Big Money 20

The “Big Money 20” campaign is aimed at defeating incumbents who do the bidding of special interests such as drug companies, Big Oil, and Wall Street, while also rigging the system

 
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  • Abandoned promise and voted for health care repeal after pressure from his big donors
  • Protected Wall Street and the banking industry (two of his top donors) by opposing tougher rules after the financial crisis, fighting to repeal Wall Street oversight reforms, and siding with Equifax against Nevadans

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    ECU Endorsed Challenger: Jacky Rosen
  • After benefiting from at least $3 million in outside spending in 2012, he introduced a bill to allow mega donors and special interests to give unlimited contributions directly to candidates
  • Said that “money absolutely can be speech,” and that campaign finance reform was about “silencing” citizens

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    ECU Endorsed Challenger: Beto O’Rourke
  • Aligned with a super PAC (Congressional Leadership Fund) that accepted over $8 million in dark money; allowed CLF’s dark-money sister organization to enter the Capitol and pressure Representatives to vote for tax reform by threatening to spend money in their districts
  • Rammed an ACA repeal-and-replace bill through the House, which would have benefited his GOP mega-donors but hurt his own constituents

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    ECU Endorsed Challenger: Randy Bryce
  • Took over $175,000 from the oil and gas industry, voted to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, and co-sponsored a bill to lift the ban on crude oil exports
  • Voted for tax reform that would raise taxes on many middle class Californians after a group funded by secretive mega-donors began targeting her district and threatened Republicans who opposed the bill

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    ECU Endorsed Challenger: Katie Porter
  • Received contributions from Paul Manafort, then went on record as the sole opposition voice to legislation against former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, a client of Manafort’s lobbying firm
  • Paid himself and his wife over $800,000 in campaign funds

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    ECU Endorsed Challenger: Harley Rouda
  • Sponsored a bill to protect his top campaign contributors, government contractors, from having to disclose political spending
  • Regularly protected industries that he had a business stake in; fought a federal investigation into Goldman Sachs at the same time he bought $600,000 worth of bonds in the bank

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    ECU Endorsed Challenger: Mike Levin
  • Tried to gut Office of Congressional Ethics while under multiple investigations for flagrant personal spending from campaign funds — including trips to Hawaii and Italy, and 68 different charges for video games
  • Received over $50,000 from the tobacco industry and pushed legislation to protect e-cigarettes & traditional tobacco products

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    ECU Endorsed Challenger: Ammar Campa-Najjar
  • Co-sponsored a bill to repeal the Johnson Amendment, which would allow special interests to use churches and charities to funnel secret tax-free political donations into campaigns
  • Received over $770,000 from the oil and gas industry over his career, and voted against bills that would have held oil and gas companies responsible for spills or disasters

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    ECU Endorsed Challenger: Jason Crow
  • Sided with the Koch Brothers and Club for Growth against the Export-Import bank, despite the $42 million it supported in exports in Blum’s district; both the Kochs’ and Club for Growth became major supporters of Blum
  • Voted in favor of the partisan health care and tax plans — after donors threatened to withhold contributions if he didn’t

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    ECU Endorsed Challenger: Abby Finkenauer
  • Put his big donors and their political dark money groups first by sponsoring a bill to prohibit the IRS from requiring tax-exempt orgs from identifying contributors in annual returns
  • Helped push through a measure in the GOP caucus to gut the Office of Congressional Ethics, after being the focus of an ethics investigation and complaints

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    ECU Endorsed Challenger: Sean Casten
  • Opposed campaign contribution limits and efforts to take up a constitutional amendment for campaign finance reform in Illinois
  • Received over $470,000 in outside spending from Paul Ryan’s dark money-funded super PAC and opposed disclosure in Congress

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    ECU Endorsed Challenger: Brendan Kelly
  • A former Wall Street investment manager, Poliquin cosponsored a 2015 bill to gut the CFPB, which protects Maine families from fraud and abuse by Big Banks. The bill was overwhelmingly supported by Wall Street, which became top donors to his 2016 re-election campaign
  • Poliquin’s most recent betrayal came when he voted in favor of the GOP tax bill, which would raise taxes on more than 187,000 Mainers

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    ECU Endorsed Challenger: Jared Golden
  • Helped push Paul Ryan’s disastrous health care bill through the House after Ryan’s outside groups spent $800,000 for Bishop in his 2016 election
  • Voted against a number of campaign finance reforms, including the DISCLOSE Act and a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United

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    ECU Endorsed Challenger: Elissa Slotkin
  • Lewis took $21,000 from the telecom industry in 2017, the same year he voted to let internet companies sell costumer data without their consent and supported the repeal of Net Neutrality.
  • Lewis has taken $50,000 from the Banking and Securities industry since his run for Congress, including $35,000 is 2017, the same year he voted to repeal protections for consumers from bank fraud.

