End Citizens United // Let America Vote (ECU // LAV) today endorsed Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul for reelection as part of its first ever “Democracy Defender” program for preeminent Attorney General and Secretary of State candidates in the 2022 cycle. These constitutional officers are critical in the fight in combating dark money-fueled restrictive voting laws being passed across the country and protecting the right to vote. ECU // LAV will spend $7 million in key races across the country, including in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Wisconsin, and Texas.
Click here for CNN’s coverage of the endorsement.
“Attorney General Josh Kaul has fought hard to protect democracy in Wisconsin. When Republicans in the state tried to purge over 200,000 voters from the voter rolls, it was Attorney General Kaul who stepped up to and stopped them from disenfranchising Wisconsin voters,” said Tiffany Muller, President of ECU // LAV. “As Wisconsin’s extremist Republican legislature continues to push restrictive voting bills, it’s imperative that the people of Wisconsin have Attorney General Kaul in office to fight for their rights. We are proud to endorse him in his reelection campaign.”
“It’s critical that our elected officials stand up against voter suppression and efforts to subvert election results, and I’m proud to have done that as Attorney General,” said AG Kaul. “It’s an honor to have the support of an organization like ECU // LAV that’s fighting to defend our democracy.”
Elected in 2018 by unseating a Republican incumbent, Attorney General Kaul has spent his time in office fighting off Republican attacks on democracy and advocating for important reform initiatives. In May 2021, Kaul testified in front of the U.S. House Administration Subcommittee on Elections and Voting Rights, where he detailed the dangers of voter purges like the one Republicans attempted in Wisconsin. During the 2020 election. Kaul joined other Attorneys General in challenging the U.S. Postal Service’s pre-election procedural changes that would have made voting-by-mail a much more difficult task and threatened the accuracy of our elections. He has actively called out the Big Lie that led to the January 6th insurrection and continues to fester today.
ECU // LAV raised and spent $65.5 million in the 2020 election cycle. Its $12.5 million independent expenditure made it the 5th largest issue group spending on the Democratic side. This will be the first time ECU // LAV is making a multi-million dollar investment in AG and SOS races. The “Democracy Defender” program is part of ECU // LAV’s Fight for Reform (FFR) project that supports candidates at the state and local level.
End Citizens United and Let America Vote merged in 2020. The group is dedicated to combating the two biggest challenges facing our democracy: the corrosive impact of Big Money and attempts to block access to the ballot box. ECU // LAV has more than four million members nationwide, including 125,676 in Wisconsin.
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