House Democrats Are Exploiting a Loophole to Take Corporate Money, Breaking Pledge to Voters

Roughly 50 House Democrats have sworn off accepting corporate PAC dollars to appease the progressive wing of their party. However, there are a handful of ways that corporate cash is seeping into Democrats’ campaign coffers:

• Taking donations from other lawmakers and campaign committees who accept corporate PAC dollars.
• Accepting money from trade association PACs and cooperative PACs which raise money from corporate members.
• Having corporate lobbyists write them personal checks and serve as “bundlers” by hosting fundraisers.

Additionally, the DCCC has already doubled the amount they raised from corporate lobbyists compared to this point last cycle and is on pace “to surpass the $1.9 million raised in the 2018 election cycle.” As The Intercept notes:

“Corporate executives continue to cut up to eight-figure checks to so-called joint fundraising committees, which funnel the money to campaign committees. The Democratic leadership has largely continued accepting all forms of corporate PAC money and used its leadership PACs to redistribute the funds to candidates taking the no corporate PAC pledge.”

The hypocrisy of House Democrats is on full display as they continue to call to reduce the influence of corporate money in politics while simultaneously using loopholes to accept corporate cash.