Supporting cooperative friends in 2020

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To ensure electric cooperatives are best represented in policy decisions at the Indiana General Assembly and in Congress, IEC relies on a lot of different tools. From embracing the strong connections between member cooperatives and the communities they serve to leveraging the activism of over 60,000 Hoosiers who have joined the IEC grassroots network, IEC can harness many aspects of cooperative engagement to build strong relationships with state and federal legislators.

Yet, no tool is as important as the strong participation in the Indiana FORE and ACRE political action committees (PACs). The PACs help ensure the friends and allies of electric cooperatives can continue to help IEC promote legislative priorities beneficial to rural Hoosiers

The 2020 PAC solicitation materials were sent to member cooperatives the week of Oct. 21. Each cooperative received physical shipments of FORE/ACRE and FORE participation cards. Additionally, and as a new resource for co-ops, IEC sent digital files of both participation cards and the ACRE and FORE participation guide to each member cooperative.

Both Indiana FORE and ACRE begin their 2020 fundraising years on Jan. 1, 2020, but it’s never too late to plan how your cooperative will create opportunities for your directors and staff to help Indiana’s electric cooperatives support our friends and allies in Indianapolis and Washington.

Thanks to another impressive fundraising effort in 2019, the PACs have been able to:

  • Support state and federal policymakers with over $145,000 in campaign contributions to statewide candidates
  • Contribute over $25,000 to members of Indiana’s Congressional delegation.

This support would not be possible without the hundreds of staff members, CEOs and directors who contributed over $117,000 to Indiana FORE and over $69,000 to ACRE in 2019 (as of Oct. 18). This includes a record-setting 89 PAC Major Donors who contributed at least $125 to FORE and $500 to ACRE.

Our PACs could not provide the levels of support necessary to help those candidates who support electric cooperatives without the generosity of all of our PAC contributors.

To learn more about PAC participation or to schedule a member of the government relations team to speak to your board and/or staff about PAC participation, contact Bennett Fuson.