WASHINGTON–With Election Day finally here, credit unions will be watching races to see if the candidates they backed have won.
Both major credit union political action committees avoid taking a position on the presidential race, but are heavily involved in local and congressional races.
Rich Meade, CUNA’s chief of staff, said the organization will be expanding its post-election activities with analysis of what the outcomes mean for credit unions and how “our advocacy can best navigate” a new government.
Meade said CUNA will be hosting a group call on Thursday to discuss the election with credit unions, and will also be publishing a white paper on what the election results mean.
Earlier this year CUNA launched a new website identifying each of the Credit Union Legislative Action Committee-backed candidates for the upcoming 2016 elections.
The site features an interactive U.S. map that shows the CULAC-supported candidates by state.
CUNA Chief Political Officer Richard Gose earlier said there are more than 370 candidates, making up roughly 80% of those running this election cycle, that CUNA is supporting.
CUNA and the CUNA/league system reported they have invested nearly $6 million on the pro-credit-union candidates for the U.S. House and Senate in the 2016 elections.
Among the races credit unions will be watching today is that of Rep. David Valadao from California’s 21st district, which is the southern half of the state’s Central Valley. Valadao, who is in a close race with Democrat Emilio Huerta, was the recipient of an independent expenditure from CULAC of $200,000 CUNA is also providing support to Republican Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri, who was called a “good friend to credit unions” by Gose. Blunt is in a tight race with challenger Jason Kander (D).
State leagues and individual credit unions backed partisan communications to Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania.
On the Democratic side, CUNA made several independent expenditures on behalf of Rep. Brad Ashford, a first-term congressman in a tight race with Republican Don Bacon. CULAC reported spending $349,753 on behalf of Ashford.
Major support also sent to:
- Rep. Ami Bera (D) from California’s seventh district with a $197,082 independent expenditure. Bera is a former credit union board member.
- Democrat Kim Myers, who is running for the open seat to represent New York’s 22nd congressional district. Myers was the beneficiary of $159,967.31 as an independent expenditure by CULAC.
- Rep. Rick Nolan (D) in Minnesota’s eighth congressional district. Nolan is in a rematch of his 2014 race against Republican Stewart Mills in which he won the race by 1.4% of the vote. Nolan was supported by partisan communications by CUs on his behalf.
Meanwhile, the Money Anxiety Index, which claims to have a perfect track record for predicting presidential elections, is forecasting that Democrat Hillary Clinton will win the presidential election by a small margin. Dr. Dan Geller, who created the Money Anxiety Index, said that when the November Money Anxiety Index is lower than January, the incumbent president is likely to win the reelections. In January of this year, the Money Anxiety Index stood at 60.4, compared to 60.2 in November - a 0.2 index point lower, but within the margin of error.
“Although Hillary Clinton is not up for reelection, her highly visible role as Secretary of State and her close affiliation to the Obama administration, make her run for the presidency a quasi-reelection campaign,” Geller said.