The Koch Network
The Connective Tissue
Embedded Files
$548 million spent in the 2024 election cycle alone. Offices in 36 states. 20 million doors knocked. 616 paid employees. Approximately three and a half times the staff of the Republican National Committee. The Koch network is not a think tank or a super PAC. It is the financial and organizational infrastructure that funds, coordinates, and connects every other organization in this section.
What the Koch Network Is
The Koch network is not a single organization. It is a tightly interlocked set of think tanks, advocacy groups, super PACs, donor networks, academic programs, and media operations that function as an integrated political machine — built over fifty years by Charles Koch, CEO of Koch Industries, the second-largest privately held company in the United States.
Its goal, pursued consistently since the 1970s: to fundamentally reshape American government in the direction of deregulation, low taxation, anti-unionism, and the withdrawal of the federal government from public life.
It funds the organizations that write the policy. It funds the organizations that pass it into state law. It funds the organizations that select the judges who interpret it. It funds the electoral operations that elect the officials who implement it.
Charles Koch's father is quoted as saying: "The whale that spouts is the one that gets harpooned." The network has historically prioritized operating quietly — Charles Koch has studied the John Birch Society's approach of not advertising who runs the organization. Most Americans have never heard of Stand Together, AFP, or AFP Action. That invisibility is strategic. Wikipedia
The Three Arms of the Operation
Stand Together — The Umbrella
Stand Together is the central coordination and funding hub. Much of the money in the network appears to stem from more than $5 billion in Koch Industries stock that Charles Koch directed into the network between 2020 and 2022. Wikipedia
Americans for Prosperity — The Policy and Field Operation
AFP operates in 36 states with paid staff. In 2024 it knocked on 20 million doors, reached 30 million voters across 647 races, and employed 616 people. EXPOSEDbyCMD
Its documented policy priorities:
AFP spent $20 million supporting the 2017 Trump Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. According to the Tax Policy Center, by 2027 when the law is fully phased in, 83 percent of its benefits flow to the wealthiest 1 percent. SourceWatch
In January 2025, AFP launched a $20 million campaign to renew those tax cuts — calling it "the largest effort by a conservative organization to support President Trump's second-term legislative agenda." The Guardian
Sustained campaigns in multiple states to block Medicaid expansion
Anti-union legislation and environmental deregulation
Mobilization campaigns supporting Federalist Society judicial nominees SourceWatch
AFP Action — The Electoral Super PAC
AFP Action operates as a hybrid super PAC, making independent expenditures and accepting unlimited corporate donations. In the 2024 cycle it spent more than $107 million supporting Republican House and Senate candidates and more than $40 million supporting Nikki Haley's primary bid against Trump. One out of every $5 fueling AFP Action comes from undisclosed dark money donors. OpenSecrets
Total independent expenditures since 2004 exceed $257 million, making AFP Action one of the largest outside spending operations in American political history. OpenSecrets
What the Koch Network Funds
The Koch network is the connective tissue between every other organization documented in this section. Documented recipients of Koch funding include:
The Heritage Foundation — consistent and substantial funding since Heritage's founding in 1973
ALEC — Koch Industries among ALEC's most consistent corporate funders, including the energy task force that produced anti-ESG legislation
The Cato Institute — Charles Koch co-founded Cato in 1977 with Edward H. Crane and Murray Rothbard and remains a board member Wikipedia
The Federalist Society — Koch-aligned organizations have funded the judicial pipeline
The State Policy Network — 64 state-level think tanks replicating Heritage and ALEC's agenda in every state simultaneously
The Mercatus Center at George Mason University — Koch-funded academic institution producing deregulatory research
The Institute for Humane Studies — fellowship programs forming the next generation of libertarian academics and policy professionals Wikipedia — Koch Network
The pattern is complete vertical integration: academic research feeds policy development, feeds judicial selection, feeds electoral operations — all coordinated through Stand Together and funded by Koch Industries' billions.
The Koch-Trump Tension — and Why It Doesn't Matter
The Koch network spent approximately $250 million in the 2016 cycle. By 2024 that figure had grown to $548 million. Wikipedia Despite AFP's opposition to Trump's 2024 primary campaign and Trump's public hostility, AFP launched its $20 million tax cut renewal campaign within days of his inauguration. On the economic agenda — tax cuts, deregulation, anti-unionism, judicial nominations — alignment is near-total.
The Consumer Connection — Koch Industries Brands
Unlike most organizations in this section, the Koch network has a direct consumer-facing presence. Koch Industries' Georgia-Pacific subsidiary produces household brands that are straightforward boycott targets:
Avoid: Brawny · Dixie · Angel Soft · Quilted Northern · Sparkle · Vanity Fair
Alternatives: Seventh Generation · Marcal · Who Gives a Crap · local and independent brands
What Can Be Done✅
Follow the money:
OpenSecrets — track AFP Action's electoral spending and Koch PAC contributions
EXPOSEDbyCMD — real-time tracking of Koch network political spending
SourceWatch — the most comprehensive database of Koch network funding
ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer — Stand Together and AFP's annual 990s are public records, searchable here
Apply legislative pressure:
Contact your Senators and Representatives supporting the DISCLOSE Act — requires disclosure of dark money donors in political campaigns
Support campaign finance reform legislation closing the 501(c)(4) loophole that allows Stand Together and AFP to conceal their donors
Support shareholder resolutions at Koch Industries' publicly traded business partners requiring disclosure of political spending
Support counter-organizations:
Common Cause — campaign finance reform and dark money transparency
End Citizens United — campaign finance reform PAC
Move to Amend — constitutional amendment campaign to address dark money in politics
Documented — investigative reporting on Koch-affiliated organizations
Documents in this library: 📄 The Koch Network — Organizational Profile & Threat Assessment
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