6/🧵 Why does conventional wisdom miss this? We confuse electoral swings with attitude changes. Gen Z shifted 6 points toward Trump in 2024, suddenly pundits say they're "the most conservative generation in 50 years." Only 42% of Gen Z voted. We mistake turnout shifts for ideological transformation.

A new @rooseveltinstitute.org report by @rfunkfordham.bsky.social empirically assesses the antidemocratic effects of Citizens United 15 years after it was decided. The findings speak for themselves: there is no place for big money in our political system. rooseveltinstitute.org/publications...

New @rfunkfordham.bsky.social report on the 15th anniversary of Citizens United. The evidence is now clear, in part through Rachel's research, that CitUtd has: -increased the influence of billionaires -reduced state democratic performance -made state governments more rightwing -increased corruption

The result of this ruling was outsized influence on legislators in passing policies that favor wealth. Reviving campaign-finance reform isn’t optional—it’s a prerequisite for a government that answers to people, not billionaires. 3/3 Read our new report ➡️ rooseveltinstitute.org/publications...

One hundred billionaire donors poured a record $2.6 billion into the 2024 elections—1 of every 6 dollars spent. New analysis from @rfunkfordham.bsky.social on the last 15 years of #CitizensUnited’s impact on democracy. 2/3 rooseveltinstitute.org/publications...

NEW📝: A flood of billionaire money in elections started after the SCOTUS #CitizensUnited decision. Since 2010, billionaire 💰💰 in elections has grown 160x, giving the wealthy huge power over policy while regular voters lose influence. 🧵1/3

Where are we 15 years after SCOTUS sanctioned virtually unlimited campaign contributions from billionaires and large corporations? @rfunkfordham.bsky.social's new report analyzes how the Citizens United decision is corroding democracy on multiple fronts, and calls for renewed urgency for reforms.

@rfunkfordham.bsky.social in her NYT debut! Let's go! www.nytimes.com/2025/07/25/n...

generational differences in political power, participation, & priorities can make it difficult to form future-oriented winning coalitions. that’s why I loved talking about intergenerational political learning in NYC for this @nytimes.com piece - it’s an incredibly hopeful story ⬇️

🚨🚨🚨 The Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley is looking for a postdoc on US voting/election policy. Part of a partnership with the Brennan Center running the Voting Laws Roundup. (I have a feeling this work is gonna be important...) Apply here: aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF04879

we could fret and stew and pontificate about why millions of voters who showed up for biden didn’t vote in 2024 orrrr we could just ask them source: waytowin.docsend.com/view/rnv5spt...

Guess I didn’t realize it at the time (especially since Eric Levitz at Vox made it into another “dems must be centrist” take) but the recent Pew report argues strongly that turnout was more important than persuasion www.pewresearch.org/politics/202...

NYC's mayoral race just broke records with $25M in SuperPAC cash backing Cuomo—a poster child for corruption. Bad for democracy and the Dem brand. @rfunkfordham.bsky.social's study shows how corrosive big $ is—states forced to allow unlimited money saw democracy scores plummet post-Citizens United.

nearly all my friends & family are non-democrats & infrequent voters. nearly all my friends & family participated in or supported the ‘no kings’ protests. there may be several potentially viable strategies for defeating trump, but this is by far the one I find most promising. ⬇️

this is a really cool opportunity + you’d get to work w an incredible team of researchers, legal experts, and uc berkeley students who care about democracy. apply!!

Caroline Soler, Ansolabehere, & @bfschaffner.bsky.social: “Shor’s claims about young white women and men of color supporting Trump are simply not supported by the best public data available.” tufts-pol.medium.com/have-young-v...

Here's Part 2 of 3 from me, @adambonica.bsky.social, @rfunkfordham.bsky.social, & @ernestotiburcio.bsky.social. All the publicly available data suggests 2024 non-voters leaned Democratic and pro-Harris. data4democracy.substack.com/p/did-non-vo... 1/n

1/n as someone who loves democracy & loves my country, it’s hard to grapple w the fact that an anti-democratic candidate won a national popular election. one thing keeping me equal parts hopeful & frustrated is that there are more people in the US who do not support trump than people who do.

9/🧵 Abandoning pro-turnout strategy based on a single analysis is premature. Understanding what happened requires grounding in data. Private polling can show patterns, but verifying such a massive political shift demands high-quality, publicly available data and replicable analysis.

7/🧵 Our analysis of voter file data suggests the real story isn't about "more voters help Republicans" — it's about DIFFERENTIAL turnout. Republicans have been better at converting their registered voters into actual voters.

5/🧵 For the "non-voters lean Republican" narrative to be true, Trump would need to win at least 73% of non-voting Independents in 2024 to have overcome the massive Democratic registration advantage among those who stayed home.

1/🧵 "More voters help Republicans" is reshaping Dem strategy after 2024. We put this claim to the test with a deep dive into voter files and survey data. Results? Non-voters remain disproportionately Democratic while GOP simply turns out their base better.

Even as small donors flooded in, campaign finance inequality hit record highs in 2024. For the first time, the top 0.01% (1 in 10K voters) share exceeds 50% of $s. The top 400 donors now exceed 25%. Citizens United opened the door, but soaring wealth inequality is what's driving these extremes.

Important new paper on the effect of Citizens United on democratic institutions in the US. tl;dr Citizens United meaningfully contributed to voter suppression & gerrymandering. design: diff-in-diff & synthetic control gated: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....