Issue One

Issue One is an American nonpartisan, nonprofit organization which seeks to reduce the role of money in politics. It aims to increase public awareness of what it views as problems within the present campaign finance system, and to reduce the influence of money in politics through enactment of campaign finance reform.

Issue One was formed through the merger of two campaign finance reform organizations: Americans for Campaign Reform and Fund for the Republic.

Americans for Campaign Reform (ACR) was a non-partisan 501(c)(3) organization formed in 2003 by John Rauh, with Dan Weeks, and later Barbara Lawton, serving as president and CEO. The Board of Directors was composed of two Democratic senators and two Republican senators. The ACR described itself as: "a bipartisan community of citizens who believe passionately that public funding of federal elections is the single most critical long-term public policy issue our nation faces. What's at stake are nothing less than the health of our democracy, the quality of our leadership, and our government's ability to tackle the serious problems that affect us all: health care, energy policy, education, the environment and the economy." Their primary purpose was to enact public funding of all federal elections; supporting legislation which promoted small donor participation in elections and provided increased public funds for qualified candidate to run competitive races. ACR emphasized that the longstanding limits on the size of contributions imposed by national, state and local legislation were important to encouraging ordinary citizens to participate in the electoral process.

Fund for the Republic (FFR) was a group formed in late 2012 with the goal of removing the influence of big money in American politics. In 2013, Fund for the Republic co-hosted an event with Democracy Alliance in which it pitched 110 donors on investing in a $40 million plan to combat dark money in American politics. Donors to the Fund for the Republic included Democracy Alliance members Jonathan Soros and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. That same year, FFR's affiliated (c)(4) announced plans to fund groups working to defeat politicians who oppose campaign finance reform, while supporting groups backing finance reform politicians.

The group's stated mission is "reducing the influence of money in politics and putting everyday Americans back in control of our democracy."