End Citizens United

End Citizens United (ECU) is a political action committee in the United States.^[3] The organization is working to reverse the U.S. Supreme Court 2010 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which deregulated limits on independent expenditure group spending for or against specific candidates.^[4] It is focused on driving larger campaign donations out of politics with a goal to elect "campaign-finance reform champions" to Congress by contributing and raising money for these candidates as well as running independent expenditures.^[5] End Citizens United was founded in 2015, operating in its first election cycle during 2016 with more than $25 million in funding.^[6]

End Citizens United

Formation	2015; 8 years ago (2015)^[1]
Headquarters	Washington, D.C.
President and executive director	Tiffany Muller^[2]
Website	endcitizensunited.org

The organization has endorsed Democratic candidates such as Zephyr Teachout,^[7] Hillary Clinton,^[8] Russ Feingold,^[1] Beto O'Rourke,^[9] Elizabeth Warren,^[10] and Jon Ossoff.^[11] For the 2016 election, it was one of the largest outside groups funding the campaigns of U.S. Senators Maggie Hassan and Catherine Cortez Masto, spending a combined $4.4 million on the races.^[12] By mid-2017, End Citizens United had raised more than $7.5 million from grassroots donations, and planned to raise $35 million for the 2018 election cycle.^[11] In 2020, End Citizens United spent 41% ($16.1 million) of its income on media, 17% ($6.5 million) on staff salaries, and 15% ($5.7 million) on contributions to candidates and strategy and research work. ^[13]

In early 2018, an anonymous U.S.-based contractor paid at least 3,800 micro job workers to manipulate what stories would come up when people searched for the PAC via Google.^[14]

During the 2018 elections, End Citizens United organized a no corporate PAC pledge, and around 185 Democratic candidates agreed not to take corporate PAC money, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Cory Booker, and Kamala Harris.^[15][16]

References

1. "End Citizens United PAC wants to make its name a reality". MSNBC. Retrieved 2017-11-06.
2. "End Citizens United aggressively seeks campaign finance reform". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2017-11-06.
3. Pathé, Simone (13 August 2015). "Campaign Finance Reform PAC Wants to Be a Player in 2016". Roll Call.
4. "The conservative lawyer who brought you Citizens United is back for Round II". Mother Jones. Retrieved 2017-11-06.
5. "Dem group urges candidates to campaign against money in politics". star-telegram. Retrieved 2017-11-06.
6. "Democratic PAC End Citizens United names 'Big Money 20' targets for 2018". USA TODAY. Retrieved 2017-11-06.
7. "PAC poll: Teachout leads Faso by three points in NY-19". Times Union. Retrieved 2017-11-06.
8. Garcia, Eric (2016-07-20). "End Citizens United PAC Endorses Clinton". Roll Call. Retrieved 2017-11-06.
9. "Well-funded anti-Citizens United group backs O'Rourke in Senate challenge against Cruz". Dallas News. 2017-06-26. Retrieved 2017-11-06.
10. "End Citizens United Backs Warren". National Journal. Retrieved 2017-11-06.
11. Mali, Meghashyam (2017-07-06). "Campaign finance reform group raises $3.4M in second quarter". TheHill. Retrieved 2017-11-06.
12. "New Hampshire Senate Race". OpenSecrets. Retrieved 2017-11-06.
13. "End Citizens United PAC Expenditures". OpenSecrets. Retrieved 2021-06-14.
14. Thorburn-Winsor, Alexander; Blumenthal, Paul (November 1, 2018). "Someone Paid Thousands Of Foreigners 20 Cents Each To Hide HuffPost's Negative Coverage Of A Democratic PAC: HuffPost's story about End Citizens United dropped to the second page of Google search results from right near the top". Huffington Post.
15. "Cracks Emerge in No Corporate PAC Money Movement". Sludge. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
16. Godfrey, Elaine (2018-08-23). "Why So Many Democratic Candidates Are Dissing Corporate PACs". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2021-02-05.

External links

• Official website
• How to Reverse Citizens United
• OpenSecrets.org Summary