AG Jennings defeats Koch billionaire-backed effort to upend Delaware’s election transparency laws

Attorney General Kathy Jennings announced today that a Koch family-affiliated campaign group's attempt to nullify state law requiring basic transparency for third-party campaign advertisers has been defeated in court.

"This victory affirms that it is the people of Delaware - not the Koch family or any other billionaires - who get to determine our state's election laws," said Attorney General Kathy Jennings. "For years, the Kochs have funneled billions of dollars of dark money into our country's elections to promote policies to enrich themselves at the expense of the general public. Their brazen attempt to expand that playbook into Delaware has met the fate that it deserves."

Last month, a Koch family-affiliated campaign group sued Attorney General Kathy Jennings and Elections Commissioner Anthony Albence in an attempt to nullify state law requiring basic transparency for third-party campaign advertisers, sometimes referred to as Super PACs, independent expenditures, or simply "IEs." In an oral ruling issued from the bench Monday, the Court rejected the Koch network's arguments and sided with the State.

The 19-page complaint, filed in federal court and citing the infamous Citizens United ruling for support, sought to end enforcement of even the most rudimentary disclosure requirements for third-party advertisers, which State law defines as people or groups spending $500 or more to assist in the election of any candidate or in connection with any election campaign. The Koch lawsuit attempted to target one of the few shreds of regulation that Citizens United left intact: a requirement to disclose the identities of individuals or groups that contribute more than $100 to support IE spending in Delaware elections. Had they succeeded, State law would have essentially no transparency requirements governing the Koch network, billionaires like Elon Musk, or other moneyed interests' efforts to dump dark money into Delaware elections.

IE groups are not formally affiliated with political candidates or parties and are not subject to contribution limits that govern candidates for office ($600 or $1,200 in Delaware), political action committees or PACs ($5,000), or political parties ($20,000). As a result, they are a weapon of choice for the ultra-wealthy, corporate lobbies, or other special interests to spend not just $500, but legally unlimited sums of money to influence elections.

IEs were an outgrowth of the U.S. Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United ruling, which held that campaign spending is protected under the First Amendment and consequently decimated state and federal campaign finance laws. They have played a defining role in skyrocketing campaign spending since 2010; dark money groups spent a record $1.9 billion in the 2024 election cycle.

Charles and David Koch, scions of an oil tycoon, quickly illustrated the dangers of the 2010 ruling, directing billions into a sprawling right-wing network of think tanks, corporate-backed "grassroots" entities (sometimes referred to as "astroturf" groups), and advocacy groups including Delaware's Caesar Rodney Institute. Americans for Prosperity, the AFP Foundation, and the Super PAC AFP Action are the primary advocacy groups in the Koch network.

In the absence of a constitutional amendment or an overriding Supreme Court ruling, Citizens United shields these groups from virtually any guardrails on where they accept money, how much they spend, or what they say. Groups like Americans for Prosperity regularly fund last-minute spending blitzes, blanketing campaign-season commercial blocks with attack ads and other measures to influence elections on behalf of corporate interests.