The Clear Message From the Oath Keepers’ Political Donations

The Oath Keepers is a sprawling organization, with members who have different—sometimes seditious—political beliefs. But it seems the Oath Keepers are nearly monolithic in one regard: their financial support of Republicans.

Of 236 alleged Oath Keepers who made documented donations to a federal political candidate this year, all but three of their preferred candidates were Republicans. And of those three outlier candidates that received a donation from an Oath Keeper, only one was to a Democrat—and the woman who made that $250 contribution told The Daily Beast that she only accidentally enrolled in the Oath Keepers about a decade ago.

“They’re the opposite of everything we stand for,” she told The Daily Beast.

As for the other donations, there’s no mistake about which political party Oath Keepers support.

The top recipient this year was, unsurprisingly, former President Donald Trump, whose Save America Joint Fundraising Committee enjoyed about $13,000 in support. (While the Oath Keepers are largely united behind Republicans, they spread their donations to a diffuse group of GOP candidates and organizations.)

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After Trump, there’s no clear favorite. The money is scattered across 21 candidates and committees that received a total of more than $500 from potential Oath Keepers, the group now at the center of swirling seditious conspiracy charges regarding its role in the Jan. 6 attack. The second top raiser was Adam Laxalt—the Nevada GOP senatorial candidate who has called the 2020 election “rigged”—who received $5,950.

In all, people with Oath Keepers ties have donated more than $100,000 to federal candidates, committees, and independent PACs this year, according to an analysis of bulk data with the Federal Election Commission. To identify donors, The Daily Beast cross-checked the FEC data against a membership list of alleged Oath Keepers first shared with media outlets in 2021.

Limitations with the information provided in the FEC’s bulk data make it difficult to determine all end recipients, such as candidates who received earmarked donations through intermediaries—most notably the GOP online fundraising platform WinRed, which this year has processed at least $57,000 from 150 donors on the list.

None of the donations went through WinRed’s Democratic fundraising counterpart, ActBlue.

The data also shows thousands of dollars in direct donations flowing from potential Oath Keepers to the GOP’s central nervous system: The Republican National Committee, as well as the official fundraising arms for GOP House and Senate incumbents.

Among the Oath Keepers’ favorite candidates are a cadre of well-known election deniers.

Officials who received at least $1,000 include Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Ron Johnson (R-WI), and Rand Paul (R-KY), who all voted against certifying President Joe Biden’s victory. The same goes for House objectors like Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, as well as Kathy Barnette—who claimed to have led three buses to D.C. on Jan. 6 and mounted a last-minute MAGA charge against Dr. Mehmet Oz in the Pennsylvania primary this May.

But the list also includes plenty of less extreme, more traditional Republicans, like election-certifying Sen. Todd Young (R-IN) and North Carolina’s Michele Woodhouse, who this year vied to unseat Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) in his doomed primary race.

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Apart from the one Democrat who received a donation—U.S. House candidate in Michigan, Hillary Scholten—non-Republican beneficiaries include Marissa Joy Selvig (Constitution Party) and Michele Weslander Quaid (no affiliation).

Notably, some of the top donors on the Oath Keepers list are elected officials themselves.

That would apply to Jamey Noel, who has served as sheriff of Clark County, Indiana, since 2015. He is one of the biggest contributors on the list. Noel, a donor to the Indiana state GOP, threw a max gift behind the former Rep. Mike Sodrel (R-IN) ahead of his failed primary, before later maxing out to the winner, Erin Houchin. (Asked earlier this month whether she believes Biden was rightfully elected, Houchin demurred, claiming there were “irregularities” in the process.)

Noel, however, denied any involvement with the Oath Keepers following an Anti-Defamation League report in September, which called out his alleged affiliation with the group among hundreds of other people in positions of power and public trust.

“I’m not now and have never been associated in any way with the Oath Keepers. Anyone who says differently is lying,” Noel said at the time.

A person’s presence in the database of more than 38,000 Oath Keeper names—which was first shared with media last September by the nonprofit journalist group Distributed Denial of Secrets—doesn’t prove active ties to the extremist organization. When the Associated Press contacted people on the list, a number of them acknowledged they had previously been members but claimed to no longer be affiliated with the organization.

ADL points out that someone’s inclusion on the list “is not proof that they were or are still an Oath Keeper, that they hold or held all or some of Oath Keeper ideology or viewpoints, or that they ever actively participated in Oath Keeper activities.” The group points out that when reviewing the data, it’s important to remember the possibility that some of the names on the membership list may have “misunderstood the nature of the Oath Keepers.”

Still, Noel’s name appears in the group’s membership files. The entry indicates that he signed up with the Oath Keepers on Oct. 2, 2014, listing an address, phone number, and email that The Daily Beast independently tied to him through public data and official state government records.

But Noel isn’t the only elected official in the data. Or even in the state. Two of the other top 10 donors on the list also serve in Indiana.

Wells County Commissioners President Michael Vanover gave $2,900 to Sen. Todd Young (R-IN), who voted to certify Joe Biden’s victory, and Indiana GOP state senator Scott Baldwin contributed the same amount to the Republican congressional campaign for Erin Houchin, who has raised doubts about the 2020 results.

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Both officials in the database were previously reported to have been members of the extremist group. Baldwin told IndyStar he’d given the Oath Keepers $30 when he ran for Hamilton County Sheriff in April 2010, but claims to have had no ties with the organization since then.

It’s impossible to know exactly how many people are currently Oath Keepers members. The data shared in last year’s leak comprises 38,247 people, dating back years. The group’s ranks have been reported to include current and former military personnel, officeholders, law enforcement, business owners, and even members of the clergy.

The Oath Keepers, which was founded in 2009 by group leader Stewart Rhodes, has served as a Petri dish of virulent anti-government sentiment for years, rising to national notoriety for its role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

Since then, the Justice Department has charged a number of the militia members with crimes related to their involvement in the riot, most notably counts of seditious conspiracy against several members—including Rhodes, who is currently on trial for that charge.

Two members have already pleaded guilty to the charge, and Rhodes first took the stand in his defense on Monday.

Prosecutors say Rhodes and four other members spent months plotting “an armed rebellion to shatter a bedrock of American democracy,” as part of their effort to keep Trump in power. Last week, jurors in the case saw a video of Rhodes days after the riot, claiming his only regret was not bringing guns to the Capitol.

“We could have fixed it right then and there. I’d hang fuckin’ [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi from the lamppost,” he said in the video.

In his testimony on Monday, however, Rhodes tried to distance himself from the riot.

“I didn’t want them getting wrapped up into all the nonsense with Trump supporters,” he said. “My goal was to make sure that no one got wrapped up in that Charlie Foxtrot going on inside the Capitol.”

Despite his clearly stated political preferences, Rhodes made no documented donations this year.

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