American Property Owners Alliance

About five years ago, N.A.R. quietly created an affiliate nonprofit called the American Property Owners Alliance, and its spending tells a different story. While the PAC plays it down the middle, the American Property Owners Alliance appears to have taken a side. In an examination of the American Property Owners Alliance’s tax records, The New York Times found that the nonprofit — which is solely funded by N.A.R. — distributed $12.8 million in grants in its first four years. Nearly $10 million went to Republican-aligned super PACs and groups with conservative agendas. The biggest recipient by far has been One Nation, a nonprofit that received $7 million in grants, more than half of all the grant money distributed from 2020 through 2023. One Nation is aligned with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican. A so-called dark money group, which uses dollars to influence elections, One Nation is a key contributor to the Senate Leadership Fund, the largest super PAC for Senate Republicans. Other recipients that lean conservative are the American Action Network, which got $2.5 million. It is a Republican advocacy group founded by former Senator Norm Coleman, a Republican of Minnesota, and Fred Malek, who served as an adviser to President Richard Nixon and President George H.W. Bush. Opportunity Matters, a Republican-aligned super PAC, received $100,000. The predecessor of the American Property Owners Alliance is the Wisconsin Homeowners Alliance. As chief executive of the Wisconsin Association of Realtors in 2005, Bill Malkasian created the group to ostensibly support Wisconsin property owners. Most of its funds have gone to conservative groups, tax records show.