A proposed amendment to the Iowa State Constitution would ban corporations from financially contributing or otherwise participating in election and ballot issue activities, with language specifying this does not stop businesses from being able to manufacture, operate or sell election equipment.

This proposal is specifically a means to combat the impacts of the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which struck down limits on how much money a corporation can directly spend in support of a political campaign.

Many critics of the decision have said Citizens United has given corporations and wealthy individuals the ability to fund elections without their identities publicized, as political action committees and candidates accept contributions from “dark money” groups — often 501(c)(4) social welfare groups or 501(c)(6) trade associations — which do not have to publicly release information about their donors.

Wahls, who is running for Iowa’s U.S. Senate seat in 2026, said in the 16 years since the Citizens United decision, “the floodgates opened, and it became easier for corporate interests and anonymous groups to spend unlimited amounts to influence our elections, often without voters even knowing who is behind it.”

He said the court decision has allowed special interests to set political agendas while the issues impacting most Iowans go unaddressed.

Exactly how the amendment would work, ifadopted, isn't clear, since Federal constitutional protections are applied to the states under the U.S. Constitution';s 24th Amendment. – Reporting by Iowa Capital Dispatch."