By: Brian Francisco and Niki Kelly
Donnelly endorsed for re-election
End Citizens United, which advocates for the prohibition of unlimited and undisclosed political spending, has endorsed Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind.
Donnelly is widely considered among the most vulnerable Democratic senators facing re-election next year because Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump won Indiana by 19 percentage points in the 2016 election on his way to capturing the White House.
End Citizens United said it has more than 3 million members and raised $25 million in the 2016 election cycle, helping to elect Democratic Sens. Maggie Hassan in New Hampshire and Catherine Cortez-Masto in Nevada.
“Senator Donnelly has a proven record of putting problem-solving ahead of partisan politics to represent hard-working Hoosier families, not special interests,” Tiffany Muller, president and executive director of End Citizens United, said in a statement. “He understands that when Big Money is free to spend unlimited, undisclosed sums in politics it drowns out the voices of middle-class Americans.”
In the Citizens United case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2010 that corporations and labor unions can spend unlimited amounts of money on political advertising independent from candidates’ campaigns.
“I stand with End Citizens United in fighting for a fairer, more transparent government that works for all Americans, and I’m glad to have their endorsement,” Donnelly said in a statement.
Reps. Luke Messer, R-6th, and Todd Rokita, R-4th, are expected to announce this summer that they will seek the Republican nomination for Donnelly’s seat. Three other Republicans – Terry Henderson, Mark Hurt and Andrew Takami – have announced their candidacies.