Ask Your Elected Officials: Do You Represent Big Money or We the People?

Through grassroots action and organizing, American Promise volunteers across the nation are making the American Promise Amendment to end unlimited political spending a voting issue in the upcoming election. A majority of Americans, regardless of political ideology, already support the amendment. The fundamental question we should ask candidates now is âWhich side are you on: big moneyâs or ours?â
Recently, Azor Cole, American Promiseâs State Manager, joined We Get Results with Mary Singer Albertson, a program on BodyMindSpirit Radio, to talk about the work American Promise is doing to reform our nationâs campaign finance system and highlight the stakes we face.Â
âWe work hard to make this a voting issue,â Azor said in the interview. âWe ask candidates, âWhich side of this issue are you on? Do you think money is the same thing as free speech? Do you think that First Amendment rights should be for corporations and unions? Or do you side with the majority of Americans across party lines that the Supreme Court got it wrong?ââ
With the 2020 election looming, our work is more important than ever. Hundreds of candidates running for office in 2020 have signed the American Promise Candidate Pledge, answering that fundamental question by committing to represent the peopleânot ultra-wealthy donors, corporations, unions or special interests.
âAt American Promise, we see the need for this constitutional amendment based on a number of Supreme Court decisions, which have made it much harder for ordinary Americans to participate in our political process by really putting someoneâs political influence in direct correlation with the amount of money they have to spend in our politics, which isnât how a healthy democratic republic is supposed to operate,â he said.