Executive summary

Everything below describes the plans as the speakers lay them out in DataRepublican's recordings. These are their words and plans, not proven crimes.

Watch DataRepublican's 4:51 primer video, "The Illegitimacy Playbook" (or on X)

Since Oct. 19, 2026, DataRepublican has released recordings of private Zoom calls, chat logs and planning documents in fourteen parts. The people on them include former USAID officials who spent their careers on taxpayer-funded "democracy" programs overseas, a group of retired generals and admirals that endorsed Kamala Harris, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, foreign activists whose groups, she shows, have funding ties to NDI, USAID and George Soros's Open Society Foundations, a group of federal workers organized to resist from inside their own agencies, a former Biden State Department official who took the midterms to a foreign government, and independent candidates for Congress, including South Dakota Senate candidate Brian Bengs, who were briefed in private on their "emergency scenarios." Her Part 9 traces the money: from the tax filings, the same few big foundations fund nearly every lane of this world at once, led by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar's Democracy Fund, Soros's Open Society, Ford, MacArthur and Hewlett. In their own words, the calls lay out a four-step plan:

1. Organize before the Nov. 3 midterms: "red lines," a "war room," poll observers, legal hotlines, lawsuits and "pre-bunking," which means getting their narrative out before anyone else's. Above the protest groups sits the United Democracy Alliance, an umbrella that Paul Zeitz says on tape covers No Kings, Indivisible, 50501, MoveOn and the lawsuit groups, has "four red lines for mobilization," and is "developing a situation room." It has no website, no public member list and no public launch, and the organizers on the calls call it "secret" and "hush-hush." The message is scripted too: a "Hands Off Our Vote" word list from Democratic strategist Anat Shenker-Osorio's firm tells allies to say "election sabotage" and "election traitors," to drop "free and fair," and to push "Count Every Vote" in election week and "Voters Decided" afterward. DataRepublican shows Indivisible's toolkit repeating its lines.
2. Treat a midterm "meltdown" as a crisis of legitimacy, for example if President Trump invokes the Insurrection Act or sends troops to secure voting machines over a foreign-hacking threat. Groups are rehearsing that moment in tabletop exercises: staff from every Democratic attorney general's office in Milwaukee in May, NSL4A's Insurrection Act exercise in September, and one planned for the Federal Workers Alliance for Democracy (FWAD), formerly "Federal Workers Against DOGE." And some want their own vote count to judge the official one by. Seed the Vote, a door-knocking group that claims 17,000 volunteers, published its plan on May 18: "Fight, Win, Prove, and Enforce." "Prove" is "parallel vote counting infrastructure, separate from the government, to validate election results," which it says "has been done in Venezuela, in Hungary, in Serbia"; its "legal partners" are "looking at building" one. "Enforce" is "where legal strategies alone will not be enough": "Gathering evidence matters only if it creates mass mobilization and mass outrage," so it wants "an infrastructure of mass noncooperation across the country." It credits the framework to Hardy Merriman, who was by his own biography a senior technical adviser to USAID's "Powered by the People" program from 2023 to 2025. (Natalie Winters reported it Oct. 29; DataRepublican replied that a parallel count "is a common tool in color revolutions.") A parallel group is making the same "noncooperation" concrete: Natalie Winters reported on Oct. 31 that Pace e Bene, a long-running nonviolence-training nonprofit, has published a "shutdown checklist" telling supporters to stockpile five to ten days of food and to prepare coordinated walkouts from work, school and shopping if the midterm results are "sabotaged or ignored," treating the No Kings protests as a "trial run." DataRepublican reposted the thread. Nothing shown ties Pace e Bene to RAD, the UDA or her recordings; this is the group's own published organizing, surfaced by Winters.
3. Declare the federal government illegitimate, so that governors become "the leading governing authority." A memo telling governors how to do it has already been sent to several Democratic governors, and to Utah. The material is reaching officials through public channels: NSL4A's "Toolkit for Elected Officials: Managing Potential Military Intervention in the Midterm Elections," which tells officials to "speak with one voice," is posted on the U.S. Conference of Mayors' own website, and Zeitz said on tape in April that they were trying "to actually now connect with the people that give political legitimacy to these kind of processes." "If they get crossed," Zeitz says of the red lines, "governors then become the lead anchor for political power." Inside the government, the plan counts on federal workers. A former USAID staffer writes in the chat that they are "starting to consult federal workers on how to do some blocking inside the govt agencies during emergency situations - but please do not put that on the form." FWAD's public "Resistance Menu" tells federal employees to "Practice malicious compliance," "help run out the clock," and "Be subtle." A September RAD paper proposes a "Federal