Senator Daines has taken over $2.6 million from corporate PACs over the course of his political career
A recent poll shows that ECU-endorsed Montana Senate candidate Governor Steve Bullock and Daines tied at 47 percent
End Citizens United (ECU) today named Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) to the Big Money 20, the group’s top targets to defeat in 2020. ECU’s Big Money 20 campaign is focused on defeating incumbents who are most responsible for rigging the system to benefit themselves and their big political donors at the expense of everyone else. It will show voters how politicians like Senator Daines put corporate special interest donors ahead of the people they’re supposed to represent. For the Montana Senate race, ECU has endorsed Governor Steve Bullock, who is rejecting corporate PAC money and running a people-powered campaign. Bullock has made rooting out government corruption the fight of his career.
“Senator Steve Daines’ corrupt record proves that his priority is corporations and mega-donors, not Montanans,” said End Citizens United President Tiffany Muller. “Daines has taken just about every step to protect corporate special interests in Washington, even voting against forcing corporations and wealthy donors to disclose all of the money they spend on campaigns. Meanwhile, as Montana’s Attorney General and as Governor, Steve Bullock embodies Montana’s proud tradition of supporting good government and clean elections by fighting against corruption and working to overturn Citizens United.”
End Citizens United aims to educate voters about the Big Money 20, incumbents who represent the worst of Washington and rally support for reforming the political system. The members of the Big Money 20 are incumbents who take money from corporate special interests, mega-donors, and industries like Big Pharma and Big Oil and then put those interests ahead of their constituents.
Senator Daines has repeatedly sided with corporate special interests and his wealthy donors over Montanans. In 2017, Daines elevated the concerns of wealthy landowners, several of whom were his donors, about a forest ranger who fought for Montanans’ right to access public lands in the Crazy Mountains. After Daines took action, the ranger was reassigned to a desk job and only reinstated after months of public outcry –– including in the opinion pages across the state blasting Daines for putting a few wealthy landowners ahead of ordinary hunters and hikers. Daines also gave in to Big Money on health care reform, pushing a bill that would give health insurers and big pharma a tax cut and could have resulted in over 80,000 Montanans losing insurance coverage. He’s praised the Citizens United decision as protecting the First Amendment and opposed a constitutional amendment to overturn it. Steve Daines isn’t working for Montana families.
A recent poll of Montana voters, commissioned by End Citizens United (ECU) and conducted by Public Policy Polling (PPP), shows that ECU-endorsed candidate Governor Steve Bullock and Daines tied at 47 percent. The poll also finds that an overwhelming majority of Montana voters, 90 percent, believe that politicians in Washington support policies that benefit corporate special interests that help fund their campaigns.
In recent election cycles, ECU has been active and engaged in Montana. During the 2018 election cycle, ECU made the Montana Senate race a priority and endorsed Senator Jon Tester as part of its first round of endorsements. The group had a nearly $2.5 million impact on the Montana Senate race through paid communications and grassroots donations. ECU’s grassroots members made 22,600 contributions, totaling $180,000, directly for Tester’s campaign, with an average contribution of $8.
ECU is a traditional political action committee (PAC) with more than four million members, including 14,000 in Montana. ECU raised $44 million in the 2018 last cycle and helped elect over 150 members to the 116th Congress, including two new U.S. Senators and 58 new U.S. Representatives. In the 2018 cycle, End Citizens United helped defeat 81% of the Big Money 20 targets. ECU will connect its more than 550,000 members to endorsed candidates who are challenging Big Money 20 targets. For a full list and additional background on the Big Money 20, click here.
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