Since its founding in 1997, Democracy 21 has been at the forefront of national efforts to challenge political money corruption in Washington, prevent abuses of public office and protect individual constitutional rights.
We have played a central role in the enactment of groundbreaking campaign finance, lobbying and ethics laws and in successfully defending campaign finance laws in the Supreme Court.
We are currently advocating and making great progress on fundamental democracy reforms, including a proposal we developed and helped draft to create a new small donor, public matching funds system for presidential and congressional candidates. The reforms also would protect and strengthen voting rights, end partisan gerrymandering and prevent foreign interference in U.S. elections.
2016–Present
Campaign Finance Reform & Voting Rights. Democracy 21 helped develop and draft historic democracy reform proposals that are incorporated into the For the People Act and John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, key democracy forms that are pending in Congress. These include:
- A new small donor, public matching funds system for presidential and congressional candidates.
- The DISCLOSE Act to end secret, or “dark money,” contributions being spent to influence federal elections.
- A prohibition on individual-candidate Super PACs, which are used by candidates and their donors to evade candidate contribution limits.
- Strengthening the prohibitions on foreign countries influencing U.S. elections.
- Repairing the dysfunctional Federal Election Commission.
Democracy 21 helps lead the coalition of more than 145 organizations working to enact the legislation.
These measures provide solutions for Washington political money corruption, voter suppression and discrimination, partisan gerrymandering, government ethics abuses and foreign interference in our elections.
- Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) praised Democracy 21 for its “tireless leadership” and “extraordinary advocacy” on these vital democracy reform measures.
Prior to this, Democracy 21 worked closely with the chief congressional sponsors to develop the We the People Democracy Reform Act of 2017, the forerunner to the Freedom to Vote Act. The bill contained campaign finance reform proposals that Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer had developed or helped develop over the years, including public financing of presidential and congressional public financing, the DISCLOSE Act, the Stop Super PAC-Candidate Coordination Act and FEC reforms. It also contained proposals to strengthen voting rights, end partisan gerrymandering and improve government ethics rules.
Accountability & TrumpWatch. Democracy 21 is a national leader in the work to hold accountable those who attempt to restrict our voting rights and sabotage our elections. Our work includes legal and litigation efforts, public education, advocacy, and media communications.
The Democracy Legal Strike Force, a project of Democracy 21 Education Fund, was launched in 2022. It is managed by Democracy 21 Education Fund President Fred Wertheimer and Ambassador Norman Eisen (ret.). The project pursues legal and related opportunities to combat and hold accountable the dangerous anti-democracy forces that have been unleashed in our country.
The Democracy Legal Strike Force’s work advances the foundational American principle that no one – not even a former President – is above the law.
This work supports efforts to hold former President Donald Trump accountable for his abuses of democratic and constitutional norms and values, in and out of office, and to hold accountable others who undermine our democracy and constitutional values.
Since its inception, the Democracy Legal Strike Force – utilizing the expertise of law firms, lawyers, and partner organizations, including some of the nation’s best legal minds – has provided rapid-response legal work with the objective of protecting our system of democratically elected representative government and challenging anti-democracy efforts.
Being able to swiftly and effectively provide powerful legal briefs, research, and analysis illustrates the Strike Force’s work to stand up to dangerous anti-democratic activities in our country.
During the Trump Administration we played a lead role in a national coalition of some 100 organizations that worked to protect the Mueller investigation.
- Wertheimer was described by NPR as “a central figure in the [Trump] opposition network.”
We developed a three-part action plan to defend the Mueller investigation from Trump’s attacks that was adopted by the coalition as part of its efforts to protect the investigation. We and the coalition also worked to ensure the Mueller report was made public, to support the House Judiciary Committee investigation of Trump’s abuses, and to support the House impeachment of President Trump. Wertheimer served as an adviser to the House leadership on the impeachment effort.
We joined with Common Cause to publish a report entitled The Art of the Lie that detailed the historic failures of President Trump and his administration on government integrity and accountability matters.
We undertook numerous watchdog activities to challenge abuses of office and ethics violations:
We filed five complaints against Attorney General William Barr with the Justice Department, challenging Barr’s pattern of biased actions on behalf of President Trump, his failure to comply with Justice Department norms, rules and standards of conduct and his failure to carry out the Department’s mission “to ensure fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans.”
We filed three Justice Department complaints against Attorney General Sessions that helped lead to Sessions’ recusal from the Russia investigation and the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
We filed a complaint with the Office of Congressional Ethics against House Intelligence Committee Devin Nunes for violating House ethics rules and forced him to temporarily step aside from his position while the investigation took place.
We filed Justice Department and FEC complaints against Donald Trump, Jr, Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort for violating the federal ban on soliciting foreign contributions.
We filed a complaint with the Office of Government Ethics asking for an investigation of Jared Kushner’s conflicts of interest with Israel and China.
We filed a Justice Department complaint requesting an investigation of Donald Trump for soliciting illegal foreign contributions.
We filed a Justice Department complaint against Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross calling for an investigation into whether Ross committed criminal violations by falsely certifying compliance with his ethics agreements.
