Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to reject a last-ditch Republican challenge to the newly drawn districts in Pennsylvania, End Citizens United (ECU) today re-endorsed its slate of reformers in Pennsylvania.
The full list of endorsed candidates includes: Rep. Brendan Boyle (PA-02), Chrissy Houlahan (PA-06), Rep. Matt Cartwright (PA-08), Christina Hartman (PA-10), and Rep-elect Conor Lamb (PA-17).
“The courts decided that Republicans went too far in silencing the will of voters by manipulating the boundaries of Pennsylvania’s congressional districts. Gerrymandering – like the flood of unlimited special interest money in politics – undermines the basic principles of our democracy and stacks the deck against everyday families,” said ECU President Tiffany Muller. “ECU is proud to stand with its endorsed candidates in their new districts. They will fight to unrig the system in Washington so Congress focuses on all of us, not just the big spending special interests. We look forward to helping them win in November.”
In the recent PA-18 special election, ECU was the first “big-ticket” group to jump into the race and back Conor Lamb’s campaign. The grassroots PAC had a $550,000 impact on the race — raising $300,000 in small-dollar donations directly for Lamb’s campaign and launching a $250,000 ad campaign. ECU supported Lamb early and stayed active and engaged in the race as Lamb made his commitment to rejecting corporate PAC money and ending the influence of big money in politics a major component of his campaign, including it in several of his ads.
ECU’s endorsement will help these candidates compete with high-spending special interests by connecting them with its 144,000 grassroots members in Pennsylvania as well as to its national network of 400,000 small-dollar donors. With an average donation of $14, ECU is projected to raise $35 million for the 2018 election cycle.
ECU is an entirely grassroots-funded organization dedicated to electing members of Congress who will fight to get Big Money out of politics so Congress focuses on all of us and not only its biggest special interest donors.
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