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Zach Wahls is an Iowa Democratic politician and LGBTQ-rights advocate. First elected to the Iowa Senate in 2018, he represents District 43 and previously led the Senate Democratic caucus. He co-founded Scouts for Equality.
DI has documented statements by Zach Wahls on Campaign Finance, Free Speech, and U.S. Politics. Read the quotations, original sources and related cases below.
Role at the time: Iowa state senator and U.S. Senate candidate
Condemned
Statement summary
Wahls criticizes unlimited corporate election spending and proposes a state response to Citizens United.
“The point is straightforward: Iowa’s democracy should belong to Iowans, not to corporate dark money and not to anonymous political spenders. I’m fighting for this because I believe the public’s business should be done in public, and because Iowans deserve a government that works for them, and when we reduce the corrupting influence of corporate money in our politics, we can create space to actually solve problems, lower costs and rebuild trust.”
Open source (opens in a new tab)Zach Wahls and David Sires propose an Iowa response to Citizens UnitedWahls quotation beginning The point is straightforward; follows his direct identification of Citizens United as the target
Why we used this label
Wahls criticizes the corporate election influence he connects to Citizens United and proposes limits in response. Support for those limits is opposition to the ruling.
The Supreme Court protected corporate and union independent election spending in Citizens United. Defenders say the ruling protects political speech and association. Critics say it gives wealthy interests excessive influence and undermines democratic accountability.