To the editor:

With each election, more and more money is raised and spent to influence our votes. Yet, when the winners take office, they’re more likely to listen to their big donors and corporate lobbyists than to us, their constituents.

A Pew Research study last fall found that roughly 7 in 10 U.S. adults support limits on election spending. Also, most Americans believe large campaign donors and corporate lobbyists have more influence on members of Congress than do we.

Move to Amend Miami County surveyed those running for Congressional Districts 8 and 15 and Ohio House District 80. Specifically, we asked each to answer “yes” or “no” to this question: “I support amending the U.S. Constitution to make clear that corporations and other artificial entities do not have constitutional rights and that money is not speech and campaign spending should be limited through regulation.”

Move to Amend neither supports nor opposes candidates for office, regardless of their response or nonresponse to the survey. Rather, volunteers work to educate the public about the need for an amendment and explain what the amendment will and will not do.

Here are the responses from the 2024 survey:

Congressional District 8: Dr. Vanessa Enoch said “yes.” Warren Davidson did not respond.

Congressional District 15: Adam Miller said “yes.” Mike Carey did not respond.

Ohio House 80: Melissa VanDyke said “yes.” Johnathan Newman did not respond.

We made repeated attempts to contact candidates who did not respond initially.

View candidate responses at movetoamend.org/pledge2024

Move to Amend Miami County is an affiliate of a national, nonprofit, nonpartisan grassroots movement. We promote the We the People Amendment, which was reintroduced last spring in the 118th Congress and now has 87 cosponsors. The proposed amendment affirms that constitutional rights belong to natural persons only and money spent on campaigns at all levels of government shall be regulated. You can read the proposed amendment at congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-joint-resolution/54/text

Deb Hogshead

Move to Amend Miami County volunteer

Troy