“Taking on the corrupting influence of money in politics is the fight of our time — and it’s been the fight of my career. I argued the first challenge to Citizens United all the way to the Supreme Court. As Governor, I passed one of the toughest campaign finance laws in the nation, banned foreign money in our elections, and mandated that outside groups disclose the money they spend in our elections. If we can kick the Koch Brothers out of Montana’s elections, we can do it all across our country.
“As President, I’ll go further. On Day One, I’ll sign an executive order requiring any company that wants to do business with the federal government to disclose all its spending in elections. I’ll empower the FEC to go after the secretive groups who corrupt our elections, and one of the first bills I send Congress will be comprehensive anti-corruption and money-in-politics reform legislation. As we do this, I’ll also lead the fight to pass a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United.
“But I won’t be able to do it alone. Members of End Citizens United are leading the charge in the fight against Dark Money. Working together, we’re going to take our democracy back.”
Leading By Example:
- Rejects contributions from PACs
- Rejects help from a single-candidate Super PAC
Policy Positions:
- Supports overturning the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision
- Supports requiring dark money groups to disclose their donors
- Supports small-dollar public financing programs
- Supports an executive order requiring large government contractors to disclose their political spending
Background on Reform:
As Montana’s Attorney General and Governor, Gov. Steve Bullock has fought against the power of special interests in politics by defending his state’s campaign finance laws in the courts, passing bipartisan legislation to increase transparency of political spending, and fighting the Trump administration’s dark money loophole.
Gov. Bullock has made reform a central issue of his campaign for President. He released a plan to address the “toxic influence of money in politics,” that includes an executive order to require large government contractors to disclose their political spending, empowering federal agencies to address the issue, and directing the Solicitor General “to begin the process of appealing and ultimately overturning the Supreme Court’s disastrous Citizens United decision.”
“Until we address what’s happened since Citizens United, until we address the fact that now a billion dollars of undisclosed spending has even occurred since then, it’s going to be that much harder to address anything else,” he said in an interview in June.
As the state’s Attorney General in 2012, Bullock defended Montana’s ban on corporate campaign spending all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2015, Gov. Bullock worked with Republicans in the state legislature to pass the Montana Disclose Act, bipartisan legislation that required outside groups to disclose their donors. In 2019, the Supreme Court turned back a challenge to the law leaving it intact.
In 2018, Gov. Bullock signed an executive order requiring government contractors in the state to disclose their spending in elections. Under the order, major state contractors that spend more than $2,500 on elections will be required to disclose their donations, including contributions to dark money groups.
Gov. Bullock sued the Trump administration in 2019 over its decision to no longer require dark money groups to disclose their donors to the government, a decision that will allow these organizations to evade accountability and open up the possibility of foreign spending in our elections. The lawsuit is still pending.
“We’ve got to defeat the corrupt system that keeps people like him in power. That’s why I’m not taking a dime of corporate PAC money in this campaign, because it’s not about them or their interests. It’s about all of us and the country we leave to our kids and grandkids.” — Governor Steve Bullock