On 11th Anniversary of Citizens United Decision, Tester Reaffirms Commitment to Cleaning Up Dark Money in Politics

Senator: “We need real people, not billionaires and corporations, deciding our elections”

On the 11th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision that turned on the spigot of dark money in elections, U.S. Senator Jon Tester today reaffirmed his commitment to fighting the corrosive influence of dark money and announced he will reintroduce his legislation aimed at reforming our broken campaign finance system.

“For too long, dark money has played an outsized role in our politics – and with disastrous results,” Tester said. “Since the days of the Copper Kings, Montana has always led the way in the fight to curb the influence of money on our elections, and I’m proud to continue leading the fight against unlimited corporate spending in campaigns. We need real hardworking families, not billionaires and corporations, deciding our elections, and I won’t quit until our laws reflect what Montanans affirmed a century ago: our elections are not for sale.”

Tester plans to reintroduce a trio of bills aimed at fixing the nation’s broken campaign finance system:

• A constitutional amendment that would overturn the Citizens United decision, declare that corporations are not people, and give Congress greater authority to regulate our campaign finance system;
• The Spotlight Act, which would reverse a Trump Administration rule that allows non-profits engaging in political activity to hide their big money donors; and
• The Sunlight for Unaccountable Non-profits (SUN) Act to require that return information from tax-exempt organizations be made available in a searchable format and to provide the disclosure of the identity of contributors to certain tax-exempt organizations.

Tester is recognized as a steadfast champion for reform by campaign finance reform advocates, receiving top marks from End Citizens United for his work fighting the influence of special interests and receiving praise from the Sunlight Foundation for his fight to make Senate campaigns more transparent.

More information on Tester’s work to clean up campaign finance is available HERE.