Service Protection Compact" among the states to "provide cover for career federal workers to engage in nonviolent non-cooperation." The same logic reaches the armed services. Since a 2020 "Hold the Line" guide, the movement has pushed one idea: make obeying "unlawful orders" risky so people stop obeying. By 2025 a Renew to Thrive breakout was practicing how to talk "police officers, ICE agents, National Guardsmen" into "down[ing] their arms" and refusing "the orders of an authoritarian regime," one relationship at a time; RAD's 2026 strategy says to "discourage the execution of unlawful orders," and a September 2026 RAD working paper wants "a public reference point for refusing an unlawful order: the line has already been named by elected officials of both parties." In her Part 15 (Nov. 5), DataRepublican argues that the impeachment of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth now supplies that reference point: six of the eight articles, written by Republican Rep. Thomas Massie and read on the House floor Sept. 15, charge Hegseth with carrying out President Trump's own "unlawful orders" in Iran and the Maduro raid, and Trump's signed letters to Congress say the strikes were ordered "at my direction." That a Republican brought the charge is what she says gives the movement its "both parties" line. The reading that the impeachment is a coordinated "first move" against the President is hers; the articles themselves rest on the War Powers Resolution, Massie says he opposes impeaching Trump, and nothing shown ties him to the network. And they want foreign governments lined up in advance. A September RAD fundraising proposal budgets $40,000 for "private diplomatic outreach to the United Nations, Heads of State, the European Union" and others, "so that international actors are ready to recognize and support a legitimate, peaceful renewal process." Their working paper wants "allied governments" to "know what a legitimate result looks like before one is disputed," and to "apply pressure on the executive." A Brazilian activist told them on a July call that their coalition had asked foreign governments ahead of time to "swiftly recognize election results." On Oct. 23, Enrique Roig, a former Biden State Department official and a named contributor to RAD's strategy, met Catalonia's foreign minister in Barcelona to share "the scenarios that are opening up" before the midterms, by the minister's own account. The same idea is in print for anyone to download: "Election Defense Scenarios: How We Keep Their Hands Off Our Vote," by Daniel Hunter, posted by Freedom Trainers, with messaging by Anat Shenker-Osorio's ASO Communications. If Congress refuses to seat election winners, it says, "Gain international recognition": "ask international allies to honor the election results and recognize the Senate-elect and House-elect leaders as duly appointed leaders," and "Organize daily rallies and strikes at the Capitol until the winners are seated." The money also runs the other way. Natalie Winters, co-host of Steve Bannon's War Room and a National Pulse investigative reporter, reported on Oct. 29 that European Parliament funds helped pay for a closed-door June 3, 2026 roundtable in Europe on "resistance to Trump and MAGA" ahead of the U.S. midterms, convened by European Parliament Vice-President Katarina Barley and organized by the Foundation for European Progressive Studies and Germany's Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, with University of Georgia professor Cas Mudde as keynote. DataRepublican endorsed the report the next day as "plugging a lot of holes in the Democracy Files from a different direction": where Part 10 showed this network reaching out to foreign governments, Winters shows foreign-government money flowing back the other way, to help fund the anti-MAGA organizing (see Who).
4. Use the moment to re-found the country "extra-constitutionally," leading up to a new constitutional convention. A "Nationwide Deliberation Campaign," with FWAD on its steering committee, is to produce a "People's Proposal of structural reforms" by January 2028, including constitutional amendments. That campaign went public Nov. 13, when a thread DataRepublican reposted with her own words identified its public kickoff: AllSides's "What Comes Next?" roundtables, Nov. 16–20, 2026, run by RAD's own Paul Zeitz and Danielle Reiff with new partners — the National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation, Mediators Foundation, Better Together America and Peacebuilders — feeding reports in December and a five-layer process toward a national citizens' assembly starting January 2027. We confirmed the campaign, its dates and its partner list independently (see Who). In September, Reiff told a forum that "the most important paths are the constitutional paths." The same month, their "Meeting the Moment" proposal was still planning for "the day after," when the federal government "is deemed illegitimate." Alongside it runs an election track: a "Fulcrum Caucus" of independents elected to deny both parties a majority, which Bengs says would let them do "some arm-twisting to get the reforms that we need." RAD's March draft calls an Article V convention its "Moderate Strategy." On Sept. 9, RAD held a private, invitation-only briefing on its "emergency scenarios" for "independent candidates and campaign operatives," and Bengs, who calls himself "kind of coordinated" with Nebraska's Dan Osborn and others, was there, according to Zeitz.

