Money-in-Politics

“A Rejection of the Common Sense of the American People” On January 21, 2010, the Supreme Court handed down one of the most destructive decisions in American history. In Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, five conservative justices struck down restrictions on corporate political spending, opened the floodgates to unlimited money in politics, and fundamentally corrupted American democracy. The numbers tell the story: Outside spending exploded 28-fold, from $144 million in 2008 to over $4.2 billion in 2024. Dark money groups have poured more than $4.3 billion into elections from undisclosed sources. Just 100 billionaires spent $2.6 billion in the 2024 election—nearly 20% of all spending. ...

Federal law caps how much an individual donor can give directly to a candidate at $7,000. That limit exists for an obvious reason: a candidate who owes their campaign to one wealthy check is a candidate who answers to that donor first. On June 30, 2026, the Supreme Court opened a door around that limit large enough to drive a truck through — by ruling that political parties can spend essentially unlimited amounts in direct coordination with the candidates they’re backing. ...