By Alyssa Bowen

Julie Jenkins Fancelli, a Florida-based heiress to the Publix super markets fortune, was little known to the public before she was outed as a major sponsor of the dark money groups organizing the January 6 “Stop the Steal” rallies that culminated in the violent insurrection at the United States Capitol.

Recent reporting by OpenSecrets uncovered that the George Jenkins Foundation, where Fancelli sits as board president and was the sole funder in 2021, gave millions more to groups involved in the January 5 and 6 rallies than previously known, including a staggering $1.375 million to a far right group called Moms for America.

Moms for America has received significantly less media attention than other right-wing “women’s” groups — such as Moms for Liberty, Women for America First, the Independent Women’s Forum/Voice, and Concerned Women for America — that are funded by ultra-wealthy donors whose identities they keep secret from the public. But Moms for America has also been a major player in pushing voter suppression, election denialism, attacks on public schools and COVID-19 misinformation.

Moms for America, which was created in 2005 as “Homemakers for America” and recently designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an anti-government extremist group, deserves greater scrutiny for its role in January 6 and other efforts to undermine democracy. Its funders warrant greater scrutiny too.

Read the full story on Truthout here.