If passed in the Assembly and signed into law, New York would be the second state following Minnesota to ban foreign-influenced corporations from spending money to influence state and local elections. 

ALBANY, NY (January 14, 2025) – On January 13th, the New York State Senate passed, with bipartisan support, the Democracy Preservation Act (S324), a bill designed to end the influence of foreign corporate money in statewide elections.

The legislation, introduced by Senate Deputy Leader Michael Gianaris, would bar corporations with significant foreign ownership from contributing to candidates, parties, or committees (including super PACs) or from engaging in their own direct election spending. A companion bill (A-1258) has been introduced in the State Assembly by Assemblywoman Latrice Walker. 

Across the country, companies with significant foreign ownership, like Amazon, Airbnb, Chevron, and Uber, have used their money to influence the outcome of elections and political agendas in their favor. The Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Citizens United created a loophole for foreign interests to acquire stakes in U.S. corporations and then use that leverage to influence or control the corporation’s political activity, including campaign contributions, contributions to super PACs, and independent expenditures.

Multinational corporations affected by the Democracy Preservation Act are those owned 1% or more by a single foreign investor, or 5% or more by multiple foreign investors. These thresholds reflect levels of ownership that are widely agreed (including by entities such as the Business Roundtable) to be high enough to influence corporate governance.

The policy grows from model legislation developed by Free Speech For People, a national nonpartisan non-profit organization that works to renew our democracy and to limit the influence of money in our elections. Free Speech For People helped to pass similar legislation in Minnesota in 2023, San Jose, California in 2024, and in Seattle, Washington in 2020. Additional bills are under consideration in California, Washington, Massachusetts, and Hawaii, as well as in the U.S. Congress. Congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland introduced in the last Congress the Get Foreign Money Out of U.S. Elections Act, which is a federal companion bill to the Democracy Preservation Act in New York.

“The Democracy Preservation Act is a bold reform in the fight to put democracy back in the hands of the people where it belongs,” says Alexandra Flores-Quilty, Campaign Director at Free Speech For People. “We applaud the New York State Senate for passing this bill, and we urge the New York Assembly to do so as well, making New York the second state in the country to enact this model law.”

Free Speech For People is working in partnership with the Center For American Progress, Citizen Action of New York, and other public interest organizations to support the Democracy Preservation Act.