They call it nonviolent and nonpartisan, and say they are protecting the election. But a peaceful plan to set the Constitution aside is still a plan to set the Constitution aside, and federal workers quietly refusing a President's orders amounts to an unelected government acting in their place. DataRepublican herself is careful about what the network is not: in Part 9 she found no shared phones, offices or bookkeepers tying the groups together, and calls the lawsuits and the governors' Guard decisions "lawful federalism." Her point is that it doesn't need a hidden boss: "A few funders, one published strategy, one word list, a few people in many rooms" are "enough to make hundreds of groups sound like one." In Part 10 she is just as careful: the group's own notes call the foreign-outreach track "conditional development work, not funded implementation," and nothing in their files mentions the Catalonia meeting. In Part 11 she says plainly that "Nothing we found connects Osborn to these scenarios," and running independents and calling for an Article V convention are the constitutional road. So is counting votes: citizen observers run "quick counts" in many countries, and Seed the Vote's own post says its count is still something partners are "looking at." The danger is the step after, using a private count to brand the official one false and fill the streets, which is exactly the order its plan lays out. The Freedom Trainers scenario is written for a Congress that refuses to seat winners, which has not happened. The impeachment of Secretary Hegseth is the same kind of line: impeaching a Cabinet officer, voting on the House floor and trying the case in the Senate is the Constitution's own process, not a coup, and the articles were brought by a Republican who says he opposes impeaching the President. What DataRepublican's Part 15 adds is not proof of coordination but a pattern worth watching: a movement that spent years urging the security forces to refuse "unlawful orders" now has an impeachment that puts the President's orders on trial. The question for Nebraska and South Dakota voters, and now for anyone watching the lame-duck House, is whose plan those votes would serve. We transcribed every recording and checked every quote against the audio, so nothing here can be dismissed as out of context.

What would turn this into a criminal case: internal chats, training materials and bail records tying these networks to the violence of the past year, proof that federal workers actually obstructed lawful orders, proof that a governor acted to "wall off" federal officials, proof that someone acting for the network asked a foreign government to reject an American election result, or proof that super PAC spending for the independents was coordinated with their campaigns. That evidence hasn't surfaced yet, and shared funders, shared talking points and a private vote count are not crimes. FWAD says it has helped workers "privately reverse" executive actions, but that is its own unverified claim, and no recording shows a worker doing it. The "resist unlawful orders" campaign is the same: urging officials and troops to refuse orders they believe are illegal is protected speech, and impeachment is a constitutional remedy; the line would be crossed only if the campaign induced members of the military to disobey lawful orders (18 U.S.C. § 2387), or if the impeachment were shown to be coordinated with the network rather than brought on its own merits. Neither is shown. Federal investigators are looking.

Latest releases:

• Nov. 13: CNN's KFILE independently reports a previously unknown super PAC, Our Heritage Matters, that registered after the pre-election disclosure deadline and spent over $8.5 million backing Libertarian spoilers against Republicans, confirming the kind of late, undisclosed money Part 16 describes; the same day, a thread DataRepublican reposted reports the Nationwide Deliberation Campaign's public kickoff, Nov. 16–20.
• Nov. 8: Special Edition, "On Crossing the Rubicon," a message to her own side: she checks the five most-shared midterm "fraud" claims and finds none of them proves what it claims, points to the real election problems that "should be litigated fully in court," and warns that refusing to certify or to seat the new Congress is the one move the other side "has already planned for, in writing" — including an April 2026 organizing document whose own section is titled "when the Rubicon is crossed."
• Nov. 5–7: Part 16, "Too Big to Rig" (the legal turnout machine, "178 entries"), and Part 15, "The Trojan Horse" (the Hegseth impeachment as a "first move," tied to the "resist unlawful orders" campaign).
• Earlier: Part 14 (Trust-Engineering), Part 13 (The New Founding, PolicyLink), Part 12 (Is Norm Eisen calling the shots?), Part 11 (the independent Senate campaigns), Part 10 (the role of foreign states), Part 9 ("No Conductor"), Part 8 (the federal workers' "blocking" group), Part 7 (the United Democracy Alliance), her Interlude, Part 6 (the "3.5% rule"), her primer, Part 5, Part 4 and Parts 1–3.

Every release and the coverage so far → Fox's Laura Ingraham, the Daily Caller, Coffee & Covid and more.

The details: the plan, the players and the timeline →

Judge them by what they do → Organizing the protests, training thousands to confront ICE, a war room, a memo for governors, a "Resistance Menu" for federal workers, a toolkit on the mayors' website, a private briefing for independent candidates, and millions in foundation and Soros money, alongside a year of riots and attacks on ICE.

When does it become a crime? → Seditious conspiracy, nullification, and why every group's "nonviolence" pledge is also its legal cover.

A republic, not a democracy

Notice whose word "democracy" is: Renew American Democracy, the United Democracy Alliance, the Democracy Renewal Group. The Founders built something different on purpose: a constitutional republic, where majorities rule only within limits. Those limits are exactly what the plan goes after.

• Elections decide who governs. The plan would let an unelected coalition's "red lines" declare an elected government illegitimate.
• Federal law is supreme (Article VI). The plan has governors make themselves "the leading governing authority" and "wall off" federal officials.
• The President runs the executive branch (Article II), and the people hold him to account at the ballot box. Career staff who "run out the clock" on his orders answer to no voter.
• The Constitution changes only through Article V, by two-thirds of Congress or the states and ratification by three-fourths. The plan calls for an "extra-constitutional" convention.
• Each state gets two senators, so small states aren't run over by big ones. The DSA caucus on the March call wants a one-house legislature.

When these groups say "protect democracy," ask which part of the Constitution they mean to keep.