Riley Swedberg kicked off her role as Policy and Social Media Director with impact as the Wisconsin Faith and Freedom Coalition’s sister organization, Freedom and Family Action, launched its largest-ever policy presentation. This milestone coincided with the first public hearing for model legislation aimed at ending a practice used by ActBlue and other vendors to process billions of dollars in unverified political contributions—a process that was in place for 20 years and only discontinued by ActBlue earlier this year.

This blog serves as a resource library for legislators across the country interested in sponsoring legislation similar to Wisconsin’s AB 385 / SB 403 and the federal HR 4177 Stop Foreign Donations Impacting our Elections, all of which aim to codify an end to this for the moment discontinued loophole, which could be reinstated at any point without this law.

Legislators or others interested in this law can contact Riley Swedberg at RSwedberg@wisconsinffc.com or explore the resources below for more information:

• 📊 View the 9-slide public hearing storybook on AB 385:
  Storybook Presentation
• 🎧 Watch the full hearing:
  WisEye Recording – Jump to 1:02:00 mark
  (Free account required; no cost – publicly funded.)
• 📝 Read Pudner’s full testimony:
  Testimony Document in which Pudner covered these topics
  • The original bill started non-partisan, with almost as many Democrat sponsors as Republican sponsors in 2015, after it was the Washington Post and NY Times that discovered the problem.
  • It became perceived as partisan when President Trump retweeted Pudner’s exclusive to Fox News and Bernie Sanders’ campaign attacked Pudner.
  • For the 1st time in 20 years we have a moment where a bipartisan bill like AB385 is possible because ActBlue is now in compliance – so this bill would codify the process.
  • Prepaid credit cards are the most likely tool for fake donations, so the original legislation was specifically written to stop their use since they would not pass an AVS test due to having no actual physical address verified by a bank like is the case with credit card contributions.
  • While the legislation may appear to the casual observer to target banks by requiring them to only process verified donations, in fact this is what banks WANT to do and almost always do – without this legislation they were forced by ActBlue not to verify or miss out on billions in business.
• 📚 Background Resources:
  • ActBlue Reform Overview
  • 2015 White Paper Pudner Delivered to Congress
  • 2008 NYT Article: Obama’s Online Site Accepts More Fakes
  • Fox News Exclusive by Pudnern(retweeted by President Trump)

Testimony Highlights and Policy Impact

Swedberg’s debut came during a landmark moment for Wisconsin Faith and Freedom Coalition President John Pudner, who testified before the Assembly Committee on Campaigns and Elections on behalf of Freedom and Family Action in support of AB 385 / SB 403. The legislation seeks to require CVV and AVS verification for online political contributions—a standard in commercial transactions but long absent from ActBlue’s process.

Riley will take the lead in coordinating follow-up materials and communication strategies, gaining valuable insights in policy and issue advocacy. This work complements the lobbying efforts led by Spencer LaVerde and John Pudner, also on behalf of Freedom and Family Action.

Simply having a bill of this significance drafted and earning a public hearing is a great accomplishment for LaVerde in his first year as a registered lobbyist. As the No. 2 person in the organization, the State Director worked the Capitol and gave speeches around the state including answering questions on ActBlue. This showed great versatility the year after his completely different duties of recruiting and supervising dozens of canvassers as they delivered 402,000 voter education pieces to Wisconsinites. Click here for the bios of all team members.

In his testimony, Pudner detailed the prepaid card donation loopholes and longstanding vulnerabilities in the campaign finance system. These weaknesses were first uncovered in 2008 during the Obama campaign and later formalized in the 2015 white paper, Closing Credit Card Contribution Loopholes, Pudner delivered to every member of Congress.

Pudner explained how ActBlue, a platform widely used by Democratic campaigns and liberal causes, processed billions in donations from unverifiable donors via prepaid credit cards which can be mass purchased and then have names assigned to each donation. While ActBlue finally made a voluntary policy change this year to start verifying, unless this bill passes they could switch back at any point. He emphasized that AB 385 does not target candidates or parties—rather, it prevents bank processors from facilitating contributions without verification. This ensures transparency and safeguards against foreign or fraudulent influence.

Swedberg’s Role and Strategic Vision

Riley’s new position reflects the growing need for dedicated policy and communications infrastructure. By managing social media strategy and coordinating legislative messaging, she will help amplify victories, clarify complex topics, and drive informed advocacy.

Her work supports the broader mission of both the Wisconsin Faith and Freedom Coalition and Freedom and Family Action—to promote faith-based, pro-family policies through advocacy that is principled, well-researched, and impactful.

Swedberg’s appointment represents a strategic shift: not just focusing on educating the public on policy matters, but also winning the narrative battle around election integrity that extends to political contributions.

Finally: Key Facts and Figures From Pudner’s Testimony

The following data points were included in John Pudner’s speech as reasons why legislators should support AB 385 / SB 403:

• 🔍 $174,800 in illicit donations were received by the Obama 2008 campaign through a single fake donor, according to the Washington Post and New York Times.
• 📊 4.7 million donations totaling $346 million came through ActBlue from donors who listed no employer in 2019—according to Pudner’s Fox News exclusive retweeted by President Trump.
• 🧾 ActBlue only recently began requiring CVV and AVS checks—but this change is voluntary and reversible.
• 💻 At the request of Peter Schweizer and Pudner, a programmer built a system in 24 hours that could have sent $10 million/day in donations using fake American identities.
• 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Election integrity testimony after Pudner’s stated another group had identified 250,000+ “smurfs” (fake or repeated names used to disguise large donations).
• 🧾 2015 white paper predicted that lack of AVS/CVV checks could allow foreign money into U.S. elections—and proposed bipartisan legislation (HR4177) that attracted 80+ cosponsors, almost half of them Democrats with a US Senate Counterpart led by Democrats Amy Klobuchar and Mark Warner.
• 🏛️ The bill has 15 sponsors in the Wisconsin Assembly and 5 in the Senate.

• The time stamps on the photos below show where you need to go on the link below to get to the part of the hearing pictured when you click on :
  WisEye Recording – Jump to 1:02:00 mark
  (Free account required; no cost – publicly funded.)