Dear Friends,
I am thrilled to report that Oklahoma is now the 24th state to call on Congress to move forward with a constitutional amendment! Earlier in the legislative session, the Oklahoma House passed our resolution unanimously, and in February, the Senate passed it — also with unanimous support.
I know you share my pride in our states team, including Julia Brown, our Deputy Director of Programs & Campaigns, who led this work, and the continued outstanding execution across the organization.
We have more wins to share with you:
We are shepherding rapid action in new states: This year, we expanded our field program, which took us from 11 active state campaigns in 2025 to 14 states this year. (Fifteen months ago, we were only active in five.) We’ve made big strides in four of our newest states. In Indiana, a resolution sailed through the Senate via overwhelming voice vote, and we are working hard to secure sponsorship in the House for the next session. In Missouri, we’ve earned leadership sponsorship from Speaker Pro Tempore Chad Perkins in the House and Assistant Floor Leader Curtis Trent in the Senate; we expect a floor vote in the House before session gavels out in mid-May. The constitutional amendment resolution is moving fast in our expanded state map because our message is resonating with leaders and their constituents.
Across our other high-priority states, our advance continues: The Arizona Senate passed a resolution with strong bipartisan support. We’re also supporting a resolution in Ohio.
Congressional update: This quarter, we leveraged our work in Utah, Wyoming, and other states by bringing state leaders and civic partners to Capitol Hill to brief members and staffers and to urge support for our amendment solution. The conversations on both sides of the aisle are encouraging. As you know, this state work is a key strategic driver of two essentials: the two-thirds vote we need in Congress and rapid ratification in three-quarters of the states.
New polling confirms that Americans are on our side: January marked the 50th anniversary of Buckley v. Valeo, the Supreme Court decision that first equated political spending with free speech — and reshaped our political system in ways few could have imagined at the time. To mark the occasion, we released the results of a new survey, conducted by Ipsos for American Promise, that found Americans overwhelmingly reject the idea that unlimited political spending should be treated as free speech. The survey also found that by nearly 3-to-1, Americans say voters and their elected representatives — not the Supreme Court — should decide campaign finance laws. Read more about the poll at americanpromise.net/jan2026poll.
We turned this 50-year-old court case into a news moment: Our communications team leveraged the anniversary of Buckley v. Valeo to spread our message in the national media. We used the January poll to secure coverage from Politico, OpenSecrets, and Election Law Blog. I also sat down for a wide-ranging conversation on our amendment solution with historian Heather Cox Richardson — a conversation that has now reached over a million viewers on YouTube and Facebook combined. Watch the conversation at americanpromise.net/hcr. The next day, our Chief Program Officer and General Counsel Brian Boyle joined Steve Bannon’s War Room, clear proof of just how far across the aisle our solution is reaching. Watch the clip at americanpromise.net/bannon. Finally, I was on set for C-SPAN’s Washington Journal to discuss campaign finance, share our solution, and take live calls from voters across the country. It was encouraging, but not surprising, to hear from Republicans, Independents, and Democrats all voicing similar frustrations with the status quo and demanding change. Of note, not one caller disagreed with our premise nor our solution; nearly all callers voiced their support. Watch the video at americanpromise.net/washingtonjournal.
As we approach the midterms, attention will only intensify: All signs point to the most expensive midterm election in history, and a handful of megadonors have already telegraphed plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars each. That money won’t only flood federal races; it will trickle all the way down to state assembly contests and school board elections. As the crisis intensifies, more state lawmakers are realizing a hard truth: They cannot protect their own elections under the current constitutional doctrine. That’s exactly the state-centered problem Sutherland Institute takes on in its report, “Freeing the States on Campaign Finance,” which makes the case that states need the freedom to tailor, test, and enforce election rules. The report points to the For Our Freedom Amendment as the durable and needed fix. Read the report at americanpromise.net/sutherlandreport.
As always, thank you for your support. If you have questions or ideas, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me or Anastasia.
Yours,
Jeff Clements
CEO of American Promise
With the 2026 midterms expected to bring a flood of outside political spending, Oklahoma lawmakers have taken action to make their state the 24th to call on Congress to support the amendment solution.
The stage for this victory was set earlier this session when the Oklahoma House of Representatives passed a resolution with unanimous approval, sending a strong, bipartisan signal that lawmakers want election decisions returned to the states and their elected representatives. In February, the Oklahoma Senate approved the measure unanimously.
