Ken Martin, chair of the Democratic National Committee, is moving to rein in the corporate and “dark money” spending that has been running rampant in Democratic primary contests. This week, Martin circulated materials to DNC members including a resolution he will introduce that would task a new Committee on Reforms with proposing “real, enforceable steps the DNC can take to eliminate unlimited corporate and dark money in its 2028 presidential primary process.” Sludge obtained a copy of the draft resolution, embedded below.
The measure was applauded by DNC members who have been pushing to limit corporate and dark money that is spent to sway voters in primaries. Outside spending in Democratic primaries has soared, with the cryptocurrency industry and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) dropping enormous sums to back candidates. Even outside spending groups tied to Democratic Party leaders have ramped up their dark money spending in recent cycles.
“For those of us who have been talking about corporate and dark money for years, this is a huge step forward,” said Larry Cohen, a DNC member and chair of the progressive group Our Revolution, which endorsed the measure. “This resolution represents a growing awareness that we can’t talk about voters and be addicted to Big Money at the same time. We need active voters who will build party infrastructure in all 3,000 counties, and currently we don’t even have half of that.”
The resolution will go before DNC members at the party’s summer meeting in Minneapolis from Aug. 25–27, with the goal of having the reform proposals considered at the summer meeting in 2026.
Much remains to be worked out by the new panel: for one, the resolution does not explicitly mention super PACs. So the question will arise of how to treat super PACs in the presidential primary that spend money that comes from dark money groups, like nonprofits, or other PACs with less transparency on their true funders.
Super PACs are often dubbed “gray money” groups for these practices of spotty disclosure of their original sources of funding. Spending groups can also hide their donors’ information from the public by running contributions through a series of groups, leaving behind a tangled—and often long-delayed—trail of disclosures, which voters may not hear about until after votes are cast.
Another major issue is what type of enforcement is lined up for spending groups that flout the rules in the presidential primary. The DNC’s rules can’t wholly prevent outside spending in elections, given the Supreme Court’s rulings that spending to influence elections is protected by the First Amendment as free speech. The resolution acknowledges that challenge, saying, “the only way to solve this problem in the long term is through Congressional action, including a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and its progeny…”
Recognizing the national campaign finance landscape, the resolution says that the new reform committee would put forward “a specific set of necessary legislative actions that the DNC should endorse as a body to present to Congressional leaders.” It mentions past Senate Republican filibusters of the major DISCLOSE Act, the leading measure to make public the sources of dark money spending in elections that was passed by House Democrats in 2021 and before.
