 | |
| Formation | 2015; 10 years ago (2015)[1] |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Washington, D.C. |
President and executive director | Tiffany Muller[2] |
| Website | endcitizensunited |
End Citizens United (ECU) is apolitical action committee in the United States.[3] The organization works to reverse theU.S. Supreme Court's 2010 decision inCitizens 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 the goal of electing "campaign-finance reform champions" to Congress by contributing to 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]
The organization has endorsed Democratic candidates such asZephyr Teachout,[7]Hillary Clinton,[8]Russ Feingold,[1]Beto O'Rourke,[9]Elizabeth Warren,[10] andJon Ossoff.[11] For the 2016 election, it was one of the largest outside groups funding the campaigns of U.S. SenatorsMaggie Hassan andCatherine 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 fromgrassroots 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]
End Citizens United has received criticism from other campaign reform groups over their aggressive fundraising tactics.[14] In early 2018, an anonymous U.S.-based contractor paid at least 3,800micro job workers to manipulate search results when people searched for the PAC via Google, to remove a negativeHuffPost article from the front page of Google's search results.[15]
During the 2018 elections, End Citizens United organized ano corporate PAC pledge, and around 185 Democratic candidates agreed not to take corporate PAC money, includingAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez,Cory Booker, andKamala Harris.[16][17]
Stanford political scientist Adam Bonica has criticized the political consulting group Mothership, which works with Citizen's United for spending most of the money it raises on the Mothership's network of political consultants, with only a fraction going to the campaigns.[18][19]