Kyle Thomas Roether | 2025 I.S. Symposium

Name: Kyle Thomas Roether
Title: Cash is King: Contextualizing the Political Effects of Citizens United vs FEC and SpeechNow vs FEC
Major: Political Science
Minor: Philosophy
Advisor: Sekwen Kim

The recent Citizens United vs. FEC (2010) and SpeechNow.org vs. FEC (2010) Supreme Court decisions have fundamentally changed the landscape of American campaign finance. While these decisions have undoubtedly affected many industries, this paper examines the extent to which these court cases have affected the balance between corporations and unions. The initial scholarship on this topic establishes the legal context of these decisions, the theories utilized to explain the political behavior of these organizations, and their preferred vessels for taking advantage of the new campaign laws. As this paper transitions to studying the scholarly consensus on the issue, it examines the methods in which authors such as Dr. Nour-Adul Razzak, Dr. Tillman Klumpp, and Dr. Joseph DiGrazia have pointed to the corporate domination of campaigns by corporations. With these works in mind, this research then embarks on a method of difference case study of Nevada, Minnesota, and New Hampshire to examine the quantitative and qualitative effects of the new campaign finance regulations on the balance of power between corporations and unions across America. From these case studies, the research concludes that corporations have gained a distinct financial advantage over unions in state electoral spending that has directly translated into more numerous and severe anti-labor policies. Examination of these results then leads to a discussion on the future of political activity for organized labor.

Posted in Symposium 2025 on May 1, 2025.