It is tempting to describe the Supreme Court’s decision in National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal Election Commission as a victory for Republicans. But that framing of the court’s decision is too simplistic.
The law at issue limited how much national and state party committees could spend in coordination with their own federal candidates — the spending made “in cooperation, consultation or concert with, or at the request or suggestion of, a candidate.”
The court, by a vote of 6-3, struck down the law, concluding that it violates the First Amendment. Since 1976, the Supreme Court has held that money given and spent in elections limits free speech rights under the First Amendment. The court created a bifurcated framework, whereby contributions were viewed as speech-by-proxy and could be limited because they give rise to actual or apparent corruption, but expenditures were viewed as closer to pure speech and had to remain largely unlimited. Back in 2001, the Supreme Court upheld the very law it struck down Tuesday, in FEC v. Colorado Republican Federal Campaign Committee (aka Colorado II). There, the court concluded that coordinated spending is functionally similar to a contribution.
On Tuesday, the court struck down those limits, ruling: “In light of the other meaningful prophylactic measures available to the Government, and given the severe infringement on First Amendment-protected political speech that ensues from limiting a political party’s spending in support of its candidates, we conclude that the political-party coordinated-expenditure limits are ‘disproportionate’ and are not ‘necessary’ and ‘narrowly tailored’ for the circumvention interest it seeks to protect.”
The anti-corruption argument underlying this now-defunct federal law is not frivolous. Congress limited coordinated party spending because parties can serve as conduits.
Put another way, the prohibition on expenditures was justified as preventing an end-run around contribution limits. An individual may give only $3,500 per election to a federal candidate, but may give $44,300 per year to a national party committee in the 2025-26 cycle, with even higher limits for certain segregated party accounts. If party committees can then spend unlimited sums in direct coordination with candidates, large donors may see party contributions as a more valuable way to help particular candidates. That is the anti-circumvention theory the court accepted in Colorado II and rejected Tuesday.
At the same time, the limits at issue in NRSC were far from theoretical. For 2026, the FEC set the coordinated party expenditure limit for House candidates from between $65,300 and $130,600; for Senate candidates, between $130,600 and $4,071,800; and $32,392,200 for presidential candidates. In an era in which competitive congressional races can attract tens of millions of dollars in outside spending, the limits contained in the federal law can look less like corruption safeguards and more like relics from another political universe.
The anti-corruption argument underlying this now-defunct federal law is not frivolous.
The real impact of this case goes beyond Republicans versus Democrats. It is, of course, true that Republicans (the NRSC, then-Senate candidate JD Vance and former Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio) brought the case challenging the federal law limiting coordinated party spending and were successful. It is also true that Democrats (the Democratic National Committee, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee) defended the law and were not.
But the reality is that this case is a win for all political parties in their fight to regain power after the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Citizens United v FEC ushered in the era of super PACs. There the court ruled that money spent independent of candidates, whether by individuals, corporations or unions, could not be corrupting as a matter of law. Therefore, the court held that independent expenditures could not be limited.
This gave rise to so-called super PACs, which are independent expenditure-only committees. In the 2008 presidential election, before Citizens United was handed down, outside spending amounted to approximately $575 million. By 2024, outside spending neared the $4.5 billion mark. And the majority of the spending was made by super PACs.
As spending by super PACs and other outside groups increased, the proportional share of spending by political parties has ebbed.
So prior to Tuesday’s decision, the current case law gave super PACs an advantage: They could raise unlimited money, but had to remain formally independent; parties could coordinate, but only by adhering to monetary limits. The result was a campaign finance system that empowered outside committees and groups over the political parties.
In the short term, Republican committees may believe they are better positioned to take advantage of the ruling. But the law the court struck down applied equally to both parties.
Democratic party committees can now coordinate much more extensively with their preferred candidates. Particularly in competitive Senate and House races, this could shift money and strategic control away from super PAC consultants and toward the parties and the candidates themselves. This shift could matter. As the majority noted Tuesday, “[p]olitical parties therefore do occupy a unique position with ‘a special relationship and unity of interest’ with candidates.”
This case presents a fundamental tension. On the one hand, it creates new avenues for wealthy donors to gain influence. Unlimited coordinated party spending could make large party donors even more important. On the other hand, it could also reduce one of the more troubling features of the post-Citizens United era: the displacement of parties by outside groups.
In the end, we have to live in reality. If we are going to have a campaign finance system flooded by money, there is at least an argument that more of that money should flow through political parties rather than outside groups like super PACs.
Republicans may celebrate Tuesday’s decision. Democrats may denounce it. But both parties will exploit it. The real winner may not be one side of the aisle, but rather political parties, newly freed more like the central players they always claimed to be.
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