23 States Endorse New Amendment to Keep Outside Money Out of Local Elections

Facts Matter

The Epoch Times

Romanbalmakov, Politics, News Commentary, Theepochtimesroman, Factsmatter, Epochtimes, Factsmatterroman, Roman, Romanepochtimes, News

5 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 25 April 2025

⏱️ 16 minutes

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Summary

Within the context of billions of dollars having been spent on national, state, and local elections during the 2024 cycle, an effort is underway to add a new amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The issue that this amendment would try and fix has to do with the fact that both wealthy Americans, as well as wealthy foreigners, are able to shape local American elections (including referendums, ballot initiatives, and recalls). In fact, there are some local elections in the country where close to 90 percent of the donations came from out-of-state. This raises the question—if someone is elected under those conditions, do they really represent the will of their local constituents?

As a possible answer to that question, there is a new proposed amendment to the Constitution which has now been endorsed by 23 out of the necessary 38 states.

This amendment, if passed, would officially become the 28th amendment to the U.S. Constitution—and it would allow the banning of both foreign (as well as out-of-state funding) in local races.

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Views expressed in this episode are opinions of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

Episode Resources:

🔵 Foreign-Funding of Ballots

https://ept.ms/ForeignFunding

Transcript

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0:00.0	Given the fact that a record-breaking $20 billion was spent on national, state, and local elections during the 2024 cycle, I believe it's a good time to bring up a serious election integrity issue here in America as well as a possible solution.
0:16.3	Now, the issue has to do with the fact that both wealthy Americans, including billionaires and multi-millionaires,
0:22.6	as well as even foreign billionaires and multimillionaires, are able to shape our local elections,
0:27.6	including our local referendums and our local ballot initiatives, by simply using a lot of money.
0:33.6	In fact, there are some local races in the country where close to 90% of the donations came
0:39.6	from outside of the state, which raises the question.
0:42.7	If someone is elected under those conditions, do they really represent the local constituents?
0:49.3	However, there is a new proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution which is looking to change
0:52.9	all that, and it has now been endorsed by 23 out of the necessary 38 states.
0:58.9	This amendment, if passed, it would officially become the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,
1:04.6	and it would allow states as well as the federal government to ban both foreign as well as
1:08.7	out-of-state funding in local races. Now to start with, let me give you a visual of this problem.
1:14.8	The recent state Supreme Court race over in the state of Wisconsin, it was quite notable
1:19.4	by the sheer amount of money that was poured into it.
1:22.7	Specifically, over $100 million was poured into this statewide race with the bulk of the money coming from outside of the state of Wisconsin.
1:31.9	Here's the Associated Press reporting on it.
1:33.7	Quote, spending by billionaires, including Elon Musk and George Soros,
1:38.5	has helped to push total spending on the Wisconsin Supreme Court race that was won by the Democratic back candidate
1:45.0	over $100 million.
1:47.3	For perspective, the $100 million spent on this race is roughly the same as was spent on 68
1:54.0	Supreme Court elections across 26 states in 2021 and 2022 combined.
2:00.0	Now, the reason that such a large amount of money was poured into this particular race
	...

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