Fifteen years after a landmark Supreme Court case turbocharged corporate spending in the political process, a group hopes it may have a way to finally rein in some of the outsized influence of the ultrawealthy. The 2010 ruling on Citizens United v. FEC opened the floodgates of political spending in elections. Every year since then, untraceable financial political contributions, largely from corporations and wealthy individuals, have increased dramatically. Now, the state of Montana is on the verge of being the first in the nation to counter the impact of Citizens United via a 2026 ballot measure using an innovative legal maneuver that other states could adopt.
The idea is the brainchild of Tom Moore, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. Moore, who laid out his reasoning in a white paper on September 15, 2025, is arguing that states have the legal authority to define corporate charters and therefore can redefine them at any time. When I interviewed Moore for my weekly radio show, he explained: “The states’ authority is absolute in terms of how they define their corporations and which powers they decide to give their corporations.” This is considered “basic foundational corporation law,” and all states have essentially given corporations the same, extremely broad charters.
Until 2023, Moore worked as chief of staff for Commissioner Ellen Weintraub at the Federal Election Commission (FEC). During that time, he met and collaborated with Montana Commissioner of Political Practices Jeff Mangan. Moore remained friends with Mangan even after he left the FEC. “I sent a draft of the paper,” said Moore, “and he called back that night and said, ‘We are doing this in Montana.’”
That was in fall 2024. Almost immediately the wheels began turning, and in April 2025, Mangan launched the Transparent Election Initiative to put Moore’s theory into practice. In June, the “The Montana Plan,” based on a draft of Moore’s paper, was born. That plan is the basis of the Transparent Election Initiative’s constitutional amendment as a ballot measure to be put before Montana voters in 2026. The measure asks voters whether or not their state should redefine corporate charters to disallow spending in elections.
It’s notable that Montana’s amendment doesn’t aim to overturn the Citizens United ruling. If passed, it would merely render the ruling ineffective within Montana because businesses operating in the state would have to abide by its definition of corporations. This makes it immune to national legal challenges and the whims of a Supreme Court that’s even more conservative than its 2010 iteration. “This isn’t a regulation,” said Mangan, “it’s a different way of looking at transparency under First Amendment grounds.”
In order for the Supreme Court to override the desires of Montana voters, it would have to rule that states do not have the right to define corporations. “This is foundational corporation law,” said Moore. “If you start pulling the foundation blocks out from the building, it could really destabilize American business. I don’t think they want to do that.”
Moreover, even a single state passing such an amendment can have a big impact nationally. Moore explained that in almost every state, “no out-of-state corporation can exercise any power in the state that a domestic corporation can’t exercise. So, what that means is, if you’re in Montana and you pass this, your corporations are out [of political spending] everywhere. But it also means that 49 states worth of out-of-state corporations also can’t spend in your politics. Because if you no longer give the power to your domestic guys, then out-of-state corporations don’t have that power either.”
Montana’s effort hit an early and predictable snag however, when the state’s Attorney General Austin Knudsen blocked the ballot measure. Knudsen’s reasoning was that the redefinition of corporate charters was too big for a single vote and that each component of the ballot initiative would have to be voted on separately.
The Montana Plan is wildly popular. An October 2025 poll by the pro-democracy group Issue One found that 74 percent of voters in the state, including majorities of Republicans and independents, support the ballot initiative.
“It’s a red state, which is useful, I think,” said Moore, explaining that the plan’s popularity there enables “the country to see that it’s not just lefty liberals who don’t like dark and corporate money in their politics.”
Montana has a history of fighting corporate spending and is a fitting state to spearhead the beginning of the end of Citizens United. Since 1912, corporations were banned from spending money to influence elections under the state’s Corrupt Practices Act. A hundred years later, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned that act to ensure compliance with Citizens United.
“The people of Montana have not forgotten that,” said Moore. “They are fiercely independent. They don’t like other people coming in and telling them what to think.”
Mangan, who expected such a response, doesn’t buy it. “It wouldn’t make sense to have a separate vote on each of those components,” he said, for they only make sense when viewed as a whole. The Transparent Election Initiative is suing the attorney general’s office and expects the Montana Supreme Court to rule in its favor in time to begin gathering signatures. “We’re very confident that we’ll prevail at the Supreme Court,” said Mangan.
While he awaits the Montana Supreme Court’s ruling on its legal challenge to the attorney general’s office, Mangan is spending his time educating Montana voters and generating excitement about the ballot initiative.
The Transparent Election Initiative expects to oversee a massive statewide signature-gathering effort from January to June 2026 to get the initiative on Montana’s ballot. In order to qualify for the ballot, the organization needs just over 60,000 signatures from active voters across 40 legislative districts.
To be on the safe side, Mangan is aiming for 100,000 signatures across 50 districts, in an effort that will be largely volunteer-run. “It’s going to take a lot of work,” said Mangan. “We’re looking for a lot of volunteers, a lot of grassroots organizational efforts.”
Rina Moore worked as the election administrator in Cascade County, Montana, for 16 years and said, “I watched firsthand as thousands of voters complained about the vast amounts of mailings and the commercials and were clear that they wanted it all to stop.”
Moore is among an early cohort of volunteers lining up to ensure the Montana Plan makes it onto the 2026 ballot. “I am excited about gathering signatures because this is something that the voters on both sides agree with,” she said.
It’s not just Montanans who are disgusted with the way in which corporate spending has taken over the nation’s elections. Increasingly, political candidates are eschewing corporate money as a mark of pride and authenticity, and proof that they are unbought by special interests.
Take the high-profile election of New York City’s new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, who made it a point to raise small-dollar donations directly from supporters. In that November 2025 race, outside spending was a liability, not an asset. Mamdani’s opposition included more than 20 billionaires who, in spite of pouring millions of dollars into anti-Mamdani super PACs, were unable to convince enough New Yorkers to vote against the democratic socialist.
The 2010 Citizens United ruling remains hugely unpopular. Issue One’s poll found nearly 80 percent of Americans believe that outside spending on elections is corrupting or gives the appearance of corruption. That includes a majority of Republicans and independent voters.
Tom Moore said he was working with numerous states on ballot initiatives and legislation in line with Montana’s efforts. “I think it’s gonna end up moving in a number of states very quickly,” he said. “If it gets on the ballot anywhere in the country, it will pass. This is wildly popular.”
“It’s one of the few issues that … truly unites Americans these days,” he added. “They’d really like to get their politics back … This actually gives people some hope. It gives them some agency.”
Sonali Kolhatkar is a monthly contributor to Truthout. She is an award winning multimedia journalist and author. She is the host and executive producer of Rising Up With Sonali, a nationally syndicated weekly television and radio program airing on Pacifica stations and Free Speech TV. She was most recently Senior Editor at YES! Media covering race, economy, and democracy, and is currently Senior Correspondent for the Economy for All Project at the Independent Media Institute, and a monthly columnist for OtherWords, a project of the Institute for Policy Studies.
Truthout is a nonprofit news organization dedicated to providing independent reporting and commentary on a diverse range of social justice issues. Since our founding in 2001, we have anchored our work in principles of accuracy, transparency, and independence from the influence of corporate and political forces.
Truthout works to spark action by revealing systemic social, racial, economic and environmental injustice and providing a platform for progressive and transformative ideas, through in-depth investigative reporting and critical analysis. With a powerful, independent voice, we spur transformations in consciousness and inspire both policy change and direct action. For more on our editorial approach, please read “Remaking Media in the Pursuit of Justice” and “A Call to the Media: Let’s Go Beyond ‘Preserving Democracy.’”
