Group reveals targets in $35 million campaign to unseat 20 incumbents in 2018 who represent a rigged system that puts special interests ahead of voters’ interests

Campaign will target independent and unaffiliated voters – a group that voted for Trump, didn’t get what they voted for, but still heavily favor candidates who reform the system

WASHINGTON, D.C. – End Citizens United (ECU) today unveiled its new “Big Money 20” campaign – a $35 million effort focused on defeating the worst of Washington’s rigged system by educating voters on how their representatives prioritize the needs of special interests that fund their campaigns over the needs of their constituents.

The full list of Big Money 20 targets includes: Representatives Duncan Hunter (CA-50), Darrell Issa (CA-49), Dana Rohrabacher (CA-48), Mimi Walters (CA-45), Mike Coffman (CO-06), Mike Bost (IL-12), Peter Roskam (IL-06), Rod Blum (IA-01), Mike Bishop (MI-08), Erik Paulsen (MN-03), Tom MacArthur (NJ-03), Rodney Frelinghuysen (NJ-11), Claudia Tenney (NY-22), Robert Pittenger (NC-09), Ryan Costello (PA-06), Pat Meehan (PA-07), Will Hurd (TX-23) and Paul Ryan (WI-01), as well as Senators Dean Heller (NV) and Ted Cruz (TX).

“Donald Trump was elected on a promise to drain the swamp, but things are only getting worse in Washington. He, and many in Congress, are putting the special interests and mega-donors ahead of the interests of American families,” said End Citizens United President Tiffany Muller. “We’re mobilizing our more than three million grassroots members to throw these politicians out of office and elect reformers who will get unlimited special interest money and secret donations out of government. It’s time our representatives focus on all of us, not just those who write the biggest checks.”

The Big Money 20 is the first concerted effort to reclaim independent and unaffiliated voters who voted for President Trump, but still heavily favor candidates who want to reform the rigged political system.

The members of the Big Money 20 are incumbents who do the bidding of drug companies, Big Oil, Wall Street, and others with deep pockets while also voting to keep the system rigged. For example:

• The Big Money 20 benefited from $11.7 million from special interest groups pushing tax reform that will raise taxes on the middle class and disproportionately benefit millionaires. Seventeen members of the Big Money 20 voted for the bill which is expected to raise taxes on 13 million Americans who earn less than $100,000 a year, while half of the benefits would be handouts to the richest one percent in the country.
  

• Over their careers, the Big Money 20 received over $13.3 million from Wall Street. In 2017, every member of this group voted for legislation to gut regulations to keep our economy safe and protect consumers from predatory practices. Every House member of the Big Money 20 voted for the Financial Choice Act, which allowed the President to readily fire the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the agency responsible for protecting the rights of everyday Americans against predatory financial practices, and shut down public access to the Agency’s database of consumer complaints.
  

• After filling their coffers with over $2 million from the telecom industry, 18 members of the Big Money 20 voted in March for a resolution – S.J. Res. 34 – that allowed major internet companies to sell customer data without their consent.

ECU plans to raise and spend $35 million this cycle from its army of grassroots, small-dollar donors to defeat these politicians and to elect champions of reform. The Big Money 20 campaign will be targeted at districts where the issue of reform has been proven to motivate and persuade voters, notably independent and unaffiliated voters as well as many white working-class voters – many of whom voted for Trump and his populist, anti-establishment message of reforming the way business is done in Washington.

Over the past two years, ECU has conducted extensive polling and research showing that independent and unaffiliated voters rank getting money out of politics as a high priority, ahead of or equal to jobs and health care, and that two out of three voters believe the amount of money in politics impacts “kitchen table” issues. The group has also seen widespread support for increasing transparency and accountability in the system including limits on what special interests like drug companies, the healthcare industry and Wall Street can spend to influence politicians.

Founded in 2015, ECU is a traditional political action committee (PAC) with more than three million members. Funded by small-dollar, grassroots donors who give an average contribution of $14, ECU raised $25 million last cycle and helped elect 65 members of Congress, including three new U.S. Senators and 16 new U.S. Representatives in 2016. This year it has already raised more than $2 million directly for its endorsed candidates. The group is dedicated to ending the corrosive influence of Big Money in politics and fixing our rigged political system by electing campaign finance reform champions, passing state ballot measures, and elevating the issue in the national conversation.

For a full list and additional background on the Big Money 20, click here.

# # #