The Data Republican Series, Installment 1. This series follows and amplifies the investigative work of DataRepublican (@DataRepublican on X), starting with her ongoing "Democracy Files."
A machine does not need every part to understand the blueprint. It only needs each part to turn when the switch is thrown.
That is the warning at the heart of "THE DEMOCRACY FILES, PART 1: THE PLAN," which DataRepublican posted on October 19. Her point is simple and chilling: "almost nobody knows the 'grand plan' so to speak. They simply agree to play a role." The street rioter believes his anger is organic. He does not see, in her words, that "legal services have already been arranged for them" or "that foundations are paying for their bonds." A governor who promises to resist the Insurrection Act is not signing a pact against the Constitution, she writes, but "the effect is the same."
She calls it "shared epistemology," a term from her new book, Unelected. Motives differ. Incentives converge.
DataRepublican has done the digging. I will supply the name. I'm calling it what it is: Operation Denial. It is an effort, by her reporting, to deny the legitimacy of an elected government, deny voters the outcome they chose, and deny the public any look at who is paying for it.
What she has published so far on Operation Denial
DataRepublican says she is still gathering documents, and she shows her work. Over three days she has posted video, audio, transcripts, and screenshots. By her account they come from an archive of an ex-USAID network, which she says she found less than a week before her book launched. The record so far:
- Part 2 (October 19, evening): The recordings come from a group called Renew to Thrive (R2T) and its associates. She writes that R2T sits inside a far larger and "extremely hush-hush" umbrella, the United Democracy Alliance (UDA), that decides "when protests get deployed, timelines, how to respond." R2T's job, in her telling, is "the day after tomorrow," designing what a rewritten American government looks like. She credits Erica Chenoweth's Horizons Project with conceiving UDA. She says the 1,600-member National Security Leaders for America (NSL4A), led by retired Rear Admiral Michael E. Smith, operationalized it.
- The "redlines": She published a scraped document listing conditions under which the group would deem the federal government illegitimate. Her plain-English translation includes investigating election fraud, Republicans winning "too many elections," and federal action against "peaceful" protesters.
- Part 3 (October 20, evening): She reports that in July 2026, R2T and its affiliate Renew American Democracy invited foreign state actors to share their experience with "international community assisted transitions." She argues that the export playbook of situation rooms, poll observers, prebunking, and litigation paired with street mobilization is now aimed at our own midterms. She is honest about the limits: the video "doesn't prove that this meeting specifically caused this cascade."
- Part 3.5 (this morning): A clip in which, she says, participants express confidence that a "breakthrough" removing President Trump will come before January 3, and in which Admiral Smith allegedly acknowledges a role in "writing the government that comes after." She says more drops are coming.
On October 20, the Washington Post reported that about 10 current and former national security officials have been quietly advising officials in 10 states on preparing for possible federal "interference" in the midterms. DataRepublican's response was pointed: are these people in her files? The Post should answer.
Why this one hits close to home
A retired officer's obligations do not end at the retirement ceremony. I said so in January, when I backed Secretary Hegseth's action against Captain Mark Kelly. By DataRepublican's reporting, NSL4A also played a key role in the "illegal orders" messaging aimed at Secretary Hegseth. Retired flag officers who are allegedly role-playing Insurrection Act scenarios and drafting "redlines" for declaring our government illegitimate owe the public an explanation. That holds for Admiral Smith as much as anyone.
This also connects to work I have already signed my name to. On October 16, I signed Vice President Vance's anti-fraud pledge. My column yesterday covered Auditor Shad White's Nonprofit Spending Dashboard and the principle behind it: when public money flows to private groups, citizens are owed the receipts. DataRepublican's book describes a network that, in her words, "has sucked taxpayer money, philanthropic money, union dues." If one federal dollar is flowing into the organizations behind Operation Denial, the people paying for it deserve to know.
The follow-up she has earned
The Justice Department should take custody of her materials and review them. She has said that Pete Marocco, who helped shut down USAID, called one clip "straight up coup," and the two discussed getting the materials to DOJ.
House Oversight and Senate Homeland Security should hold hearings and call R2T, UDA, Horizons Project, and NSL4A leadership to testify under oath.
Every federal agency should search its grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements for these organizations and their fiscal sponsors, publish the results, and stop any payment that funds political mobilization. The IRS should examine whether any tax-exempt group in this network crossed into partisan electioneering.
Governors and election officials in the 10 states the Post describes should disclose who advised them and what was recommended.
No one needs to take her word on Operation Denial. Institutions only have to do their jobs with the evidence she has laid on the table.
Leftist Democrats have spent years telling Americans that "democracy" is on the ballot. Her files suggest some of their allies have a very different definition. The answer is at the ballot box on November 3: vote Republican in every race on your ballot.
Read her work. Share it. This series will follow every installment.
