End Citizens United (ECU) President Tiffany Muller released the following statement in response to Donald Trump choosing J.D. Vance to run as his vice president:
“Donald Trump picking J.D. Vance to be his candidate for vice president solidifies that his campaign is working overtime to appease wealthy donors and corporate interests. Vance has spent his career prioritizing billionaires and special interests at the expense of working families. There should be no lingering doubt that Trump and Vance will create one of the most extreme and corrupt administrations in our nation’s history. Together, they will open doors for corporations, wealthy elites, and special interests to capitalize off of hard-working Americans.”
Instead of working for Ohioans, J.D. Vance has been focused on advancing his own interests and rewarding his ultra-wealthy donors. Despite vowing not to take corporate PAC contributions to his Senate campaign, Vance was exposed for accepting tens of thousands of dollars from corporate PACs in the energy, insurance, and real-estate industries. He then used the same funds to repay himself.
Vance also promised Ohio families who were impacted by the opioid epidemic support through a charity, but then used the charity to reward Big Pharma by employing an executive with ties to Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of OxyContin. He then used the sham charity to launch his political career.
ECU filed a complaint against Vance in 2022 for an illegal in-kind contribution scheme between his campaign and a super PAC funded by his billionaire buddy Peter Thiel. By circumventing campaign finance laws, Vance kept voters in the dark about who was propping his campaign up.
He was also named as a leading member on ECU’s Big Money 20, a list which highlighted the most corrupt politicians who put corporate special interests and mega donors ahead of the people they’re supposed to represent.
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