On October 15, 2025, the Governors Action Alliance posted its own press release: fifteen governors launched the Governors Public Health Alliance. The release names Bob Ferguson, Josh Green, Maura Healey, Kathy Hochul, Tina Kotek, Ned Lamont, Lou Leon Guerrero, Dan McKee, Matt Meyer, Wes Moore, Phil Murphy, Gavin Newsom, Jared Polis, JB Pritzker, and Josh Stein. The same release says the alliance “is supported by GovAct” and, later, is “an initiative of GovAct.” The Governors Public Health Alliance’s own work page repeats the line: “The Governors Public Health Alliance is an initiative of GovAct.” California’s official release the same day says the same thing. Julia Spiegel is quoted on the GovAct release as “founder and CEO of the Governors Action Alliance (GovAct).” That is her shop’s title, not a court finding. Healey, on that release: “While Donald Trump and RFK Jr. turn their backs on public health, Governors are stepping up.” Pritzker, on that release: “When the Trump Administration abandons its responsibility to protect public health, Illinois steps up.” Those are their sentences. The Newsom office release frames the federal “Make America Healthy Again” effort as a leadership gap. This site does not write that Spiegel “wants to destroy America,” that the governors are “Omidyar’s hirelings,” or that she controls the Democratic Party. Those lines are Sam Faddis / AND Magazine commentary, reprinted by Tony Seruga. They stay on the rail as that commentary.
The money is older than the health alliance. The Washington Examiner (also printed in the Denver Gazette) reported that in September 2024 Pierre Omidyar’s Democracy Fund “routed $500,000 to the Governors Action Alliance” to support “coordinating and strengthening the work of governors to address specific threats to American democracy,” citing Democracy Fund’s grants database, and that the grant was being disbursed until August 2025 for “state and local accountability.” A GSD spokesperson told the Examiner the group does not comment on individual donors. The live grants-database URL Influence Watch cited in 2024 — democracyfund.org/for-partners/grants-database/?term=GovAct — returned 404 when this page was compiled. Grantable’s extract of IRS Form 990 filings lists a 2024 Democracy Fund Inc. grant to Global Impact, purpose “Program support for GovAct,” amount $500,000. The same extract lists a 2024 Ford Foundation line to Global Impact “for GovAct” at $450,000 and a 2024 Foundation to Promote Open Society line “to support GovAct, a project of the grantee,” at $200,000. Those are 990-aggregator lines, not a screenshot of the Democracy Fund portal. MacArthur Foundation’s own grantee page for Global Impact names “The Governors Action Alliance (GovAct), a fiscally sponsored project of Global Impact,” and lists later MacArthur awards for that project. Democracy Fund Inc.’s 2024 Form 990-PF is on ProPublica (EIN 38-3926408, filed Nov. 14, 2025). USAspending.gov returned no awards for “Governors Action Alliance” or “GovAct” this pass. No DataRepublican relations-graph or award hit for this Julia Spiegel / GovAct name was confirmed this pass. A grant is not a crime.
GovAct’s current team page lists Julia Spiegel as Founder & CEO and Emma Clough as Special Projects Manager to the CEO. It does not list Allegra Chapman. Candice Cho is listed as Managing Director of Governors Safeguarding Democracy. The Daily Signal, March 12, 2025, printed a December 12 email from “Emma Clough, special assistant to Governors Action Alliance CEO Julia Spiegel,” inviting a briefing on executive actions and National Guard deployments. That is the FOIA name. Faddis’s “Clow” spelling is his. Daily Signal’s February and March 2025 exclusives named Allegra Chapman as managing director of Governors Safeguarding Democracy. Common Cause’s own 2016 report and a 2017 byline identify her as director of voting and elections / senior counsel. Faddis’s present-tense “policy director of GovAct” is his caption; the current GovAct team page does not say that. Governors Safeguarding Democracy launched November 13, 2024. Colorado’s official release that day names Pritzker and Polis as chairs and says GSD is “Supported by GovAct.” The New York Times the same day identified Spiegel as “a former top legal adviser to Gov. Gavin Newsom of California who will serve as the group’s top staff member,” under the headline “Democratic Governors Form a Group to Oppose the Trump Administration.” The official Colorado release talks about authoritarianism and democratic institutions. It does not name Donald Trump. NYT’s headline is reporting. Faddis’s “explicit purpose of resisting Donald Trump” is his gloss. Omidyar’s own March 2016 tweets, as archived: “I can't be contrarian about Donald Trump anymore: He's terrifying”; “Trump is a dangerous authoritarian demagogue.”; “Endorsing Donald Trump immediately disqualifies you from any position of public trust.” Those are his posts.