With Oklahoma’s action, 24 states have now urged Congress to advance a constitutional amendment to restore voters’ and lawmakers’ ability to set the rules around election spending. Read more at americanpromise.net/oklahomaresolution.
It’s clear we are at a defining moment in our work.
From the beginning, American Promise has had a three-phase plan to help Americans address the crisis of unlimited money in our political system: start in the states, as so many successful amendment efforts have done, which builds the political conditions needed for congressional action and, then, rapid ratification.
The plan is working.
Twenty-four states have now called on Congress to act, and we have earned the support of more than 200 members of Congress. Now, we are focused on triggering the “tipping point” that will make the amendment solution a reality.
January marked the 50th anniversary of Buckley v. Valeo, the Supreme Court decision that first equated political spending with free speech. That ruling led to a series of decisions that have hampered lawmakers’ ability to set commonsense rules around money in politics, and unleashed unlimited spending in political campaigns.
New data shows Americans overwhelmingly reject the idea that unlimited spending is a form of free speech. An Ipsos survey conducted for American Promise and timed to the Buckley anniversary found only 15% of Americans agree that political spending should be treated as free speech. The survey also found that roughly 3-to-1, Americans say voters and their elected representatives — not the Supreme Court — should decide campaign finance laws.
Finally, 81% of Americans are concerned about money in politics. These results cut across party lines, highlighting the broad crosspartisan support for action to address this issue and our constitutional solution.
The poll results were key in helping American Promise secure Buckley anniversary coverage, detailed in the “American Promise in the Press” section in this newsletter. Read more about the poll at americanpromise.net/jan2026poll.
Our volunteers are making their voices heard as well. To mark the anniversary of Buckley v. Valeo, 16 letters to the editor by American Promise volunteers were published in newspapers across the country.
In efforts to educate audiences on Buckley and its lasting impact, American Promise CEO Jeff Clements recently sat down with Heather Cox Richardson to discuss Buckley, Citizens United, and how an amendment solution is necessary to fix the broken system. Watch the interview at americanpromise.net/hcr.
Fifty years later, and as we celebrate 250 years of American independence, the time is now to enact a solution to unchecked money in politics and put the American people back in charge.
This legislative season, we have had active campaigns in 14 states, up from 11 last year. Already this quarter we have seen great progress and momentum. In addition to the passage of a resolution in Oklahoma, the Arizona and Indiana senates passed resolutions with overwhelming bipartisan support. Because Indiana’s legislative session concluded the following week, we will likely introduce the resolution in the House next session.
Our resolution was heard in Wyoming and received majority support. In Wyoming’s biennial budget session, non-budget measures must secure a two-thirds vote simply to be introduced, and we fell short of that higher bar. Still, it advanced the conversation on federalism and money in politics — issues that will continue to drive our support in the state.
In Ohio, a resolution is live in the House, and the team was on the ground to provide testimony in the House General Government Committee and support additional in-person and written testifiers.
The resolution is currently advancing in both chambers of the Missouri Legislature with broad leadership support. Chief Program Officer and General Counsel Brian Boyle recently provided in-person committee testimony in both the House and Senate.
Our federal team has been active on Capitol Hill this quarter, strengthening partnerships with key legislators and building momentum for our amendment solution. A highlight was the legislative briefing jointly hosted by American Promise and the influential Sutherland Institute in the Rayburn House Office Building. The event showcased Sutherland’s new report, “Freeing the States on Campaign Finance,” which strongly endorses the For Our Freedom Amendment.
Jeff Clements moderated the panel event featuring the Sutherland Institute’s Bill Duncan, Utah state Rep. Jason Thompson, and Wyoming state Rep. Andrew Byron. The briefing provided a critical platform for state leaders to engage directly with their federal counterparts on the constitutional case for reform — advocating that the authority to regulate political spending belongs to lawmakers and voters, not the courts.
As American Promise continues to grow, we are deeply grateful for your generous support. We are greatly honored to receive an extraordinary $1 million commitment from the Schmidt Family Foundation — a significant first-time investment that accelerates our ability to scale nationally and represents a powerful vote of confidence in our work.
