In MO abortion rights fight, Biden and Trump can now raise unlimited cash. Here’s how

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President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump, and other federal candidates can now raise unlimited funds to support or oppose Missouri’s abortion rights amendment, under a legal opinion that paves the way for candidates to take a more active role in statewide ballot measures.

The Federal Election Commission, which enforces federal campaign finance law, released an advisory opinion last week clearing the way for candidates for president and Congress to fundraise for groups working to pass or defeat ballot measures. The opinion was requested by a Nevada group promoting an abortion rights measure.

The fallout in Missouri from the decision may be swift. A coalition seeking to overturn the state’s abortion ban turned in more than 380,000 petition signatures – more than twice what’s necessary – last week in support of placing an amendment enshrining abortion access in the state constitution on the ballot, most likely in November.

Biden and Trump can now tap their donors – potentially millions of people – for dollars to pass or defeat the amendment. Whether they will do so is uncertain, given that solidly-Republican Missouri isn’t a battleground state.

But the decision will place pressure on Missouri candidates, including Sen. Josh Hawley and his potential Democratic opponent, Lucas Kunce, to raise funds for the ballot measure battle. Candidates may also be interested in fundraising if they believe the ballot measure will increase turnout on their behalf.

“We welcome the decision because it does allow members of Congress to help with our efforts to defeat this initiative petition,” said Samuel Lee, a longtime anti-abortion lobbyist in Missouri who is president of Missouri Stands with Women, the primary campaign opposing the abortion rights amendment.

“The question is, will members of Congress in Missouri want to do it or not?”

Lee said amendment opponents earlier this year approached a federal candidate, who he declined to name, asking the individual to help fundraise for their “decline to sign” effort, which encouraged voters to not sign the petition. Lee said the candidate had declined, citing federal election law.

‘Why not?’

Republicans hold both U.S. Senate seats in Missouri and six of eight congressional districts. Some GOP members of Congress, including Hawley, have framed abortion as primarily a states’ issue since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the federal right to an abortion in 2022.

The FEC’s advisory opinion effectively gives GOP candidates at the federal level an opportunity to put their money where their mouth is.

“It’s a state’s decision but that doesn’t mean just because you hold federal office you can’t weigh in on it,” Lee said. “Why not? Why not get involved in it if you believe in it?”

The abortion amendment fight is shaping up to be expensive, with supporters holding a large cash advantage.

Missourians for Constitutional Freedom, the coalition campaigning for the amendment, had already raised nearly $5 million as of late March according to a Missouri campaign finance report. The group has received contributions totaling more than $1 million since then.

Missouri Stands with Women raised about $85,000 through March. A $100,000 donation was made in late April.

Missourians for Constitutional Freedom didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The FEC opinion came in response to Nevadans for Reproductive Freedom, which is trying to get an abortion rights measure on the ballot this fall. Up to 15 states may have abortion-related ballot measures this year, according to the health policy group KFF. They include the battleground states of Arizona and Florida, in addition to Nevada.

Mark Johnson, a Kansas City-based lawyer who focuses on election law, said a lawsuit could be filed challenging the FEC’s interpretation of federal law.

“Absent that this is going to, I think, greatly going to increase the amount of money going into these ballot initiatives this fall and that money will be used to try to turn out voters that are pro-choice and then by extension increase the number of Democratic votes,” Johnson said.

The Campaign Legal Center, a Washington-based group that advocates for stricter campaign finance laws, opposes the conclusions of the FEC opinion. In comments to the FEC, the group warned the opinion “would undermine the anticorruption objectives” of the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act, a 2002 federal law restricting so-called “soft money” in politics – money raised and spent not in support of a specific candidate.

“Ballot measures get people fired up. It’s a direct democracy type of thing, you can really influence what the rules are for your community, your state, so people get into it and in some ways, candidates trying to harness that is not a bad thing,” Saurav Ghosh, CLC’s director of federal campaign finance reform, said in an interview. “But there used to be a limit on how much they could do to raise money for those groups and it’s too bad that limit is now basically gone.”

The Kunce campaign has repeatedly highlighted Hawley’s opposition to abortion rights, along with the anti-abortion advocacy of his wife, Erin Morrow Hawley, who recently argued to limit access to medication abortion before the Supreme Court.

Connor Lounsbury, a senior advisor to Kunce, was unable to say how Kunce may specifically contribute to the ballot initiative, given the new rule. But he said Kunce supports the abortion rights measure.

“Lucas is committed to doing whatever it takes to ensure Missourians get to make their own decisions and control their own lives – that means defeating Josh Hawley and passing this ballot initiative,” Lounsbury said.

Kunce’s campaign has tried to use Hawley’s stance on abortion rights – the senator says he personally favors exceptions for rape and incest, but supports Missouri’s current law and has backed a 15-week federal abortion ban – as part of a larger messaging campaign portraying him as a “creepy” politician who tries to limit people’s individual freedoms.

While Democrats are optimistic that the ballot initiative might help drive up turnout and help their election chances in November, the party struggled in the 2022 election, the first campaign after Missouri’s abortion ban went into effect.

Hawley’s campaign did not respond to a text message or phone call seeking comment.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee argued against allowing federal candidates to raise money for ballot measures ahead of the release of the FEC’s opinion.

Ryan Dollar, the general counsel for the NRSC, wrote that allowing candidates to raise the money would welcome unlimited money to pour into ballot measure campaigns – potentially from foreign sources – in a shadow effort to help candidates get elected.

“If the Commission approves Draft A, then state ballot measure committees will immediately become the most popular political fundraising vehicles in the country,” Dollar wrote, referring to the draft opinion.

“Federal candidates will spend significant sums of time soliciting unlimited funds for closely aligned ballot measure committees (some of which will inevitably come from foreign sources) under the understanding that every dollar the ballot initiative raises and spends will redound to the candidate’s benefit on Election Day.”

The Star’s Kacen Bayless contributed reporting