Meta wired $540,000 to FORGE PAC. FORGE then sent Sen. Waggoner $45,750.
Every dollar in this analysis is from public Alabama Ethics Commission filings. You can verify it yourself in five minutes at fcpa.alabamavotes.gov. The downloadable CSV below is the full 239-contribution ledger.
What Sen. Gudger said this morning
This morning — June 26, 2026, seven weeks after Meta's $540,000 contribution — Anna Barrett of Alabama Reflector reported on a public meeting of the Alabama Commission on Artificial Intelligence and Children's Safety. Sen. Garlan Gudger sits on that commission.
"Regulating artificial intelligence will be a 'colossal task' for Alabama lawmakers."
— Anna Barrett, Alabama Reflector (syndicated to Yahoo), June 26, 2026Per the article, the legislature will need to take "baby steps" on AI regulation. Sen. Gudger is on the commission writing those rules. His leadership PAC took the single largest contribution in its history from the world's largest AI company seven weeks before he made those remarks.
I'm not alleging Sen. Gudger has done anything illegal. Leadership PAC contributions are legal and public. What I'm saying is this: the people of Alabama deserve to see the chain.
What is FORGE PAC?
FORGE PAC is the leadership PAC of Alabama Senate President Pro Tem Garlan Gudger. He created it in late 2024 / early 2025 when he took the gavel. Per filings, its purpose — in his own words to Alabama Daily News — is "returning a committed conservative supermajority to the Alabama Senate."
"Our goal is simple — returning a committed conservative supermajority to the Alabama Senate."
— Sen. Garlan Gudger, Alabama Daily News, July 2025That means: out-of-state donors fund a leadership PAC, which then funds incumbent Republican senators' campaigns — including the senator who currently holds my district's seat.
Why Meta? Why now?
Meta's $540,000 to Alabama isn't a one-off donation. It's one piece of a documented $65 million state-level political network the company assembled in 2025 — explicitly aimed at influencing state AI policy.
Per the GV Wire (Feb 18, 2026), Meta's network includes four super PACs with an initial budget of $65 million, according to federal and state filings:
- American Technology Excellence Project — the federal hub. Meta put $45 million into it in September 2025.
- Mobilizing Economic Transformation Across California ("META California") — Meta put $5 million into it in December 2025.
- Forge the Future Project — a spoke that receives money routed from the federal hub.
- Making Our Tomorrow — another spoke that receives money routed from the federal hub.
"Meta put $45 million into American Technology Excellence Project in September. That money is expected, in turn, to flow to Forge the Future Project, Making Our Tomorrow and potentially to other entities."
— GV Wire, "Meta Begins $65 Million Election Push to Advance AI Agenda" (Feb 18, 2026)Note the name overlap. Alabama's FORGE PAC and Meta's "Forge the Future Project" appear to be separate organizations on paper. Alabama's FORGE PAC (legal name "Forge the Future Project") was registered by Sen. Gudger in November 2024 — before Meta's network was assembled in 2025. Whatever the formal relationship between the two entities sharing this name, the public record shows that Meta wired its single largest direct Alabama corporate contribution — by a factor of more than 3.6x over its next-largest known Alabama recipient — to the leadership PAC of the senator now sitting on the Alabama AI commission.
The $45,750 that flowed from FORGE PAC to Sen. Waggoner is the next link in the chain. The senator who controls what AI bills move in the Alabama Senate is on the AI commission. His leadership PAC takes the largest single contribution in its history from the world's largest AI company. Seven weeks later, that same senator publicly says AL should take a slow approach to AI regulation. None of those facts are alleged. They are filings and on-the-record public statements.
Top 12 donors to FORGE PAC
From our scrape of 239 contributions filed with the Alabama Ethics Commission, sorted by amount.
The full 239-contribution ledger is downloadable below.
Where the money went out
FORGE PAC's expenditures in our scrape went to multiple Alabama Republican Senate campaigns. Of those, the senator who currently represents my district — Sen. Jabo Waggoner — received $45,750 across four contributions.
Sen. Waggoner is the incumbent senator for Alabama District 16. He is my opponent in the November 2026 general election. The full ledger of every FORGE PAC expenditure is in the downloadable CSV below.
Download the underlying data
Spreadsheet of every single one of the 239 contributions, sortable in Excel/Numbers/Google Sheets. Built directly from the AL FCPA portal export — no edits, no curation.
CSV includes date, contributor, contributor type, city/state, amount, filing date. Cross-reference any row directly at fcpa.alabamavotes.gov.
Why this matters
I pulled FORGE PAC's filing history from the public Alabama Ethics Commission portal as part of transparency research for my own campaign. The Meta contribution stood out: it's the single largest donation to the leadership PAC of the Alabama Senate's president pro tem, and it came 11 days before the primary.
The data is public. It's verifiable by anyone at fcpa.alabamavotes.gov. My takeaway is straightforward: when a Silicon Valley tech giant funds the leadership PAC that funds the senator's chamber, voters deserve to see the chain.
My campaign doesn't take PAC money — corporate, union, or leadership — for exactly this reason. I want to be accountable to the people of District 16, not to the lobbyists who paid the bill.
I don't object to consultants. I object to a political system where consultants — and the donors who hire them — have more influence than constituents.
Sources
- Alabama Ethics Commission · FCPA portal fcpa.alabamavotes.gov — the source of every contribution figure on this page. Filings are searchable by committee or candidate name.
- Alabama Reporter · July 3, 2025 "Gudger reports record $1.8M raised for FORGE PAC to back Senate GOP efforts" — Alabama Reporter staff. Original framing of FORGE PAC as Gudger's leadership PAC; donor counts as of July 2025.
- Alabama Daily News · July 3, 2025 "Gudger's Senate PAC raises $1.8M 11 months prior to primaries" — Mary Sell. Same filing window, additional Gudger quotes.
- CSV export of all 239 contributions forge-pac-contributions.csv — full ledger, downloadable from this page.
- The AI Insider · August 2025 "Meta Builds a California Super PAC to Shape AI Rules" — Coverage of Meta's launch of its first state-level Super PAC focused on AI policy.
- Engadget · 2025 "Meta is launching a California super PAC" — Reporting that Meta runs four Super PACs as part of this strategy, with an initial budget of $65 million.
- GV Wire · February 2026 "Meta Begins $65 Million Election Push to Advance AI Agenda" — Documents the nationwide $65M election push of which the Alabama $540K is one piece.
- The Texan · March 2, 2026 "Super PAC Owned by Facebook Parent Company Meta Spends Big in Texas Primaries" — Documents Meta's "Forge The Future Project" Super PAC spending $1.3M in Texas Republican primaries.
- Alabama Reflector (syndicated to Yahoo News) · June 26, 2026 "Regulating artificial intelligence will be 'colossal task' for Alabama lawmakers" — Anna Barrett, Alabama Reflector. Same-day source for Sen. Gudger's "colossal task" / "baby steps" remarks made in his capacity as a member of the Commission on Artificial Intelligence and Children's Safety.
Strong with Stone · Spencer Stone for Alabama Senate, District 16 (D)
Press: [email protected] · 205-201-1632
Spencer is a public school teacher in his day job and founder of Saint One LLC (parent of StoneParks). He's the Democratic nominee for AL Senate SD-16 in the November 2026 general election. His opponent, incumbent Sen. Jabo Waggoner (R), has held the Senate seat continuously since 1990 and is running for his tenth term.
This analysis was prepared from public Alabama Ethics Commission filings. Strong with Stone has accepted zero PAC contributions and intends to continue accepting zero PAC contributions. Paid for by Strong with Stone.