WATCH: On Senate Floor, Kelly Leads Colleagues in Marking 16 Years Since Citizens United Ruling, Highlighting Impact of Big Money in Politics on Working Families

"The loudest voices in Washington became billionaires, not every day Americans."

In case you missed it, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly led a series of floor speeches with his colleagues marking the 16^th anniversary of the Supreme Court's Citizens United v. FEC decision, which opened the floodgates for big, dark money in our politics.

In their remarks, Kelly and his colleagues connected the rise of dark money and super PAC spending to real-world consequences for Americans, highlighting how unlimited corporate and billionaire spending has warped priorities in Washington and driven up costs for working families, underscoring the need to restore accountability and transparency so that our democracy answers to voters-not special interests.

Sen. Kelly speaks on Senate floor.

Watch Kelly's full speech here. See key excepts from Kelly and his colleagues below:

Sen. Kelly: "In 2010, the Supreme Court handed down a decision that put a 'for sale' sign on our democracy. The Citizens United ruling opened the door for corporations and billionaires to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence our elections, often without the public ever knowing who's behind it. The Court decided that spending money in elections is the same as political speech, and that corporations should have the same political rights as individual Americans. The result was predictable - and it wasn't limited to a courtroom. It changed how this place works. The loudest voices in Washington became billionaires, not every day Americans.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI): "I was here before the Citizens United decision. When robust meaningful bipartisan climate legislation was constant here in the Senate. I can think of four major bipartisan bills here in the Senate. And I remember my friend, John McCain, carrying the Republican banner into the presidential election with a respectable climate platform. Well, right after Citizens United, all of that stopped. The barrage of fossil fuel dark money into our politics killed bipartisanship on climate change instantly. It is still a problem today."

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR): "The growth in dark money has been stunning because there's so much money among the oligarchs and billionaires, they want to spend it to create laws that favor the oligarchs and billionaires and they are spending at an extraordinary rate. Six years ago, it was about $300 million, but according to the Brennan Center […] dark money hit a record high of $1.9 billion in the 2024 races. That's a six-fold increase in six years. That's the rich and powerful buying their government. It is an absolute travesty. No one in our founding community of our nation who wrote the Declaration of Independence, who wrote the Constitution, wanted to design a system where the mega rich ran the place as a cabal of elites. But that's what we have and that's what we have to change."

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN): "In the 2024 elections, secret money groups spent $1.9 billion - nearly double the amount spent just one cycle before. This undermines our democracy and shakes the public's trust because unlimited, anonymous spending in our elections doesn't encourage free speech - it drowns out the voices of American people who are seeking to participate. We must fight for a more transparent democracy where every voter's voice is heard."

Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ): "We live in the time of the greatest distrust in modern history. It doesn't have to be this way. We can have a politics that restores and grows trust, instead of actively degrading it. This year is the 250th anniversary of the independence of our nation. This is our moment to free Americans from the influence of big money and give them their voice back in their democracy."

Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ): "Since the Citizens United decision, I have watched how this body has seen clearly corrupt forces beginning to overrun the commonsense and the will of the people and policy, more and more be bent to the whim and the will of the wealthiest of the wealthy in our country, in the world, as well as corporations, many of them multinational corporations. We are in crisis. Our nation is in crisis. […] Trust is vital for a democracy to thrive. And there has been nothing more powerful in undermining that trust in the years I've been in the Senate that I've seen than the destructive force of money in our politics."

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL): "Under the current system that's described by my colleagues on the floor, there is so much entrenched money that they virtually control the agenda and scare the living hell out of average individuals who don't have a fortune to spend. And that's the reality of what we face."

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT): "Individuals today make up to 16% of total spending in elections. 16%. 84% of all the spending in elections today are not done by citizens. 84% of spending are corporations and organizations. Much of that money is anonymous. You have no idea where that comes from. Let me tell you what the impact of that. The impact is corruption. Let's just call it what it is."

Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA): "Citizens United didn't just change campaign finance law - it fundamentally altered our democracy. It was the moment where the voices of everyday Americans began to be drowned out by a small and powerful few, armed with unlimited money and unprecedented access. As Trump completely sidelines the Federal Election Commission - our country's top campaign finance watchdog - we are entering a midterm election season with unlimited money allowed in our elections and a President who has regularly used the powers of the office to benefit his billionaire donors. I will continue to push my colleagues to enact legislation to overturn Citizens United so that our elections reflect the will of the people instead of corporations and the highest bidder."