Ohio wins in court and protects elections from foreign influence

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose announced on November 14 that the state had won the lawsuit against liberal activists and their dark-money-funded national legal team, which wanted to allow foreign contributions to ballot-measure campaigns.

“The litigation is over, and Ohioans can now be certain that foreign money won’t be used to hijack our state constitution again,” LaRose wrote in a statement. “With at least six potential ballot issues on the horizon for 2026, this clarity and protection couldn’t come at a better time.”

LaRose wrote that he has been trying for two years to eliminate the loophole that allowed foreign money to be donated to Ohio’s ballot campaigns.

“The General Assembly acted quickly to stop it, and, almost immediately, activist groups sued to keep their foreign dollars flowing,” he wrote. “They failed, and Ohio’s ban on foreign dark money has been rightfully upheld. I want to thank my legal team and the attorney general’s office for their work in successfully defending this important law.”

LaRose was previously urging lawmakers to close the loopholes in the system.

“Voters must have absolute confidence that our elections are never tainted by foreign influence. This loophole must be closed immediately, and parties giving and receiving illegal funds must be deterred from these actions,” he wrote on Jan. 9, 2024.

On Sept. 16, 2025, LaRose praised a Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision upholding Ohio’s ban on foreign funding of statewide ballot campaigns.

“The General Assembly was right to ban this threat to not only our election integrity but also our national sovereignty. This is a victory for patriotism, honest elections and the rule of law,” he wrote.”

LaRose also wrote that Ohio’s elections “should not be bankrolled by people who don’t even have a constitutional right to vote in this country.”

He continued: “We’ve already seen potentially millions of dollars poured into Ohio by foreign nationals looking to amend their radical agendas into our state constitution, and that was only the beginning. We now have as many as six more proposed amendments being circulated for next year’s ballot, so it’s clear that this dark-money funding scheme was intended to be the new playbook.” 

This was not the first time LaRose was fighting for election integrity in the state. Ohio.News previously reported that LaRose announced that his office had trained and deployed Ohio’s first AI-powered election administration assistant, Eva, to help election officials. 

His office also provided an easy way for the Ohio voters to identify both their current and newly established congressional districts.

“Technology is giving us the tools to make election integrity a central focus of everything we do,” LaRose said. “I hope that when we leave this office, Ohioans will look at our administration and say we left it better and more accountable than it was before.”