CLC’s Saurav Ghosh on FEC Rules on Potential Coordination between super PACs and candidates’ campaigns

Washington, D.C. — Given increased attention to Elon Musk’s founding of “America PAC,” a super PAC that has made significant political contributions in support of former president Donald Trump’s reelection campaign, and Musk’s appearances at Trump campaign events, Saurav Ghosh — CLC’s Director, Federal Campaign Finance Reform — released the following statement on Federal Election Commission (FEC) rules regarding potential coordination between super PACs and candidates’ campaigns: 

“Voters have a right to a government that is responsive to their needs, not to wealthy special interests. Federal campaign finance laws prohibit coordination between super PACs and candidates’ campaigns. Yet candidates and super PACs often push these legal boundaries, as Donald Trump and Elon Musk—the billionaire founder and primary donor of the “America PAC” super PAC—are doing when Musk regularly appears at Trump’s campaign events. This conveys to everyday voters that Musk and the corporations he leads could enjoy deep access, influence, and power should Trump win the election.     

Solutions need to come from Congress, which can pass laws that more comprehensively define ‘coordination’ and prohibit well-known coordination strategies (e.g., redboxing), and from the Federal Election Commission (FEC), which is responsible for enforcing the federal campaign finance laws that prohibit coordination. Unfortunately, the FEC has a poor track record on this crucial issue: In the nearly 15 years since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United effectively gave birth to super PACs, the FEC has almost never enforced the laws prohibiting coordination. Earlier this year, the FEC issued an advisory opinion explicitly permitting super PACs to coordinate with candidates with respect to paid door-to-door canvassing operations — a strategy that Musk’s America PAC immediately adopted to help elect Trump.   

To protect voters’ right to a responsive and accountable government, both Congress and the FEC must do the vital work of ensuring that super PACs — and the wealthy special interests that finance them — are genuinely ‘independent’ of candidates and their campaigns.”