election denialism is not primarily about belief—it's about power. Warner likely understands that his claims about CIA election interference are false, that ERIC was effective and nonpartisan, that his voter roll purges disproportionately affect legitimate voters. But these tactics serve strategic purposes: energizing the MAGA base, obtaining conservative movement credibility, building relationships with national figures like Mitchell and Flynn, and positioning himself for higher office or post-government opportunities within the conservative ecosystem. Mitchell knows she's not building election integrity—she's building the infrastructure to contest future elections she doesn't win. The name "Election Integrity Network" is Orwellian: it describes the opposite of the organization's actual function, which is weakening election integrity while claiming to protect it.
CPI's sophistication lies in recognizing that lasting power requires infrastructure, not just candidates. Movements need training programs, funding pipelines, legal defense, media ecosystems, coordination networks, physical spaces, personnel databases, and multi-state strategies. The Conservative Partnership Institute has built all of this, with Mitchell's Election Integrity Network as its election administration arm and Warner as a key validator and implementer. This infrastructure will outlast Trump, survive electoral defeats, and continue pushing American democracy toward authoritarianism through the patient work of capturing state-level election administration one Secretary of State, one county clerk, one election board member at a time.
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