Your collective support has enabled us to expand to 14 states in 2026, up from 11 in 2025. Many of our newest states in this expansion have been our fastest moving. In addition, because of you, we are broadening our communications to reach more citizens, mobilize additional volunteers, strengthen partnerships, and build support among legislators.
Your investment in American Promise powers every area of our work and is crucial to advancing our strategy.
We are grateful for your willingness to host events and connect us with your networks to help us reach more investors and expand our community of funders.
We are currently planning our summer events and meetings. If you are interested in hosting an event, please reach out to Chief Development Officer Liz Harvey (Lizh@americanpromise.net).
Additionally, we ask that you think of one or two people in your networks who may want to learn more about American Promise and how they can help advance a solution to address unlimited money in politics and ensure every voice is heard in our democracy. As we move closer to the tipping point for the For Our Freedom Amendment, it truly is an all-hands-on-deck moment. Please reach out to Jeff (Jeffc@americanpromise.net) or Liz (Lizh@americanpromise.net) to set up a time for introductions.
Lisa was first introduced to American Promise after attending an event in 2024. Since then, she has gone above and beyond in her support: becoming an American Promise Ambassador, hosting events, and introducing us to her networks. Lisa is passionate about addressing the problem of money in politics and excited to be a part of the solution. Lisa lives in Bronxville, N.Y.
Right out of college, I went into investment banking for two years, then I went to McKinsey & Company after business school, but I knew I wanted something different. An executive search firm introduced me to the Robin Hood Foundation, a New York City nonprofit founded by hedge fund leaders to fight poverty. I joined in 1992 when it was only four years old and stayed for 20 years. At the time, Robin Hood funded remarkable, small nonprofits with great missions but real operational gaps — legal, real estate, accounting, finance. My job was to build a management assistance effort to help them. That became my career.
I left Robin Hood to spend more time with my then middle-school age children. Since then, I’ve poured myself into volunteer work: the University of Virginia, where I went to school, the public school my kids attended, and our community hospital. And now American Promise.
My happy preoccupations include family travel. From the time our children were young, we spent every school holiday and break traveling in the U.S. and abroad, taking in other cultures and enjoying family time in places where cell phones didn’t work and where we ate three meals together every day — happy memories.
I’m an avid reader and belong to two book clubs. Bronxville, where I live, is a fascinating little town of one-square-mile whose early village inhabitants included an interesting mixture of business magnates, artists, and literary types. The town is still a yeasty place and I’ve been fortunate to meet so many interesting and caring women in a variety of clubs that have been around for decades or more.
Then there are the less happy preoccupations — the precarious state of our democracy, the deepening divide between haves and have-nots, the collapse of our ability to talk across political lines, and the way the government has stopped working for ordinary people. I’ve been talking about money in politics for years. People pay their taxes, vote in elections, and watch their government serve moneyed interests instead of them. They are justly angry. I’ve been saying for a long time that this will cause unrest, and it is. That is my biggest preoccupation.
Honestly? A lot of anxiety. I work hard to stay informed and active without being overwhelmed. For a long time I felt genuinely powerless — doing small things for the people around me, trying to be a good community member, but unable to see how to affect the bigger picture.
Then I found American Promise. The strategy, the team, the energy, the creativity — it gives me real hope. Seeing what happens when people show up, stay active, vote, march, that’s what pushes back against authoritarianism. When I imagine this amendment passing, it feels like the beginning of something: proof that people won’t stand for having their government co-opted, and that change is actually possible. I feel urgency. We need to move fast and build real momentum.
The last book I read was “The Correspondent,” a short novel by Virginia Evans. The main character is an older woman, flawed and self-centered in some ways, yet deeply giving and loving in others, who lives much of her life through remarkable letters. It made me think about legacy and connection in a way that stayed with me as I entered the final third of my life.
Every day I read the New York Times and Wall Street Journal and listen to WNYC. When WNYC recently interviewed Ben Shapiro, I wrote to them to say thank you and to please do more of it. I make a point of going to conservative media to see how things are being framed there. We have to get out of our echo chambers. I want to find the smartest conservative voices — ones who will hold a mirror up to my own assumptions — because finding a constructive middle path forward requires us to start seeing each other again.
In this moment it seems that everyone we send up as a hero is sooner or later knocked off his or her pedestal — with flaws, contradictions, ideals they didn’t always live up to. So maybe I’ve moved away from identifying heroes and toward heroic qualities: the willingness to hold high ideals and keep reaching toward them, even imperfectly.
