Jon has spent his career working to maintain local control over Montana’s elections to keep them safe and secure, fight outside special interests that try to buy our democracy, and shine a light on dark money in politics.
Since the days of the Copper Kings, Montana has rejected the notion that our democracy is for sale. Nearly 75 percent of Montanans voted to say that corporations should not be able to spend unlimited amounts of money trying to influence our elections.
Calling the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. FEC decision one of the most irresponsible in history, Jon has introduced multiple bills to shine a light on the dark money and special interest groups that tries to influence our elections—including a Constitutional Amendment that overturns the Supreme Court’s disastrous Citizens United decision and declares once and for all that corporations aren’t people.
Jon introduced his Freedom to Vote Act to clean up and secure our elections, and protect Montanans’ right to have their voice heard at the ballot box. This bill includes many of Jon’s longtime priorities like reinstating same-day voter registration in Montana, allowing college students to use their IDs to vote, and ensuring that Montanans continue to have access to early and mail voting. Jon’s bill would also help states secure their election systems, keep foreign nationals from influencing our elections, and increase disclosure so folks know who is paying for online political ads. Jon worked with his colleagues to include provisions from his Spotlight Act that would require certain political non-profit organizations to disclose their donors to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), reversing a rule that eliminated the requirement and allowed tax-exempt organizations to keep their donors secret.
Jon is following in the footsteps of the Montanans who over a century ago told corporations that our elections aren’t for sale, and he will work with anyone who is willing to clean up the nation’s broken campaign finance system and return our democracy to the people.