MAGA Think Tank Staffers Embedded in Census Bureau Access Sensitive Data

September 15, 2026 at 03:15 PM2 min

This digest was compiled by AI from multiple sources — links to the originals are below.

Multiple staffers from the America First Policy Institute, a Trump-aligned think tank, have been detailed to the US Census Bureau with access to sensitive data. They contributed to an anonymously authored report claiming thousands of noncitizens voted in 2020, which experts say uses faulty methodology. The report may undermine trust in elections ahead of the midterms.

Key Facts

The Census Bureau published an anonymously authored report titled “Noncitizen Voting in the 2020 Election: A Beginning Analysis” in August.
Two of the report's authors work for the America First Policy Institute, a right-wing think tank with deep ties to the Trump administration.
The two authors are part of a larger team, made up almost entirely of AFPI members, who have been detailed to the Census Bureau and given access to its data.
Brooke Rollins, AFPI's first CEO, is now the secretary of agriculture, and Linda McMahon, now the secretary of education, used to sit on the organization's board.

Report Methodology

The report claimed to show that thousands of noncitizens voted in the 2020 election. A WIRED investigation revealed that the report appeared to employ faulty methodology, casting its conclusions into doubt. The report was published anonymously by the Census Bureau in August.

AFPI Presence

The two authors are part of a larger team, made up almost entirely of AFPI members, who have been detailed to the Census Bureau and given access to its data. A Census employee who spoke to WIRED on the condition of anonymity says that there has historically been “nothing close” to what AFPI is doing at the bureau. “Frankly, it's disrespectful to the institution,” the employee said.

Election Integrity Concerns

Experts and Census employees who spoke to WIRED worry that the noncitizen voting report is the first salvo in Census data possibly being used to undermine the results of the upcoming midterms or the 2028 presidential election. The Trump administration has repeatedly attempted to cast doubt on the accuracy of Census data in order to reshape elections. Earlier this year, WIRED reported that the Department of Commerce, which oversees the bureau, was circulating a rule change that would eliminate noncitizens from being counted in the Census, a move that could drastically reshape how Congressional districts are drawn. Republicans also took aim at a little-known statistical method called differential privacy that is used to protect the privacy of individual respondents, alleging that it makes the Census count inaccurate in ways that favor Democrats in congressional apportionment.