I went to the University of Virginia, where Thomas Jefferson was revered. He founded the university on the conviction that without an educated citizenry, this whole democratic experiment would fail. He designed it to be genuinely student-governed — no president, remarkable autonomy. When I was there, we 20-somethings were running major organizations without faculty oversight. His vision changed my life for the better and he was a true hero to me. Then I read the Hamilton biography and saw Jefferson differently — more aristocratic, more idealistic in a way that could shade into impractical and, of course, we all know in how many ways he did not live up to the ideals he espoused. The founding of our country displays what I now admire. The bringing together of extremely smart, educated, passionate, committed individuals with different views to work together and compromise toward the greater good of the larger community, country, and world.
As for someone living, I was just reading a long piece by Dario Amodei, who runs Anthropic. He wrote about AI’s potential for both enormous good and serious harm, and about Anthropic’s effort to give its AI a conscience. So many brilliant people in tech seem to have high IQs and low EQs. Amodei reads as someone with both. In this particular moment, that combination matters enormously, and I would love to hear more from him.
I’ve been saying for years that capitalism taken to its extreme becomes destructive, and money in politics is exhibit A. When I heard there was an organization working directly on that problem, I was there like a moth to a flame.
I came in skeptical. I asked hard questions. I talked to Brian, Jeff, Anastasia, and Carolina, and they were generous with their time and thoughtful in their answers.
What sealed it was the people and the execution. Over my career, I’ve chosen where to put my energy based on the people involved, and I seem to have a decent instinct for it. My husband always says he’ll take great execution over great strategy. American Promise has both — a north star strategy they’ve never wavered from, and the operational credibility to back it up. Every hard question I’ve asked has had a real answer.
I want to be part of building this into a true movement so that by the time this amendment reaches Congress and the states, there is a tsunami of citizen support drowning out every dollar that tries to stop it.
In January, American Promise CEO Jeff Clements joined historian Heather Cox Richardson for her “American Conversations” interview series to discuss the history of Supreme Court decisions that have resulted resulted in unlimited spending in elections.
Watch here: americanpromise.net/hcr
The same week, Chief Program Officer and General Counsel Brian Boyle presented the For Our Freedom Amendment on Steve Bannon’s War Room (Watch: americanpromise.net/bannon), and Jeff joined Mimi Geerges on C-SPAN Washington Journal to discuss the role of money in politics, the free-speech debate around political spending, and the path to restoring electoral integrity.
Watch here: americanpromise.net/washingtonjournal
The Brennan Center for Justice linked our amendment as part of their Nine Solutions for Political Corruption, noting that it is time to amend the Constitution and that many states already support this.
Read more: americanpromise.net/9solutions
Jeff Clements and Texas state Sen. Angela Paxton had an op-ed published in The Hill: “This amendment can protect our elections from foreign interference.”
Read more: americanpromise.net/paxtonclements
Our recent poll results were referenced in a variety of outlets, including Politico, Campaigns & Elections, Political Wire, Election Law Blog, and Open Secrets (on the right).
Jeff also appeared on the podcast New Faces of Democracy to discuss why lawmakers can’t set commonsense rules on money in politics, and why an amendment solution is needed.
Listen: americanpromise.net/newfaces
OpenSecrets made the win in Oklahoma into their Chart of the Week, featuring American Promise, our amendment solution, and showcasing our momentum. The Chart of the Week is featured across OpenSecrets social channels, which reach 300,000 followers.
Read more: americanpromise.net/chartoftheweek
If you haven’t done so, please contact Liz Harvey at lizh@americanpromise.net to learn how you can make a commitment to invest in American Promise’s growth and expansion in new states and in Washington. It’s a great opportunity to make history in the next few years!
Contact our Director of Donor Relations Carolina Hojaij at carolinah@americanpromise.net to learn how you can become an American Promise Ambassador. Our Ambassadors are funders and allies dedicated to expanding our network and introducing others to the American Promise movement.
Join our grassroots volunteers by contacting Director of Mobilization Mike Monetta at mikem@americanpromise.net. Opportunities include everything from talking with neighbors and colleagues to writing letters to the editor and gathering pledges from elected officials.
