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Every Voice was an American nonprofit, progressive liberal political advocacy organization.Meet the Liberals Who Think Trump's Good For Democracy
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Politico ''Politico'' (stylized in all caps), known originally as ''The Politico'', is an American political digital newspaper company founded by American banker and media executive Robert Allbritton in 2007. It covers politics and policy in the Unit ...
''; July 28, 2015
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 Campaign finance reform in the United States has been a contentious political issue since the early days of the Union. The most recent major federal law affecting campaign finance was the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) of 2002, also kno ...
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." Every Voice has advocated legislative proposals pushed by United States Representatives
Tom Petri Thomas Evert Petri (born May 28, 1940) is an American politician who was the United States House of Representatives, U.S. representative for from 1979 to 2015; he is a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party. Early lif ...
(R-WI) and
John Sarbanes John Peter Spyros Sarbanes ( ; born May 22, 1962) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the U.S. representative for from 2007 to 2025. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district includes Annapolis, the entirety of Howard ...
(D-MD) which would match small-donor contributions with public funds. The organization has also supported Todd Tiahrt (R), who has an "anti-money-in-politics" message, while targeting
Mitch McConnell Addison Mitchell McConnell III (; born February 20, 1942) is an American politician and attorney serving as the senior United States senator from Kentucky, a seat he has held since 1985. McConnell is in his seventh Senate term and is the long ...
, who opposes campaign finance reform. In 2014, Every Voice ran advertisements opposing Republican Representative
Mike Pompeo Michael Richard Pompeo (; born December 30, 1963) is an American retired politician who served in the First presidency of Donald Trump#Administration, first administration of Donald Trump as director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) fr ...
. FactCheck.org rated one of the group's advertisements against Pompeo as "inaccurate and misleading".


Public Campaign

Public Campaign was a non-profit, non-partisan organization that aims to reduce the role of special interest money in
American politics In the United States, politics functions within a framework of a constitutional federal republic, federal democratic republic with a presidential system. The three distinct branches Separation of powers, share powers: United States Congress, C ...
. Public Campaign worked to bring
publicly funded elections A publicly funded election is an election funded with money collected through income tax donations or taxes as opposed to private or corporate-funded campaigns. In 1974, following the Watergate scandal, the U.S. Congress revised the Federal Elec ...
to local, state, and federal elections. Based in
Washington, DC Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...
, Public Campaign was founded in 1997. As of 2015, seven states and two cities had some form of publicly funded elections. Public Campaign, an organization whose board of directors consisted of eight individuals, published several reports about the role of money in the political process, including the ''Color of Money'' report, that detailed that a majority of campaign contributions to presidential candidates are from upper class white neighborhoods. In December 2011, Public Campaign published a report detailing the
tax avoidance Tax avoidance is the legal usage of the tax regime in a single territory to one's own advantage to reduce the amount of tax that is payable. A tax shelter is one type of tax avoidance, and tax havens are jurisdictions that facilitate reduced taxe ...
and
lobbying Lobbying is a form of advocacy, which lawfully attempts to directly influence legislators or government officials, such as regulatory agency, regulatory agencies or judiciary. Lobbying involves direct, face-to-face contact and is carried out by va ...
efforts conducted by 30 very large American corporations between 2008 and 2010. The report states that of the 30 companies, 29 paid no taxes and received tax rebates totaling $10.6 billion, while spending $475.6 million on lobbying (or $400,000 per day, including weekends) and $22 million on federal campaigns, while in some cases increasing executive compensation ($706 million altogether in 2010) and laying off tens of thousands of workers. Public Campaign was a 501(c)(3) organization which paid no taxes and received tax-deductible contributions. Unlike a 501(c)(4) — contributions to which are not tax deductible — as a 501(c)(3) "it may not attempt to influence legislation as a substantial part of its activities."


Nick Nyhart

Nick Nyhart is the president and CEO of Every Voice. Prior to his role at Public Campaign, Nyhart directed a six-state campaign finance organizing project for Northeast Action for initiatives on publicly funded elections in
Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...
and
Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
. He previously worked as a
community organizer Community organizing is a process where people who live in proximity to each other or share some common problem come together into an organization that acts in their shared self-interest. Unlike those who promote more-consensual community buil ...
on
electoral coalition An electoral alliance (also known as a bipartisan electoral agreement, electoral pact, electoral agreement, electoral coalition or electoral bloc) is an association of political party, political parties or individuals that exists solely to stand ...
politics and other political issues in
Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...
.


See also

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Mayday PAC Mayday PAC is an American crowd-funded non-partisan Super PAC created by Harvard Law School professor and activist Lawrence Lessig. Its purpose is to help elect candidates to the Congress to pass campaign finance reform. It is notable for raisin ...
*
Issue One Issue One is an American nonprofit organization that seeks to reduce the role of money in politics. It aims to increase public awareness of what it views as problems within the present campaign finance system, and to reduce the influence of money ...


References

{{reflist United States political action committees Campaign finance reform in the United States