WASHINGTON - Today, Common Cause launched a nationwide effort to get candidates running for Congress and state office to go on the record and tell voters where they stand on issues affecting our democracy. The “Our Democracy 2018” campaign and questionnaire includes 18 important questions on campaign finance, ethics, voting rights, redistricting, the 2020 Census, and Net Neutrality.

“Voters deserve to know where their candidates stand on improving and strengthening our democracy for all Americans, so we are getting them on the record,” said Karen Hobert Flynn, president of Common Cause. “With the lack of ethics and accountability in the Trump administration, continued efforts to suppress the freedom to vote, and the 2021 redistricting cycle coming up, the Our Democracy 2018 questionnaire is a valuable tool to help voters make a decision as they head to the polls in November.”

Over the next three months, Common Cause anzd it’s 1.2 million members and activists will focus on urging every candidate running for Congress in the November 2018 general election to complete and return the questionnaire. Over 100 candidates and elected officials who have won their primary election have already taken the opportunity to fill out the questionnaire, including Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Senate candidate Rep. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), and Rep. John Sarbanes (D-MD).

“More and more candidates are going on the record each week and as we go public today candidates will begin hearing directly from voters wanting to know where they stand on the proposals to protect and reform critical democracy issues,” said Jesse Littlewood, national campaigns director at Common Cause. “This year Common Cause will begin expanding the Our Democracy initiative beyond candidates for federal office because voters want to know where their state-level candidates stand on these vital reforms.”

Common Cause will launch a similar questionnaire later this month in select gubernatorial and state legislative elections, including in Indiana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, North Carolina, Colorado, Georgia, and New York. Congressional candidates and their answers to the questionnaire will continue to be added as their primaries conclude.

To view campaign and questionnaire, visit democracy2018.org

To view this release online, click here.

###