U.S. Senate votes 54-42 on party lines in favor of Senate Joint Resolution 19.
By a straight party-line vote of 54-42, the U.S. Senate defeated a constitutional amendment today that would have overruled the awful
Citizens United decision.
All five Senate Democrats whose support was unknown ended up voting “yes,” whereas even Republican Susan Collins voted “no.”
This was one of the last votes the Senate will take before they adjourn for the election season—where the Koch brothers will pour millions of dollars into attack ads to fool voters.
In other words, the fact that every Democrat sided with the people—and every Republican sided with the rich and powerful—will make this a potent campaign issue in November.
Senators Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Kay Hagan (D-NC), Mark Pryor (D-AR) and Mark Begich (D-AK) all voted to take back our democracy: now they will be on the receiving end of attack ads made possible by Citizens United.
Mitch McConnell led the fight to defeat this amendment, and now he’ll have to answer the Kentucky voters, while he gets a little help from his billionaire friends.
In the past few months, over 500,000 Daily Kos members signed a petition to repeal Citizens United—which has been one of our most successful issues to mobilize our readers. As part of a wider coalition that includes other organizations, over 3 million people have taken action.
Over 12,000 Daily Kos members sent personalized emails to their senators last week—and we produced another 15,000 personalized messages yesterday alone.
Our community is engaged and energized on this issue, and I could not be more proud of all the great work you have done. Now, we must channel our efforts into making sure Senate Republicans pay the price in November.
We're not giving up. Please chip in $5 to help Daily Kos break big money's grip on our democracy.
UPDATE (12:54 PST): Here's the roll-call vote. The four Senators who did not vote were: Tom Coburn (R-OK), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK.) Gillibrand was a co-sponsor of the amendment, so would have voted "yes" if she had been present.