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    ECU Endorsed Challenger: Angie Craig
  • Received over $790,000 from the securities industry and $485,000 from the banking industry over his career; supported Equifax, MetLife, and the banking industry by voting to eliminate consumer protections
  • Supported a bill allowing internet companies to sell customer data without consent and received nearly $165,000 from the telecom industry

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    ECU Endorsed Challenger: Dean Phillips
  • Supported bills to dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that were supported by his top industry donors
  • Co-sponsored a bill to dismantle the Johnson Amendment’s restrictions on special interests using churches and charities as tools to participate in political campaigns, without losing their tax-exempt status

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    ECU Endorsed Challenger: Dan McCready
  • At his donors’ behest, crafted a revamped GOP health care bill that passed the House and could have increased the number of uninsured in his district by 112%
  • Was the only member of Congress from New Jersey to vote against the state’s interests by supporting the tax bill that would raise taxes on many middle class New Jerseyans while cutting taxes for wealthy donors

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    ECU Endorsed Challenger: Andy Kim
  • Took more than $600,000 in contributions from Wall Street, and opposed common-sense rules to hold banks accountable and keep them from ripping off consumers
  • Under ethics investigation after alerting a bank board member who was also a long-time campaign donor that an employee was a member of a Trump opposition group; the employee resigned after being pressured by the board

    • ECU Endorsed Challenger: Mikie Sherrill
  • Over his career, Donovan, has taken $500,000 from corporate PACs and lobbyists. It’s a stark contrast to Rose, who refuses to take that money
  • In Staten Island, studies have linked high cancer rates to fossil fuel pollution, yet Donovan has taken over $77,000 from the oil and gas industry over his career

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    ECU Endorsed Challenger: Max Rose
  • Received contributions from telecom companies before voting to allow major internet companies to sell customer data without consent, then denied knowledge of the contributions
  • Voted to repeal reforms in Dodd-Frank after receiving over $100,000 from the securities and commercial banking industries during her campaigns

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    ECU Endorsed Challenger: Anthony Brindisi
  • Co-sponsored a bill that contributed to the opioid crisis by making it “virtually impossible” for the DEA to freeze suspicious shipments of drugs; and received more than $300,000 in contributions from the pharmaceutical industry over his career
  • Voted against campaign finance reforms, including the DISCLOSE Act and a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United

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    ECU Endorsed Challenger: Chrissy Houlahan
  • Was the beneficiary of over $1.2 million of outside spending from secret money groups in 2010 and voted several times against disclosure requirements for those groups
  • Flip-flopped on protecting Americans’ online privacy rights after a major uptick in contributions from the telecom industry, including from top donor Comcast

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    ECU Endorsed Challenger: Susan Wild
  • After taking thousands of dollars from the telecom industry, he voted to allow internet providers to share customer data without permission. The rule was supported by Comcast, which contributed thousands to him following the vote.
  • With over $490,000 in contributions from Wall St, Rothfus introduced, and voted for, a resolution that would’ve killed a rule that prevented corporations and banks from including forced arbitration in agreements.

    • ECU Endorsed Challenger: Conor Lamb
  • Received more contributions ($63,000) from the telecom industry during the 2016 election than any other Texas House representative, then voted to allow major internet companies to sell customer data without consent
  • Voted multiple times to keep special interests in power by protecting Citizens United and the use of secret political money to influence elections

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    ECU Endorsed Challenger: Gina Ortiz Jones
  • Took over $225,000 from the payday lending industry, making him the fourth-highest recipient in Congress, and voted to keep a provision in a bill that removed CFPB’s authority to regulate the predatory payday loan companies.
  • Earmarked over $1 million for an out-of-state campaign donor’s private company despite his company having no experience relevant to the earmark.

    • ECU Endorsed Challenger: Colin Allred
  • Rep. Brat’s purchasability was on display during Betsy Devos’ nomination for Education Secretary. On January 17, 2017, two mega-donor members of the Devos family gave the maximum contribution to Brat’s campaign. One week later, Brat led a letter signed by several members of the House to the Senate HELP committee issuing its support for Devos.

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    ECU Endorsed Challenger: Abigail Spanberger
  • Took over $343,000 from telecom interests over the course of her career and voted to allow telecom companies to share consumer data without permission and supported the roll back of Net Neutrality.
  • Voted for a bill backed by the Koch brothers to continue to let secret, dark money organizations hide the identity of their mega-donors from the public.

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    ECU Endorsed Challenger: Lisa Brown