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Political Science

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The University of Maine

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2019

Citizens United

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A Study Of The Impacts Of The Citizens United Supreme Court Decision On Electoral Outcomes In U.S. House Of Representatives Races, Asher Sizeler-Fletcher Apr 2019

A Study Of The Impacts Of The Citizens United Supreme Court Decision On Electoral Outcomes In U.S. House Of Representatives Races, Asher Sizeler-Fletcher

Honors College

The 2010 Supreme Court decision in the case Citizens United v. FEC brought about major changes in U.S. Campaign finance law, most infamously the creation and proliferating of Super PACs, a new vehicle for outside spending. In this thesis, I investigate the impacts of the Citizens United decision on electoral outcomes in U.S. House of Representatives races. I analyzed campaign finance data from the 2006, 2014, 2016, and 2018 election cycles for three categories of House races: open seats, competitive seats, and seats that fall within a specific spending ratio between the top two vote getters. I conducted a number …