Mayor
Pete
Buttigieg

“We need bold and deep reforms to fix our broken political system, which is why as President I will make democratic reform my day-one priority. Every other issue we care about will be harder to address until we fix our democracy. Unfair districts, unfair influence of money, and an unfair electoral college setup are consistently overruling the will of the American people. People have lost faith that the system is working for them, and it’s time we change that. Thank you to End Citizens United for your tireless work to put power back in the hands of voters, not corporations.”

Leading by Example:

• Rejects contributions from corporate PACs
• Rejects contributions from the fossil fuel industry
• Rejects contributions from federal lobbyists

Policy Positions:

• Supports overturning the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision
• Supports requiring dark money groups to disclose their donors
• Supports small-donor public financing programs
• Supports requiring ad spending disclosure on social media platforms

Background on Reform:

Since announcing his candidacy for President, Mayor Pete Buttigieg has made democratic reform a centerpiece of his campaign. Buttigieg knows that before we can solve a number of other issues, we have to fix our democracy. He has said that “every other issue we face, every policy issue […] every one of those will not get solved properly as long as our democracy is this twisted.”

Buttigieg confirmed his commitment to doing reform first during the June Democratic presidential primary debate. When asked what would be the first issue he’d tackle as President, Buttigieg responded “We’ve got to fix our democracy before it’s too late. Get that right and climate, immigration, taxes and every other issue gets better.”

Buttigieg has backed his words up with actions, releasing a robust plan to fix our democracy. One of his policy proposals is overturning Citizens United, a decision he has called “a disaster for U.S. politics”, possibly through a constitutional amendment. Buttigieg’s plan also includes limiting the influence of special interests, creating a strong small-donor public financing system, and establishing that corporations don’t have the same political rights as people.

“Our democracy should work for the interests of ordinary Americans, not corporations and special interests. We need to have a strong public financing system that provides matching funds to small donations so that average citizens can run for office, not just those with access to big donors.” — Mayor Pete Buttigieg