81 GOP Lawmakers Just Voted to Fund an Elite Org That Exists to Elect Democrats and Suppress MAGA

Conservative News DailyJanuary 17, 2026
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An article reports that a House vote rejected an amendment from Rep. Eli Crane too defund the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), wiht 81 House Republicans joining about 210 Democrats to keep the institution’s funding.Crane called NED a “rogue” group that uses federal money to influence elections, promote censorship, and target conservative media, and he vowed to keep pushing to expose and defund it. Critics cited NED-affiliated scholar Rachel Kleinfeld’s 2022 paper,”Five Strategies to Support U.S. Democracy,” arguing it endorses tactics-like cultivating “responsible conservatives,” prioritizing primary contests, engaging the left with policy gains, and using “sticks” such as fines and legal pressure-that some see as partisan or aimed at limiting conservative influence. Social-media commentators amplified these concerns and attacked republicans who voted to retain funding; the article singles out Rep. Elise Stefanik and Rep. Andy Barr among those opposed to the amendment.the piece frames the debate as a partisan fight over weather a government-funded NGO is intervening in U.S. politics and whether Republicans who support it are betraying conservative principles.

It’s an organization that openly uses your tax money to elect Democrats and suppress MAGA-centric Republicans. And 81 Republicans just voted against defunding it.

You read that right: Not 81 Democrats, 81 Republicans. That’s the number of GOPers who joined 210 Democrats to keep the National Endowment for Democracy sucking on the government teat.

The vote, which happened Wednesday, regarded an amendment offered by Rep. Eli Crane of Arizona to pull funding for the non-governmental organization.

“Tonight, the Uniparty rejected my amendment to defund NED. 81 ‘republicans’ voted with democrats to fund this rogue organization that fuels global censorship and domestic propaganda,” Crane wrote on X.

To say that NED is a partisan organization is a bit like saying Napoleon was a leader who had issues with border incursions: true, and a massive understatement. For instance, they’re one of the leading groups trying to pull ad money from organizations they consider “disinformation.”

And what do they consider “disinformation?”

X pundit DataRepublican — a programmer who helped expose just how much rot there was in USAID — did a deep dive on it, starting with “perhaps the most credentialed expert with NED,” Rachel Kleinfeld.

In 2022, Kleinfeld authored a paper entitled “Five Strategies to Support U.S. Democracy.” One of them wasn’t to get Democrats elected. Not that she thought that was a bad goal for NED or other NGOs, mind you: She thought it wasn’t enough.

Instead, what we really needed was controlled opposition, which she called “responsible conservatives.”

“A democracy cannot exist with illiberal, antidemocratic politicians in charge,” she wrote, saying that Republicans who voted against certifying the Electoral College vote in 2020 without further investigation were “an angry minority of voters” that, because of the two-party system, represent “an existential challenge to democracy itself.”

That’s right: If the Democrats can’t pick their opposition, democracy loses. See the logic there? You probably don’t unless you realize the authoritarian impulse that language is attempting to put a fig leaf over:

She also says that the left needs to “reduce social demand for the right for illiberal policies” on stuff like DEI and establishmentarianism through some vague sort of way that goes about “addressing these social forces.” (This, in the intervening years, seems to have taken the form of the left telling non-favored identity groups “you’ve never had it to so good, so shush and let us diminish you.”)

Also, she cited the need to “engage the left in defending democracy by making it deliver.” Translation: socialism with a smiley face.

It gets no better, particularly when she said that her strategy “requires sticks as well as carrots” and “there are red lines that must be upheld for democracy to work.”

“Kleinfeld is NED. This is what NED believes,” DataRepublican concluded. “I cannot emphasize enough what a stupid, foolish, idiotic thing it is for Republicans to support NED. They are either mentally retarded or secretly Democrats.”

And this wasn’t just the usual suspects voting to retain funding for NED, although they were there. Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York voted no on the amendment. So did Kentucky Rep. Andy Barr, who’s running to replace Mitch McConnell once he retires in 2026. These are people who are supposed to be the leaders of the party — and instead, they’re voting to spend money on an organization that wants to defeat them and defund those who express their opinions.

Crane, for his part, promises not to give up the fight.

“This week’s votes in Congress teach an important lesson. For decades, the swamp has gotten away with passing garbage because they know folks won’t notice,” he wrote.

“Well those days should be over. Pay attention. Ask tough questions. A handful of us will keep fighting to expose it.”

More than a handful, one hopes, once they know the facts.




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Conservative News DailyJanuary 17, 2026
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