135. Changing the political future of our country with our wallets

In this episode, let's explore the powerful influence of small-dollar donations in American politics. You don’t need to be a billionaire to make a difference! 

Let’s talk about the rapid fundraising that has characterized the early days of VP Kamala Harris’ run for President of the United States and the role that the Win With Black Women collective played in her early successes.

Let’s talk about the difference between giving to a candidate and giving to a political action committee (PAC).

Either way, the point is, let’s reclaim our power as everyday Americans to influence the political and cultural future of our country. USA! USA!

Links from today’s episode:

Harris’ Zoom-fueled campaign triggers a dormant Democratic base | Politico July 2024

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/07/27/kamala-harris-identity-zoom-00171489 

5 facts about U.S. political donations | Pew Research 2017

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2017/05/17/5-facts-about-u-s-political-donations/ 

NPR Book Review of “Kochland” by Christopher Leonard | August 2019

https://www.npr.org/2019/08/13/750449277/kochland-explores-the-money-stream-of-the-famous-brother-duo 

How the Koch brothers fundamentally changed modern politics | August 2019

https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/23/politics/david-koch-charles-koch-brothers/index.html 

ICYMI another episode you might enjoy:

Episode#114 Big Wallet, Bleeding Heart: Support Groups for the Wealthy Title (recorded before the 2024 rebranding of this show)

Connect With Genet “GG” Gimja:

Website https://www.progressivepockets.com

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Email progressivepockets@gmail.com for brand partnerships, business inquiries, and speaking engagements.

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Transcript

Welcome to Progressive Pockets! I go by GG, that’s short for Genet Gimja. This is a show about the world we want and our wallets and how we can build the world we want with our daily decisions on where we invest, where we bank, how we shop, and how we donate.

And today’s episode is in that thread of our giving, our donations, but whereas most episodes of this show have been about donating to traditional nonprofits like shelters and soup kitchens and international aid organizations and after school programs, today’s episode is going to be about donations that can shape the political future of our country.

I’ve received some questions from listeners about actually addressing root causes, actually changing the systems and not just the side effects of how our country works. I hope you find this episode helpful.

I want to talk about ways we can harness some of our political power through our wallets, as non-billionaires, let me be clear about that.

Because at the billionaire level there are lots of options for shaping our political and cultural future as a country.

At the billionaire level, there are 

• Political organizations, not candidates, but organizations that can draft sample legislation to push their own agendas. I’m thinking about an organization supported by the Koch brothers, they are a couple of billionaires that changed the face of modern politics. They started long lasting political organizations that created draft legislation to feed into the Republican party.
• Billionaires also can spend a lot of money on Political advertising to support specific candidates or just specific campaign ideas, like environmental regulation. After the Citizens United decision of 2010, there was a wave of political advertising that really affected our country. Electoral outcomes were impacted. Legislative priorities were impacted.
• Billionaires can also fund academic and cultural programs which end up shaping young minds and having an impact for a really long time.
• Billionaires can and have used their money to spread disinformation. I’m talking about the Koch brothers again here.
• Lobbying Firms: Interest groups often hire lobbyists to influence legislation and regulatory decisions. Lobbyists use financial resources to sway policymakers, ensuring that their clients' interests are prioritized in political discussions.

But if you’re like me and you’re not a billionaire, we have a different set of tools at our disposal to exert our own political power.

Today I want to talk about direct contributions to candidates and I want to talk about giving to political action committees. Let’s go one by one.

1. Direct Contributions to Candidates.

We can support candidates that are running for national office and at the local level, I think sometimes we forget to think about our power at the state and local level. A lot of decisions are made at the state level and I think sometimes we can be so focused on the presidential elections that we miss what’s going on and who is getting elected on a local level.

Reproductive rights, the legalization of recreational marijuana, and minimum wage laws are all being set at the state level. So we have a huge incentive to pay attention to those elections. And if you’re inclined, to donate towards those campaigns.

Depending on the state, your contribution limits might be pretty high. In California, individual contributions are capped at around $36,000 for gubernatorial candidates, around $9,000 for other statewide candidates, and $5,500 for legislative candidates per election. 

And the campaigns will take your contribution and put it towards Advertising and Media, Campaign Events and Travel, Staff Salaries and Consulting Fees, Voter Outreach, Technology and Data like Campaign software and tools and Website development and maintenance. They will use your contribution for Administrative Costs like Office space rental, for Polling and Research, Get-Out-The-Vote Efforts like providing transportation for voters.

We need a significant overhaul of campaign finance in our country, but if you’re listening to this and thinking, what's the point of my donation when corporations can give unlimited amounts of money to campaigns, well that is true, but you might be surprised how big of a chunk individual donations really are. According to the Pew Research Center, in the 2016 election cycle, 71% of Hillary Clinton’s fundraising and 40% of Donald Trump’s came from individual contributions. 

