The American Civil Liberties Union, is planning to spend more than $25 million to promote issues in the nation's contested races and on ballot initiatives in the upcoming midterm elections, aiming on directing most of its spending at Republicans.
The ACLU is not often active in national campaigns, but President Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 election helped the civil rights organization raise $93 million in 12 months since last November, reports Politico.
"It's clear that a larger portion of the American public is deeply engaged in politics in a way they've never been before," Executive Director Anthony Romero commented, and the ACLU hopes to help lead the way for liberal causes and become a central part of the anti-Trump movement.
The ACLU has marked large leaps, with membership numbers rising to 1.6 million people over the past year.
As a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, the ACLU will not form a PAC or endorse candidates, which could cause it to lose its status. Instead, it will be able to promote issues such as voting rights, the travel ban, disability rights, immigration and reproductive rights.
The ACLU has had a mixed year, however. In the early days of Trump's presidency, the organization came out in protest of his ban on travelers from Muslim-majority countries, but gained critics when it defended, in court, the right of white nationalists to stage protests in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Already, the ACLU has made a commitment to spend $5 million on an initiative that would allow up to 1.5 million convicted felons to join the rolls ahead of the 2020 presidential election.
Even though it is not endorsing candidates, the ACLU is focusing an effort on races in Kansas, where Kris Kobach is running for governor, to stop Gov. Scott Walker's re-election, and in other states where Democrats are trying to take Republican-held House seats.
"When you look at what Trump and [Attorney General Jeff] Sessions have created, the outrage has made voters want to know how they can reverse the tide," said ACLU Political Director Faiz Shakir, hired following Trump's election.
The ACLU also plans to issue scorecards to rate officials by their statements and voting records, and will make voter turnout a major emphasis.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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