Wealth as a Barrier . Democratic Financing for Democratic Elections. The right to vote in our United States has been continuously expanded as disenfranchised peoples have organized and struggled for an America that lives up to its legal and moral promise of democracy. Over time, the nation has seen the elimination of numerous barriers to voting rights from property, race, gender, and age qualifications to exclusionary white primaries, poll taxes, high candidate filing fees, and vote dilution schemes. Today we must face up to the newest voting-rights barrier, that exclusionary process, leading up to every party primary and every general election, in which those with money or access to money, by means of their campaign contributions, choose the candidates who almost invariably go on to govern.
Facts show that the candidate who raises the most money almost always wins.
Return to the outline at the top of this page. The Jaybird Democratic Association, a large private political club open only to white Texas voters, had for years nominated candidates to run in the Democratic Party primary. It is, like its predecessor, both exclusionary and decisive. Candidates and voters who lack wealth and access to wealth are effectively excluded from the process. And the candidate who, by raising the most money, wins the wealth primary almost invariably wins the election.