Washington, D.C. — Today, End Citizens United (ECU) endorsed Representative Ben Ray Luján for U.S. Senate. As the Assistant Speaker of the House, Luján is the highest ranking member of Democratic leadership to reject corporate PAC money.
“As former chair of the DCCC, Rep. Luján helped elect a new Congress that’s putting people first and passed the most sweeping anti-corruption reform plan in a generation,” said End Citizens United President Tiffany Muller. “Rep. Luján is helping lead the fight to reform Washington and has already delivered. By rejecting corporate PAC money in his campaign, Ben Ray Luján is proving that he works only for the people of New Mexico, and not the corporate special interests. ECU is proud to endorse Ben Ray Luján and his campaign to bring the same sweeping reforms to the U.S. Senate that won the 2018 elections in the U.S. House.”
“The first bill our new Democratic majority passed in the House was a set of bold reforms to tackle corruption and the outsized influence of corporate money in Washington,” said Congressman Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), the U.S. House Assistant Speaker. “It would break the grip dark money has on our politics and put New Mexicans first. But Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell refuses to let it come up for a vote because his corporate backers don’t want the rigged system to change. I’m refusing corporate PAC money in my campaign. I only work for New Mexicans. The endorsement of End Citizens United shows I’m serious about bringing reform to Washington, and to do that we need to elect a new Senate in 2020.”
Since being elected to Congress in 2009, Luján has been a steadfast leader in pro-democracy reform. Along with playing a pivotal role in passing H.R. 1, Rep. Luján introduced the Fair and Clear Campaign (FCC) Transparency Act to make information about the buyers of political advertisements more accessible along with the KOCH Act, which would identify individuals behind campaign ads. He also was a co-sponsor of the DISCLOSE Act, a bill that would strengthen public reporting requirements for corporations and outside campaign groups.
ECU is dedicated to getting Big Money out of politics and fixing the rigged system in Washington so government works for all Americans. The reform group spearheaded the movement among candidates to forgo corporate PAC money in their campaigns. Fifty-eight members of the 116th Congress are refusing to take corporate PAC money, including 36 members of the House freshman class. The reform group has four million members nationwide, including 30,000 in New Mexico, and is entirely grassroots-funded with an average donation of just $14.
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