The problem with corporate donations forming the bulk of a candidate’s campaign funding is that corporate donations may be buying favor with the politicians once they win the campaign. 

So that’s giving to political campaigns at the local and national level.

But I also want to talk about contributing to political action committees as another tool in the toolbox that you might consider.

First, let’s quickly define what a Political Action Committees even is. Most often you’ll hear them referred to as PACs. PACs can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money to support or oppose candidates. 

And then Super PACs can operate independently of a specific candidate, which means they can have significant financial influence without direct coordination with a specific candidate’s campaign.

Let’s talk about PACs you might have heard of before or might be interested in learning more about. 

There’s ActBlue which is a major Democratic PAC, there’s WinRed, a major Republican PAC. 

There are union PACs like the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail & Transportation Union PAC. There are industry PACs like the National Air Traffic Controllers Association PAC.

There are really powerful PACs like the American Crystal Sugar PAC or the Blue Cross/Blue Shield PAC or the National Association of Realtors PAC.

Are you starting to see how these PACs can represent the interests of a segment of the population? A certain set of interests?

Like that sugar PAC the American Crystal Sugar PAC, they have committed to supporting candidates who are likely to advocate for agricultural policies that favor the US  sugar industry. They give almost equally to Democratic versus Republican candidates, they are in this for the long haul, these PACs don’t exist for one election cycle, they are trying to shape the future of our country’s laws.

So you may be interested in supporting PACs that align with your interests. Here’s an example of one that I learned about in my research on political giving.

EMILY's List is a PAC that supports pro-choice Democratic women candidates. It was formed in 1985 when 25 women met in the home of Ellen Malcolm. A year later they had financially supported the first female Democrat elected to the Senate. They have a very specific mission and that is to raise money for female Democratic candidates for all levels of government, who will advocate in favor of abortion rights.

They endorsed the campaign to elect Kamala Harris’ for President almost immediately after it was announced that Biden would drop out and she would run instead.

So my point is that there may be PACs that speak to your values that you want to financially support.

Giving to a PAC is different than donating to your typical nonprofit. Some nonprofits in the US have 501c3 status which means that they have some restrictions on how they operate and what they have to report and it also means that your donation is tax deductible for you.

PACs are going to be 501c4 organizations. So that means they have a little more flexibility in how they can operate and what they have to report and it also means that your donation will not be tax deductible. 

So to recap, here’s what we covered today:

• Billionaires have fundamentally changed modern politics with their political giving. But guess what? They’re not the only ones with power. Our money has power too.
• Consider donating to a campaign if there is a politician that speaks to your values. And don’t forget about state and local elections where life changing decisions about reproductive freedom and fair pay are being decided.
• Donating to PACs may also appeal to you. This is a way to support candidates who are on the same page with your values but doesn’t force you to seek out every single candidate that aligns with whatever your agenda is.

If you have more time today, here’s another episode to check out. Now we can all use our money to influence the political future of our country, but if you have bigger pockets, you may be looking for other people who also have big pockets and similar values and are feeling mobilized. These are not political organizations, I would just say they are groups where you’ll meet other wealthy folks and talk about your values and what you can accomplish together. That episode that I want to point you to is episode 114 Big Wallet, Bleeding Heart: Support Groups for the Wealthy. I’ll have a link in the show notes as always.

There’s a lot of conversation about political giving these days. Kamala Harris’ campaign raised $200 million in the first week after she emerged as the likely Democratic presidential nominee .

In the first 24 hours of Harris's candidacy, her presidential campaign raised $81 million in small-dollar donations, which was reported as the highest single-day total of any presidential candidate in history

The collective Win with Black Women collective raised $1.5million for Harris’ campaign in 3 hours on a Sunday night just hours after her run for president was announced. And this kicked off more giving among identity groups, Black men, Latinas, Black queer men, white women, white men and young voters, South Asian women, these can be overlapping identities but you get what I mean. I mean there is power in the collective. We don’t have to be billionaires for our wallets to have political influence.

In the days following her run, Harris’ campaign reported receiving contributions from over 1.1 million donors, with 62% being first-time donors to the 2024 election cycle.

Ok this episode has gone on long enough, I’ll let you get back to making your own political donations : -)

Let’s end with a quote…

“Ours is not the struggle of one day, one week, or one year. Ours is not the struggle of one judicial appointment or presidential term. Ours is the struggle of a lifetime, or maybe even many lifetimes, and each one of us in every generation must do our part.” John Lewis

Let’s talk again soon!