We filed a Justice Department complaint requesting an investigation of whether the John Bolton PAC and the Trump campaign engaged in criminal violations of the campaign finance laws.
We called on the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York to prevent the Trump organization from receiving illegal emoluments.
We challenged Jared Kushner to comply with ethics rules by recusing himself from all matters involving China.
We successfully defended in the Supreme Court for the third time the constitutionality of the McCain-Feingold soft money ban. in RNC v. FEC.
We developed a proposal to shut down individual-candidate Super PACs that only support one candidate and that are used by candidates and their donors to circumvent candidate contribution limits. The proposal was incorporated into H.R. 1 which passed the House in 2019.
We play a lead role in a coalition we helped create that is opposing efforts to call a constitutional convention. If called, the issues considered could not be limited in advance and this would throw up for grabs and revision all the constitutional rights and protections provided to the American people. Proponents of the convention are within six states of the 34 states they need to call a convention. During this period, we rescinded earlier calls for a constitution convention in Delaware, Maryland, New Mexico and Nevada. Without these rescissions, proponents would need only two more states to call a convention.
2011–2015
We joined with the Brennan Center to publish a 40-page report that analyzed the broken campaign finance system and proposed a new, small donor, public matching funds system for congressional races that would empower ordinary Americans.
We developed the Empowering Citizens Act, a proposal to create a new small donor, public matching funds system for congressional races, and the Empower Act, a proposal to create a new small donor, public matching funds system for presidential elections.
These proposals were later incorporated into H.R. 1, the For the People Act, passed by the House in 2019.
- NPR Supreme Court reporter Nina Totenberg said, “Wertheimer has helped write every campaign finance reform law since 1974.”
We filed a complaint with the Justice Department asking for investigations of the Presidential campaigns of President Obama and presidential nominee Mitt Romney for illegally coordinating with the individual-candidate Super PACs supporting their presidential campaigns.
We published a Democracy 21 report entitled, “Leading Presidential-Candidate Super PACs and The Serious Questions That Exist About Their Legality.”
We won an important victory in the Supreme Court in Arizona Free Enterprise v. Bennett in which the Court again reaffirmed the constitutionality of public financing in an opinion written by Chief Justice Roberts, citing the Buckley decision, even as the Court struck down one of the provisions of the Arizona public financing law.
We won an important Supreme Court victory in Green Party v. Garfield, which reaffirmed the constitutionality of public financing of elections, originally upheld as constitutional in Buckley v. Valeo.
2006–2010
We worked with the congressional sponsors to help draft the DISCLOSE Act of 2010 to close gaping disclosure loopholes that resulted in secret, unlimited contributions being spent in federal elections. The DISCLOSE Act passed the House in 2010 and came within one vote of the 60 votes needed in the Senate to break a filibuster and enact the legislation.
- Huffington Post described Wertheimer as “one of the chief authors of DISCLOSE.”
- Representative Chris Van Hollen, the lead House sponsor of the DISCLOSE Act, praised Democracy 21 for the “extraordinary contribution” the organization made to passing the Act in the House.
We played a key role in the development and enactment of the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007 (HLOGA), which strengthened the lobbying laws and congressional ethics rules.
- House Speaker Pelosi said Wertheimer provided “exceptional leadership to hold Congress and government to the highest ethical standard,” and “Everyone who loves our country is deeply indebted to Fred Wertheimer.”
We played an important role in the creation of the Office of Congressional Ethics. The Office plays a critical role in enforcing House ethics rules by reviewing potential ethics violations by House members and ensuring these cases are addressed by the House Ethics Committee.
We successfully defended in the Supreme Court against a second challenge to the McCain-Feingold soft money ban. The Court summarily affirmed the constitutionality of the ban in Republican National Committee v. FEC.
2001–2005
We helped develop and draft the soft money ban contained in the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA) and led the successful lobbying strategy to enact the legislation. Also known as the McCain-Feingold law, the bill banned unlimited contributions from corporations, labor unions and individuals to the national political parties and strengthened disclosure laws.
- Democracy 21 “spearheaded the passage of [BCRA],” according to The Hill.
- Senator McCain described Wertheimer as “a constant source of advice and counsel not only on the technical aspects but also as to what’s doable.” Senator Feingold described Wertheimer’s performance as “a tour de force.”
We organized and participated in the successful defense in the Supreme Court in McConnell v. Federal Election Commission (2003) of the constitutionality of BCRA The Court upheld the constitutionality of all the major provisions of BCRA.
- Democracy 21 was a “key player in both the legislative and court battle over BCRA,” according to the BNA Money & Politics Report.
- Reps. Shays and Meehan, the chief House sponsors of BCRA, praised Wertheimer for his “extraordinary efforts to protect the integrity of BCRA in court, in the press, in Congress and throughout the regulatory process.”
We issued a 142-page report documenting the failure of the Federal Election Commission to carry out its enforcement responsibilities and setting forth a detailed proposal for establishing a new agency to enforce the nation’s campaign finance laws.
The proposal was introduced by Senators McCain and Feingold and Reps. Shays and Meehan. It was later incorporated in the We the People Democracy Reform Act of 2017. A modified version of the proposal was incorporated in H.R. 1 and passed by the House in 2019.
