Across the country, people are working hard to wrest our country back from this oligarchic madness. One groundbreaking effort is in Michigan, where in November voters will have the chance to decide Proposition 2, a ballot initiative that would reduce corporate influence in state politics. If passed, Prop 2 will transform politics in Michigan— and provide a blueprint for getting Big Money out of politics nationwide.
The Michigan organizers who’ve been working on Prop 2 are ahead of the curve. The Mop Up Michigan campaign is motivated to reform their state’s campaign finance system because during the 2024 election cycle, utility and tech companies donated huge sums to Michigan candidates. Then, during the legislative session, behind closed doors, corporate lobbyists killed a package of environmental bills that advocates had spent years working on.
“[Michigan state lawmakers] delivered a tax break for Silicon Valley billionaires that is going to raise everyone’s bills,” Christy McGillivray, executive director of Voters Not Politicians, a civic organization co-leading the Prop 2 effort, told Democracy News last year. “Right now, it doesn’t matter if legislation will help people, it doesn’t matter if it’s bipartisan. If corporations are opposed to it, it won’t pass. We’ve seen it over and over again.”
That’s when Michigan organizers realized that they needed to clean up the state’s campaign finance system or they weren’t going to be able to achieve any of their other policy goals. So, the Herculean effort to get Prop 2 on the ballot was born. Organizers had to gather hundreds of thousands of signatures and overcome numerous administrative challenges. But they hit the pavement, talked to Michiganders all across the state, and got it done: On November 3rd, Michigan voters will have the opportunity to decide whether to limit corporate political influence in their state.
Prop 2 would limit pay-to-play politics by:
1) Banning monopoly utility companies like DTE and Consumers Energy from contributing to state officeholders and political party campaigns.
2) Banning corporations (like Blue Cross Blue Shield) with more than $250,000 annually in state or local government contracts from giving to candidates in the jurisdictions of those contracts.
Prop 2 would guarantee more transparency by:
1) Requiring groups that run ads referring to candidates or ballot issues to report their donors and expenses to the state.
2) Requiring political advertising on the internet and digital platforms to be covered by existing disclosure laws.
“Prop 2 is a simple solution that draws a clear line in the sand: if you’re doing business with the government or being regulated by it, you can’t buy political influence with campaign contributions,” McGillivray told me. “That’s common sense, and this November, Michiganders finally have the power to make it law.”
Right now, Michigan (like many states and the federal government) has very few guardrails when it comes to limiting the influence of corporate donors and lobbyists. The state allows monopoly utility companies, major government contractors, and other powerful corporate interests to give to the very same political figures who are tasked with overseeing their businesses— including their government contracts funded by taxpayer dollars.
“For too long, Michigan has had a pay-to-play political system that rewards those with wealth and power over hardworking Michiganders,” McGillivray said. “It’s business as usual for monopoly utilities and major government contractors to write campaign checks to the same politicians responsible for regulating and overseeing them -- that’s a broken system.”
Here I’m focusing largely on energy and tech industry spending— because that’s a major driver for reform in Michigan —but of course pay-to-play political spending extends way beyond those industries, in Michigan and across the country. According to Open Lobby, pharmaceutical and healthcare companies have spent over $452 million lobbying the federal government. According to Open Secrets, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, which holds big government contracts, spent over $1 million just during the 2024 election cycle. And it gets worse: Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan has donated to an orchestrated effort to oppose Prop 2.
Campaign finance reforms like Prop 2 are especially important as tech and energy giants are spending ever-increasing sums to get their preferred candidates elected. By now, we’re all too aware that over the last few years, tech companies have raced to build more and bigger data centers, and utility rates have risen dramatically. The new and proposed data centers will only further strain the energy grid and continue to raise energy costs. And, because utility companies are for the most part regulated monopolies, they can pass rate increases on to their customers (that’s us). Local residents are absorbing the pollution and health risks. And the billionaires and millionaires invested in the tech industry—and giving enormous campaign donations— will get even richer.
Major tech companies have also spent the past year launching and funneling hundreds of millions of dollars into new PACs with the stated aim of electing “pro-AI” lawmakers. And, as I’m sure you’ve seen, AI executives are now openly saying that their companies are a threat to humanity.
Long before AI entered the picture, in states across the country, monopoly utilities have been major political donors and lobbyists. Because government commissions and officials set utility rates in many states, utility companies have engaged in classic pay-to-play politics. According to the Prop 2 campaign, in 2022, the last time all the seats in the Michigan legislature were up for election, a staggering 93% of Michigan state legislators had accepted political contributions from DTE PACs, executives, or lobbyists during their careers.
Given the truly mindboggling amount of corporate political spending and simultaneous affordability crisis across the country, it’s no surprise that Prop 2 is popular among Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. Over 80% of Michiganders support the reform.
If Prop 2 passes, it’ll be a major victory, a sign our democracy can still work. Even in this moment, even under this government, organizers will have found a way to take power back from the richest of the rich and put it back where it belongs, with their neighbors, the voters. The rest of us can borrow from their example and make it happen everywhere.
Really, really good news out of Michigan. May it catch fire nationwide forthwith.
It looks like this prop might spread.