Jack Schlossberg
April 7, 2026
Illustration by MATTHEW COOLEY. This year, America turns 250 years old — and our body politic has never been sicker. We’re suffering from a seemingly incurable illness called Citizens United.
Its symptoms are everywhere: paralysis in Congress, collapsing public trust, and an economy that feels totally rigged.
It may be terminal — but we’re not dead yet.
My campaign for Congress is running a clinical trial in New York City, testing whether grassroots medicine can inoculate an infected political machine.
But how did we get infected in the first place?
The Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Citizens United v. FEC unleashed a pathogen into the bloodstream of American democracy: unlimited, undisclosed corporate and billionaire spending.
The Court reinterpreted the First Amendment, holding that money is speech, corporations are people, and the right to speak freely includes the right to spend freely, too. This set a new equilibrium and put a price tag on elections.
To cure the disease, first we have to understand how it spreads.
Money flows through our politics like blood, pumped through veins and arteries and carried by two different types of “cells”: campaign contributions and independent expenditures. Contributions are direct donations to a campaign. Independent expenditures are funds spent by outside groups to advocate for or against a candidate or issue. Until 2010, both were subject to strict limitations.
The Court drew a bright line between the two, ruling that only contributions can be constitutionally limited. Precedent holds that First Amendment rights may only be restricted when there’s a sufficient risk of harm (like hate speech, obscenity, or child pornography). Because contributions go directly to candidates, they can be restricted to protect against the risk of quid pro quo corruption.
On the other hand, the Court’s 5-4 conservative majority held that independent expenditures could not be limited because there was no comparable risk. They argued that “independent” groups are harmless — and that corruption is a risk only if the candidate receives funds directly.
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This legal mutation created what we now call Super PACs: independent expenditure-only groups that can raise and spend unlimited sums, often while evading disclosure.
So, that’s how we got an election system written by five unelected justices resulting in two sets of rules — one for you and me, and another for billionaires and corporations. For example, you can donate a maximum of $3,500 to a congressional candidate like me — and it must be disclosed. (Go ahead, give it a try.) But a billionaire can (and is) giving millions to a Super PAC backing one of my opponents.
It’s a joke, because these “independent” groups are anything but independent. By law, campaigns and Super PACs aren’t supposed to coordinate — but they do, and everyone knows it. Through a practice known as “red-boxing,” campaigns signal Super PACs by posting messages in a literal red box on their websites. Consultants move freely between campaigns and their corresponding SuperPACs. And now, the agency meant to enforce these rules — the Federal Election Commission — has been left effectively inoperable by Trump-era staff cuts that prevent it from reaching a quorum.
Over the last 16 years, the Citizens United outbreak has spread rapidly. Just check the patient’s vitals.
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Since the Court’s decision, total election spending has tripled to more than $16 billion per cycle, and the share coming from billionaires has grown from zero to 20 percent. In 2024, corporations pumped in a record $1.8 billion, with nearly as much coming from “dark money” groups that avoid disclosure.
So, what does all that money buy?
Super PACs have supercharged regulatory capture — and now, in many cases, industry regulates itself. I’m young, but I’m old enough to remember when Elon Musk spent $288 million to elect Trump in 2024 and, in return, secured DOGE, government contracts, and even put a Tesla on the South Lawn.
The fossil fuel industry pioneered this model. In 2024 alone, it spent $450 million to reelect Trump and a GOP Congress, which later kneecapped American wind and solar and gutted the EPA.
This year, a new variant is emerging: artificial intelligence companies injecting hundreds of millions into the 2026 midterms.
In short, the spread of Citizens United coincides with a society made for billionaires and corporations. The top one percent of households now owns a third of the nation’s wealth. Taxes on corporations are the lowest in history. The richest Americans sitting behind Trump at his inauguration often pay zero in taxes, while ordinary Americans are struggling to afford the basics.
The disease is systemic: money buys access, access buys influence, and influence rewrites the rules. Even New York City — our nation’s first capital and the birthplace of the Bill of Rights — is not immune.
I’m running in the Democratic primary in New York’s 12th Congressional District. It’s my home — where my family has lived for five generations — and one of the most expensive media markets in the country. These days, our airwaves are saturated with political ads, as Super PAC germs spread across the city.
My campaign is testing a new treatment for Citizens United: citizens, united.
From day one, I’ve been clear: I do not accept money from (1) corporate PACs, (2) SuperPACs, or (3) AI companies. Not because it’s easy — but because it’s necessary. The Democratic Party’s popularity is at an all-time low. We lost control of all three branches of government, and are seen by many as out of touch. Perhaps that’s because our ears are tuned to the low-hanging Super PAC fruit of mega-donors, and not a broader constituency.
To win again, we need to get back to our roots, which means running campaigns that speak to and hear from the very people we seek to represent. That’s what I’m trying to do.
I won’t be bought, and my hometown is not for sale. I’m proud that our campaign’s average donation is under $40 and comes from more than 50,000 people across all 50 states. We’re for the people.
I’ve invited my opponents to make the same pledge.
The health of our democracy won’t be restored by those who benefit from spreading this illness. It will be restored by those willing to fight it. That’s what I’ll do in Congress.
To that end, here are just a few reforms I support to overturn Citizens United : (1) capping contributions to Super PACs at $5,000, (2) enforcing stronger anti-coordination rules between campaigns and Super PACs, and (3) requiring real-time disclosure of Super PAC donors and on paid materials. This is just one dose — many more reforms are needed to address the broader issue of corruption in Washington.
If we, citizens united against Citizens United, can win in the most competitive primary in the country, we won’t just win — we’ll prove there’s a cure.
