End Citizens United Action Fund

Background

End Citizens United was founded in 2015 by three former Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) digital fundraising operatives: Greg Berlin, the DCCC’s former digital campaign director; Charles Starnes, the DCCC’s former deputy digital director; and Jake Lipsett, a former congressional staffer. The End Citizens United Action Fund was established separately in 2018 as a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization to conduct lobbying and issue advocacy. ⁴

In January 2020, Let America Vote, a 527 political organization founded by former Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander (D) to target politicians opposed to liberal voting-system changes, merged with End Citizens United. Following the merger, the ECU Action Fund relaunched as the End Citizens United/Let America Vote Action Fund and assumed the combined entity’s lobbying and advocacy functions. ⁵

Activities

The End Citizens United Action Fund’s primary activities consist of paid advertising campaigns, federal lobbying, and coalition work in support of legislation aligned with Democratic Party electoral priorities. In 2021, the fund committed tens of millions of dollars toward passing the For the People Act, a sweeping Democratic-backed elections bill that would have centralized administration of federal elections, expanded public campaign financing, and mandated new campaign finance disclosure rules. The End Citizens United Action Fund and the National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NDRC) jointly announced a $30 million campaign of television and digital advertising, member mobilization, and allied organization funding in March 2021 to press the Senate to pass the bill. The Action Fund spent approximately $17.2 million on digital and television advertising between February and July 2021 alone, and an additional $375,372 on direct mail, in service of this campaign. ^{3 6}

Beyond advertising, the fund lobbied Congress directly, spending $40,000 on lobbying in 2020 and $80,000 in 2021, for Democratic priority bills including the For the People Act, the PRIDE Act of 2021, which would have extended federal anti-discrimination protections to LGBTQ individuals, legislation establishing a commission to investigate the 2021 Capitol riot, and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would have restored and expanded preclearance requirements under the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The fund did not report any federal lobbying expenditures from 2023 to 2025. ⁷

In the 2022 election cycle, ECU/LAV and its affiliates reported raising and spending $80.6 million in total, directing tens of millions toward independent expenditures and issue advertising in politically competitive states for Democratic-aligned candidates. ⁸

In September 2022, the fund released what it called the first-ever State Democracy Scorecard in which it graded all fifty states on campaign finance, voting access, and election administration policies ahead of the midterm elections. The fund also released a 117th Congress legislative scorecard grading members of Congress on their support for Democratic-backed election legislation, including the For the People Act, the DISCLOSE Act (which would have required disclosure of donors to politically active nonprofit organizations), and the Freedom to Vote Act, a Democratic-backed elections bill that would have expanded early voting, established automatic voter registration, and set new campaign finance disclosure requirements. ^{9 10}

In November 2023, the fund announced a $9 million voter mobilization initiative called “Organize New York,” partnering with former U.S. Rep. Max Rose (D-NY) to register and mobilize voters aged 18 to 26 across six New York congressional districts where youth turnout had declined in 2022. ¹¹

In August 2024, fund president Tiffany Muller filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging that a livestreamed interview between Elon Musk and then-former President Donald Trump on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) constituted an illegal corporate in-kind contribution to the Trump campaign. The FEC subsequently dismissed the complaint. ^{12 13}

Funding

The End Citizens United Action Fund receives all its revenue from contributions and grants. Its major funders have typically been affiliated Democratic entities and left-of-center organizations. ²

According to the fund’s posted donor disclosure documents, in January 2021 the fund received $100,000 from Let America Vote; in February, the National Redistricting Action Fund contributed $1.3 million. Subsequent NRAF contributions reached $3.8 million in March 2021, $2.5 million in April, and $4.1 million in May, totaling more than $11.7 million from that single source during the first half of 2021. Additional 2021 organizational contributors included the Let America Vote PAC ($250,000) and End Citizens United Non-Federal ($250,000), a non-federal political committee affiliated with End Citizens United, used to raise and spend funds not subject to federal campaign finance contribution limits. ¹

In 2020, the fund received $455,000 from End Citizens United and $1 million from End Citizens United Non-Federal, per its posted contribution records. ¹⁴

People

As of 2026, Tiffany Muller was serving as president of the End Citizens United Action Fund, and of End Citizens United and Let America Vote. She previously worked as deputy political director at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), chief of staff to then-U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-FL), vice president of political operations at the LGBTQ Victory Fund, and research director to former Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius (D). She has also sat on the board of the Congressional Progressive Caucus Center. In 2024, Muller received $369,399 in related-organization compensation plus $25,171 in other compensation. ^{15 2}

As of 2026, Abraham Rakov was executive director. He previously worked as a senior advisor on former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke‘s (D-TX) U.S. Senate and presidential campaigns, and was the campaign manager for Jason Kander‘s 2016 U.S. Senate campaign and 2012 Secretary of State campaign. Rakov received $132,153 in related-organization compensation in 2024. ^{15 2}