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Rex Sinquefield
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| Rex Sinquefield | |
 | |
| Basic facts | |
| Organization: | Show-Me Institute |
| Role: | Co-Founder and President |
| Location: | St. Louis, Missouri |
| Education: | •St. Louis University •University of Chicago |
| Website: | Official website |
Rex Sinquefield is a Missouri philanthropist and political donor. He is also a co-founder of the Show-Me Institute, a think tank in St. Louis.[1]
Since 2005, Sinquefield has donated millions of dollars to candidates, political action committees and other organizations. According to him, he uses his donations to back candidates who already support positions he favors rather than using the funds to persuade candidates who do not.[2] Sinquefield has demonstrated particular interest in the issues of tax reform and education reform.[3][4][5][6]
Career
Rex Sinquefield was raised in Missouri. His father died in his early childhood, and he was partly raised in the St. Vincent Home for Children, visiting his mother periodically.[2][7] He attended St. Louis University and received his MBA from the University of Chicago.[4][7][8]
In 1981, Sinquefield co-founded a California investment firm, Dimensional Fund Advisors.[7][9][4][6] Upon his retirement in 2005, he returned to Missouri and co-founded the Show-Me Institute, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit think tank in St. Louis.[6][5][4][7][1]
Sinquefield’s philanthropic work includes the founding of the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis.[4] He also funded the move of the World Chess Hall of Fame from Miami to St. Louis.[7] The Sinquefield Charitable Foundation supports “music, art, education, and children,” according to its website.[8]
Political activity
Political contributions
After retiring from finance in 2005, Rex Sinquefield returned to Missouri to apply his resources to public policy and philanthropic initiatives. His public policy priorities focus on education, tax reform and local control. According to Politico, Sinquefield donated roughly $28 million to political candidates and committees between 2008 and 2013.[6][7][10]
Ballot measure activity
Rex Sinquefield has donated to several ballot measure campaigns in Missouri with a focus on his primary policy interests: education, income tax reform and local control. In particular, Sinquefield supports school vouchers, the elimination of teacher tenure, income tax reform and local control of the St. Louis, Mo., police force. Through the financial support of political committees and organizations, including Let Voters Decide, Teach Great and the Safer Missouri Citizen's Coalition, Sinquefield has donated millions of dollars to support his policy priorities on the Missouri ballot. According to Politico, Sinquefield asserts that "if you get involved at the local level, you will be amazed at how much influence you can have."[6][7][11]
The following table details Sinquefield's ballot measure contributions available on Ballotpedia:
| Ballot measure contributions for Rex Sinquefield | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Ballot measure | Position | Amount | Result |
| Missouri Amendment 1, Lobbying, Campaign Finance, and Redistricting Initiative (2018) | Opposed | $200,000 |  Approved
|
| Missouri Teacher Performance Evaluation, Amendment 3 (2014) | Supported | $1.6 million[12] |  Defeated
|
| Missouri Income Tax Replacement Initiative (2012) | Supported | $2.52 million[13][14] | Defeated
|
| Missouri Earnings Tax, Proposition A (2010) | Supported | $7.32 million[15][16] | Approved
|
Candidates
According to Politico, Sinquefield donates to candidates of both parties who support his public policy positions, but tends to favor Republican candidates.[17] He has backed many state candidates—primarily Republicans, including 2016 Missouri gubernatorial candidate Catherine Hanaway, but also some Democrats, including Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster.[2][18][7][5][4] He has also funded several political organizations, including Missourians for Tax Reform (formerly Let Voters Decide), Missouri Club for Growth and Grow Missouri.[2][6][7][19] Before Missouri removed its limits on donations to individual candidates in 2008, Sinquefield formed or contributed to at least 100 PACs.[5][7]
The following table details Sinquefield's contributions to political candidates available on Ballotpedia:
| Candidate contributions for Rex Sinquefield[20] | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Candidate | Party | Office | Amount |
| 2012 | Timothy Jones |  |
Missouri House of Representatives | $130,000 |
| 2012 | John Diehl, Jr. | |
Missouri House of Representatives | $100,000 |
| 2010 | Joseph Keaveny |  |
Missouri State Senate | $5,001 |
| 2010 | Scott Rupp | |
Missouri State Senate | $10,000 |
| 2010 | Todd Richardson | |
Missouri House of Representatives | $10,000 |
| 2010 | Scott Dieckhaus | |
Missouri House of Representatives | $9,000 |
| 2010 | Timothy Jones | |
Missouri House of Representatives | $65,000 |
| 2010 | John Diehl, Jr. | |
Missouri House of Representatives | $15,000 |
| 2010 | Ellen Brandom | |
Missouri House of Representatives | $4,500 |
| 2010 | Steve Cookson | |
Missouri House of Representatives | $13,500 |
| 2008 | Leonard Hughes, IV | |
Missouri House of Representatives | $15,000 |
| 2008 | Bryan Stevenson | |
Missouri House of Representatives | $7,500 |
| 2008 | John Diehl, Jr. | |
Missouri House of Representatives | $8,800 |
Top influencers by state
Influencers in American politics are power players who help get candidates elected, put through policy proposals, cause ideological changes, and affect popular perceptions. They can take on many forms: politicians, lobbyists, advisors, donors, corporations, industry groups, labor unions, single-issue organizations, nonprofits, to name a few.
In 2016, Ballotpedia identified Rex Sinquefield as a top influencer by state. We identified top influencers across the country through several means, including the following:
- Local knowledge of our professional staff
- Surveys of activists, thought leaders and journalists from across the country and political spectrum
- Outreach to political journalists in each state who helped refine our lists
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Rex Sinquefield Show-Me Institute. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Show-Me Institute, "Rex Sinquefield," accessed January 4, 2016
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, "At $37 million and counting, mega-donor Sinquefield says he's not going anywhere," January 19, 2015
- ↑ Rex Sinquefield, "Policy," accessed January 4, 2016
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 The Wall Street Journal, "Meet One of the Super-PAC Men," October 26, 2012
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 The New York Times, "Missouri Political Donor Thrives With No Limits," October 18, 2012
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 Politico Magazine, "King Rex," July/August 2014
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 7.7 7.8 7.9 GOVERNING, "Rex Sinquefield: The Tyrannosaurus Rex of State Politics," June 2015
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Sinquefield Charitable Foundation, accessed January 4, 2016
- ↑ Dimensional Fund Advisors, "Firm/Leadership," accessed January 4, 2016
- ↑ Rex Sinquefield, "About Rex," accessed March 1, 2016
- ↑ Rex Sinquefield, "Policy," accessed March 2, 2016
- ↑ Missouri Ethics Committee, "C121045: Teach Great," accessed March 7, 2016
- ↑ Associated Press, "Missouri businessman contributions $1.3M to committee supporting tax overhaul ballot measure," October 7, 2011
- ↑ Associated Press, "APNewsBreak: Group pushing tax change gets $1.2M," January 26, 2012 (dead link)
- ↑ Missouri Ethics Commission, "Let Voters Decide—Contributions and Loans Received, April 15, 2010," accessed March 7, 2016
- ↑ Missouri Ethics Commission, "Let Voters Decide—Committee Disclosure Report, July 15, 2010
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedP - ↑ PoliticMo, "For governor campaign, Hanaway ends 2014 with $1.2 million in bank," January 15, 2015
- ↑ Rex Sinquefield, "Tax Reform," accessed January 4, 2016
- ↑ National Institute on Money in State Politics, "Sinquefield, Rex A.," accessed March 7, 2016
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