In the United States, a political action committee (PAC) is a tax-exempt 527 organization that pools campaign contributions from members and donates those funds to campaigns for or against candidates, ballot initiatives, or legislation. The legal term PAC was created in pursuit of campaign finance reform in the United States. Democracies of other countries use different terms for the units of campaign spending or spending on political competition. At the U.S. federal level, an organization becomes a PAC when it receives or spends more than $1,000 for the purpose of influencing a federal election, and registers with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), according to the Federal Election Campaign Act as amended by the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002. At the state level, an organization becomes a PAC according to the state's election laws.
A 527 organization or 527 group is a type of U.S. tax-exempt organization organized under Section 527 of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. A 527 group is created primarily to influence the selection, nomination, election, appointment or defeat of candidates to federal, state or local public office.
The financing of electoral campaigns in the United States happens at the federal, state, and local levels by contributions from individuals, corporations, political action committees, and sometimes the government. Campaign spending has risen steadily at least since 1990. For example, a candidate who won an election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1990 spent on average $407,600, while the winner in 2022 spent on average $2.79 million; in the Senate, average spending for winning candidates went from $3.87 million to $26.53 million.
Americans for Prosperity (AFP), founded in 2004, is a libertarian conservative political advocacy group in the United States affiliated with brothers Charles Koch and the late David Koch. As the Koch family's primary political advocacy group, it has been viewed as one of the most influential American conservative organizations.
Let Freedom Ring, Inc. is an American conservative advocacy organization. It is organized as a 501(c)(4) entity, and in 2014 created a super PAC. Let Freedom Ring has Colin Hanna as its president and has employed Timothy Goeglein as a consultant.
Courage California is a California-based 501(c)(4) progressive grassroots advocacy organization founded in 2005. The organization claims an online grassroots activism network of over 1 million members. The group works on a variety of progressive causes including LGBT equality, gun control and healthcare reform, including support of single-payer health care. The group has taken a role in various California statewide ballot measures, including supporting Proposition 30 and opposing Proposition 32 in 2012.
American Crossroads is a US Super PAC that raises funds from donors to advocate for certain candidates of the Republican Party. It has pioneered many of the new methods of fundraising opened up by the Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United. Its president is Steven J. Law, a former United States Deputy Secretary of Labor for President George W. Bush and the Chairman of the Board of Directors is former Republican National Committee chairman Mike Duncan. Advisers to the group include Senior Advisor and former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove and former Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour.
Proposition 27 was an unsuccessful ballot proposition on the November 2, 2010 ballot in California, placed there by the initiative process. If approved, this measure would have repealed California Proposition 11 (2008), which authorized the creation of the California Citizens Redistricting Commission to draw the electoral boundaries for State Assembly and State Senate districts. It would also have modified the provision in California law that says that proposed congressional districts can not be subjected to a veto referendum.
The American Action Network (AAN) is a nonprofit, conservative issue advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., aligned to the Republican Party. It was established in 2010 by Fred Malek and Norm Coleman as a 501(c)(4) organization.
In politics, particularly the politics of the United States, dark money refers to spending to influence elections, public policy, and political discourse, where the source of the money is not disclosed to the public.
The American Principles Project (APP) is a socially conservative 501(c)(4) political advocacy group founded in 2009 by Robert P. George, Jeff Bell, and Francis P. Cannon. It is chaired by Sean Fieler. It is led by Terry Schilling, the son of the late former U.S. Representative Bobby Schilling. The organization has an affiliated super PAC, the American Principles Project PAC, which receives significant funding from Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein. It also has an affiliated 501(c)(3) nonprofit think tank, the American Principles Project Foundation.
Every Voice was an American nonprofit, progressive liberal political advocacy organization. The organization was formed in 2014 upon the merger of the Public Campaign Action Fund, a 501(c)(4) group, and the Friends of Democracy. Every Voice, along with its affiliated Super PAC, Every Voice Action, advocated for campaign finance reform in the United States via public financing of political campaigns and limitations on political donations. The organization's president, David Donnelly, has said "We fully embrace the irony of working through a Super PAC to fight the influence of Super PACs."
Jay Faison is an American entrepreneur and a conservative philanthropist focused on climate change from North Carolina. He was founder and CEO of SnapAV. In 2014, he sold the vast majority of his shares in SnapAV and invested $175 million to start the ClearPath Foundation.
A special election to the United States House of Representatives for Ohio's 8th congressional district was held to determine the successor to John Boehner, who resigned his seat on October 31, 2015. Republican Governor of Ohio John Kasich set the primary election for March 15, 2016, and the general election for June 7. The winner of the June special election ran for reelection in November 2016 but served the remainder of Boehner's 13th two-year term, which ended in early January 2017.
The 2020 United States Senate election in Michigan was held on November 3, 2020, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent Michigan. It was held concurrently with the 2020 U.S. presidential election, as well as other elections to the United States Senate, elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.
Shadow campaigns refers to spending meant to influence political outcomes where the source of the money is not publicly disclosed or is difficult to trace. United States campaign finance law has been regulated by the Federal Election Commission since its creation in the wake of the Watergate Scandal in 1975, and in the years following Citizens United v. FEC, there has been a rise in outside special interest groups spending money on political campaigns in the United States. Dark money leaves voters uninformed about important political information and it can obscure potential conflicts of interest for judges and legislators alike.
Acronym is a Washington, D.C.-based American 501(c)(4) non-profit corporation, co-founded by Tara McGowan and Michael Dubin in 2017. The organization is one of the major coordinators and producers of digital media campaigns aligned with the Democratic Party, and has been hired by or has provided support to various other organizations including the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Emily's List, Everytown for Gun Safety, and Planned Parenthood. It was the majority owner of Shadow, Inc., a technology company that made the mobile application software that malfunctioned during vote tallying at the 2020 Iowa Democratic caucuses, but later divested its stake in the company.
The 2022 United States Senate election in Oregon was held on November 8, 2022, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the state of Oregon. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, who was first elected in a 1996 special election, ran for a fifth full term. Jo Rae Perkins, who unsuccessfully ran for Oregon's other Senate seat in 2020, won the Republican primary with 33.3% of the vote. The four candidates filing with the Oregon Secretary of State for this election included Chris Henry of the Oregon Progressive Party and Dan Pulju of the Pacific Green Party.
America First Policies (A1P) is an organization created following the inauguration of Donald Trump in 2017 to promote the America First policy agenda of his administration. It was founded by Trump campaign people including Nick Ayers, Rick Gates, and Brad Parscale.
