SPLC’s Intelligence Project team used a standardized method to identify and compile the information in the Exposing Extremism in Elections data sets. The information comes from open-source materials and tips submitted to the Intelligence Project by the public and verified by our researchers. The candidate and election information available in the data sets was collected from publicly available election resources. The candidates identified in these data sets as having extremist ties came to the Intelligence Project’s attention during its regular monitoring and research of extremist groups and individuals. Once a candidate was identified as having potential ties to extremism, research analysts on the Intelligence Project team conducted further investigation into the nature of the candidate’s associations. Based on the evidence collected, the Intelligence Project team determined whether the candidate’s extremist affiliations met the definition of one of five “relationship type” categories: • • • • • Leader: The candidate is a known leader of an extremist group, chapter or ideological movement. Member: The candidate is a known member of an extremist group, chapter or ideological movement. Former Member: The candidate is a known former member of an extremist group, chapter or ideological movement (Note: This does not refer to reformed extremists). Ideological: The candidate is not known to be a member or leader of an extremist group, chapter or ideological movement but their platform, rhetoric and/or behavior demonstrates agreement or alignment with specific extremist ideologies. Transactional: The candidate is not known to be a member or leader of an extremist group, chapter or ideological movement and does not have any known extremist views or ideologies; however, the candidate has engaged with an extremist group or ideological movement, potentially to benefit from this association (e.g., to gain votes). These categories were created by the Intelligence Project team to describe the quality of the candidate’s association with extremism. If a candidate met the threshold for one of the five relationship categories, they were included in the data set; if they did not meet the threshold for one of these categories, they were excluded from the data set. The Intelligence Project team engaged in a peer-review process to ensure the accuracy and completeness of the information presented in the Exposing Extremism in Elections data sets. White supremacy – especially the dominance of white men holding power and privilege – is baked into the structural racism that undergirds American institutions and laws. Over the past few years, the “great replacement” narrative has become thoroughly mainstream on the political right and the central framework for the white supremacist movement. This racist conspiracy asserts a systematic, global effort to replace white, European people with nonwhite, foreign populations. It sees America’s increasing diversity as a threat that must be countered in politics, in law, in court, in the media - and with violence. These beliefs have motivated terror attacks against Black and Brown communities and pose a profound threat to democracy. Another anti-democratic movement impacting elections SPLC is monitoring is the resurgence of so-called parental rights groups. In the past, parents who objected to inclusive education removed their children from public school, but now they are keeping them in public school and electing far-right, anti-inclusion actors to local school boards in their push to determine the curriculum. Policies emerging from the parental rights movement tend to make schools less welcoming for LGBTQ+, religious and language minority students, and students of color more broadly.6