Revealed: Right-wing activist Leonard Leo fueled culture war battle over Bud Light

Right-wing activist Leonard Leo used some of his massive fortune to fuel the culture war battle against Bud Light, according to newly revealed tax filings.

The watchdog group Accountable.US uncovered filings for 2022 that show the Leo-linked Concord Fund gave $350,000 to a group associated with the right-wing Consumers' Research that played a central role in the boycott against the beer brand in response to social media ads featuring transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney, reported The Guardian.

“Leonard Leo hasn’t just leveraged his dark money network to reshape our courts for the worse – he’s also fueling hateful anti-LGBTQ+ causes," said Caroline Ciccone, president of Accountable.US. “Leo’s billion-dollar operation and web of shadowy organisations actively work to marginalize vulnerable communities, posing a direct threat to LGBTQ+ Americans.”

The trans influencer appeared in a video ad in spring 2023 for Bud Light timed around the NCAA "March Madness" basketball tournament, and Consumers' Research launched a six-figure digital ad campaign attacking the beer brand and other products for being "woke" – and which generated threats against Mulvaney and consumers and led to layoffs by Anheuser-Busch.

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Consumers’ Research formed in 1929 as a consumer rights champion but was revived after decades of dormancy as a right-wing watchdog aimed at fighting environmental, social and governance policies – or ESG – with funding through Leo's dark-money funds.

The links between that group and Leo, who controls the deep-pocketed Marble Freedom Trust, have been known but not directly confirmed.

The nonprofit Marble Freedom trust received a record $1.6 billion donation from Chicago billionaire Barre Seid in 2021, and filings show that Consumers' Research received a huge funding boost the following year from another Leo-linked group, Donors Trust, which gave nearly $15 million.

Consumers’ Research is also a client of Leo's for-profit firm CRC Advisers.