Why So Many Democratic Candidates Are Dissing Corporate PACs

Updated at 5:06 p.m. ET on August 23

Across the country, dozens of Democratic candidates, from the democratic socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to the more moderate Conor Lamb, have proclaimed that they won’t accept campaign donations from corporate political-action committees. The promise, which is becoming a sort of progressive litmus test, is designed to excite the base and allows candidates to brag that they aren’t beholden to corporate interests. “We’ve got people; they’ve got money,” Ocasio-Cortez says in her now-famous campaign video.

But that pledge, for many candidates, is mostly symbolic. Most nonincumbents don’t receive any corporate-PAC donations, and they generally constitute only a small percentage of total contributions for those running for reelection. Still, voters can expect to hear these promises a lot more often, especially as Democrats begin angling themselves toward 2020.

“I feel like we are at a turning point in people understanding the anger thats during his 2016 campaign and co-founded the No Caucus in the House. “Especially given [that] our last two presidents both ran against special interests, in their own way.”