Elected officials should be working for We the People

Good morning Engaged Durhamites for Democracy!

We had a great time making calls with Down Home, NC last night. So amazing to see the sustained efforts of Liz, Richard, Jennifer, Nell, and Sohnie. I also saw the partner of a dear former colleague. Great to see you Larry and nice to be reconnected with Katherine! What was most amazing was two people I called had volunteered with Down Home, NC in the past. I encouraged one to join me in phone banking on Thursdays! And I was able to get five people to call Sen. Tillis ask him not to cut Medicaid. None of them had ever contacted an elected official in their lives. Yes! People flexing their civic muscles for the first time! And my kids heard me making calls and might make calls with me in the future. And when I was calling, my son went into another room to make his calls for the day. Yes, love to see that activism!!

Reminder that today is our last day at Tesla, then we are moving to Brier Creek on Friday June 13^th. I want to explain why keeping this one Durham-Raleigh protest. I am so grateful for all leaders planning protests across the Triangle that our group can advertise. These protests are amazing and getting 20-25 folks. The Tesla protests routinely have 70-100 protectors each week, and that I think is in part because it brings the two cities together. And some of us have been seeing each other weekly for almost 3 months and have formed connections. These connections are some of the benefits of coming to protests. I think there is value in having one of our protests be consistent and large. I know it’s not environmentally responsible given the drive for those of us living in Durham. I still feel the costs outweigh the benefits. We need to continue to grow this movement, so we have elections. We will focus on elections and building precincts a bit later. Right now, we need to stop this dictator and having one big protest weekly that engages over 1000 drivers each week I think is effective.

Well the battle of the egos has exploded, and lawmakers do not know to which bully they will cower. Musk continues to put pressure on Congress to kill the bill. The bill will hurt his company (that was bs about his concerns about the debt ceiling). Musk is lashing out at TACO saying he would not have been elected without him. TACO is saying he is disappointed in Musk and might cancel his federal contracts. We all knew this would happen. This is the premier reality show starring TACO. https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/06/05/us/trump-elon-musk

And when narcissists fight, they hit below the belt, like this tweet from Musk.

But their fighting is going beyond slinging mud at each other. Musk is threatening elected officials who vote for the budget. Musk does serve as a threat to elected official’s reelection hopes, particularly those in the US House, all of whom are up for reelection in 2026. Musk uses his social media platform to target them. I love this quote from Rep. Gabe Evans from Colorado who is supporting Musk.

“We’re the party of free thought,” “We’ll get to the point of being able to address some of his [Musk’s] concerns about the legislation and what the bill actually does.”

Since when are the Republicans a party of free thought? And let’s say what is really happening here. Evans benefited from $870,000 in spending from Mr. Musk’s super PAC in the last election. So, he does not feel at liberty to criticize Musk for fear he will not get his support in his competitive election in 2026.

Today, I want to spell out the corruption that has come from PACs and Super PACs funding campaigns of our elected officials. Thanks, Onja for sending this article to inspire this post (and I had it written before I read Hubbell’s post today, amazing synchrony!). Things started to really go awry based on the Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling of Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission. This ruling took down the barriers for finance restrictions and allowed corporations and other outside groups to give an unlimited amount of money to candidates.

In a 5-4 ruling, the court struck down central old ban on corporate spending for any party or candidate. This also included groups that say that they are separate from candidates. But we all know that these Super PACs are not independent. The rule was based on the First Amendment, saying that they have the right to express freedom of speech. The only thing that they outlawed was direct bribery.

Now these Super PACs and ultra rich donors and corporations and special interest groups are the main funders of most of our political candidates. The creation of the Super PACs allowed rich donors anonymity, and use of “dark money” to support candidates. This way, we can’t really track where the money is coming from. They’re spending has increased from less than 5 million in 2006 to more than 1 billion in 2024.

But you know who can track it? The candidates can and do. So, when legislation comes up, they know who has bought them, and they must be beholden to those owners. We must shine a light on this statement alone by Musk:

“Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate.”

Musk does not hide that he is donating like others do. No one should be able to buy elections!

What can we do about this? We need to push to have campaign donors disclosed. Washington has a strong disclosure law.

We also need to have stricter rules to prevent these outside groups from raising unlimited money and also working directly with candidates. They are supposed to be independent.

And as Bernie Sanders has been talking about for so long, we need to support candidates who do not rely on these big donors or Super PACs. We need public financing reform otherwise the oligarchs will be making all the decisions because our elected officials are bought and sold by them.

And let’s be clear, this is not just a Republican issue. This is all elected officials, Republicans and Democrats.

Most Americans are not in support of this way of funding elections. 22 states and hundreds of cities are supporting constitutional amendments to overturn it.

We have elections coming up. We the People can make our voices be heard that we want support of public financing and no more buying and selling our candidates. We the People elect them, and they should be listening to us.

Today, I will be calling about cuts to research as I heard Duke will be asking more folks to retire voluntarily (staff and faculty) and then after that will be reducing their force (involuntarily) due to what is happening with NIH under RFK’s mismanagement. These cuts hurt not just those who work for Duke but all who benefit from the research done at Duke and all academic medical centers.

Have a great Friday. Let’s make today’s last protest at Tesla be one of our biggest! Please wear black, and I hope someone will come so we can all have black eyes. Musk and TACO have given this country a massive black eye. We are here to soothe the pain and make sure people remember it come election time.

Warmly,

Kathryn