Press Releases

ECU Members Contribute $200K to Rob Quist

May 19, 2017

ECU’s grassroots members rally behind Quist to fight back against Big Money special interests in Montana
Helena, MT – End Citizens United (ECU) today announced that its grassroots members have contributed $200,000 in small donations, an average of $16 per contribution, directly to Rob Quist’s campaign. ECU endorsed Quist last month for the MT-AL special election.

“Grassroots donors are flocking to Quist because they know he’ll be an independent voice for Montana,” End Citizens United President and Executive Director Tiffany Muller said.  “In contrast, his opponent, Greg Gianforte, says one thing in public to voters and another in private to his big donors.  He’s broken his pledge to reject corporate PAC money, and he may have broken campaign finance law.  After funding efforts to undercut Montana disclosure rules, Gianforte is now relying on secret money from special interest groups to prop up his campaign.  Our grassroots network is determined to fight back and send a true reformer to Congress.”

Energy continues building around Rob Quist’s campaign. After Gianforte was caught on tape telling his donors that he supports the House bill to take health care away from 24 million Americans, Quist raised $550,000 in just a few days, and has closed within single digits in the polls.

ECU was one of the first progressive organizations to endorse Quist’s bid for Congress. With 14,000 members across Montana, ECU will continue to connect Quist’s campaign with local volunteers and its 330,000 small-dollar national donors to fight against the deceptive negative attacks Gianforte and his special interest allies are running against him.

Earlier this week, ECU filed an FEC complaint against Gianforte. The complaint notes Gianforte may have violated the law when he directed earmarked funds to benefit his own race into his joint fundraising committee.  On that same call, Gianforte broke a pledge to Montanans that he would not accept corporate PAC money.  ECU also called on Gianforte to tell the Super PAC and secret money group running ads in the race to disclose their donors or pull their ads.  Gianforte has history of skirting Montana campaign finance laws and undermining the state’s reform efforts.

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