Supporting Ag-Friendly Candidates

ELECT is a nonpartisan Political Action Committee (PAC) organized to promote the interests of farmers, rural families, and other agricultural related businesses and help create friendly access to legislators. Endorsement by ELECT is driven by a multi-part, grassroots process that requires a high threshold of support by each entity involved.

ELECT has three distinct goals: member involvement, policy implementation and member clout and influence. ELECT enhances member involvement through political education and grassroots decision-making. By electing ag and rural focused candidates members can ensure that their policy priorities will be implemented by local, state and national officials. ELECT also increases Farm Bureau clout and influence through enhanced relationships with elected officials.

The District Directors are the governing and executive body of ELECT. They determine the amount of expenditures, but only have limited power involving endorsement actions.

AgELECT is the state political action committee of Indiana Farm Bureau. AgELECT may only contribute to state level candidates in Indiana, and it is primarily focused on supporting state Senate candidates, state House of Representative candidates and state legislative caucus events. AgELECT is a Separate Segregated Fund (SSF) of Indiana Farm Bureau, which means it can be thought of similarly to a new, separate bank account for writing and receiving state level political fundraising checks. AgELECT is separate from the federally registered Indiana Farm Bureau ELECT PAC, but both PACs will follow similar endorsement and operating procedures.

AgELECT was created to provide fundraising flexibility to Indiana Farm Bureau by expanding the universe of potential donors beyond Farm Bureau’s membership or restricted class. By increasing fundraising potential, AgELECT will increase the capacity to grow Indiana Farm Bureau’s political clout.

To have an influence on an election, PACs have to raise funds to contribute to a candidate’s campaign. For ELECT, these funds come from contributions from members. For AgELECT, members, non-members, and corporations are able to contribute. Contributing to the PAC builds trust between the contributor and the candidate. For the candidate, knowing someone else believes in them to pursue difficult agricultural issues, gives them the confidence to make tough decisions when they are in the legislature or Congress.

Fundraising is a way of showing support for the cause. Fundraising allows a PAC to contribute to campaigns, specifically candidates who are ag-friendly versus their opponent. It is crucial to be involved in races between an ag-friendly candidate and an opponent who might not be so inclined to support agriculture. When the PAC assists with campaign funding, the ag candidate will have more to budget for advertising and other promotion expenses; and it is hoped, an increased chance of winning the election.

If you have any questions about the AgELECT or ELECT PACs, fundraising, or local government please contact our public policy team at ppt@infb.org.

Anyone, including corporations, may contribute to AgELECT. There is no need to ensure that fundraising events are restricted to members only when fundraising is being done for AgELECT.

Individuals, LLCs, sole proprietorships, and partnerships may contribute an unlimited amount of money to AgELECT. Contributions from these groups will be designated to the general fund of AgELECT to be distributed according to the same procedures utilized by ELECT. 

Corporate political contributions are limited by Indiana state law. When donors write checks on farm corporation accounts to AgELECT they should be aware of the following limitations. A corporation may not exceed these total contributions during any calendar year:

• $5,000 apportioned in any manner among all statewide candidates
• $5,000 apportioned in any manner among all state central committees of political parties
• $2,000 apportioned in any manner among all candidates for state Senate
• $2,000 apportioned in any manner among all candidates for state House of Representatives
• $2,000 apportioned in any manner among all state Senate legislative caucuses
• $2,000 apportioned in any manner among all state House of Representative legislative caucuses
• $2,000 apportioned in any manner among candidates for county, local, and school board offices
• $2,000 apportioned in any manner among all political party committees other than state central committees

Contributions made by county Farm Bureaus to AgELECT are considered corporate contributions, so they will be subject to the above limitations. Additionally, since political contributions are beyond the scope of Farm Bureau’s exempt purpose, the funds will be subject to the highest corporate tax rate (approx. 40%).

Because AgELECT is focused on state legislative races, unless otherwise specified, corporate contributions will be designated 30-70 among the Senate and House, respectively. This category designation, which only applies to corporate donations, is known as “earmarking” and must be maintained by internal accounting records.

While some potential donors may already be maxing out their corporate political giving, it is important to draw their attention to the value of the collective voice that is promoted via AgELECT. The value of the collective voice may help convince corporations to give to AgELECT as opposed to giving directly to the candidate. 

As a state PAC, AgELECT is required to report contributors who donate more than $100 in a calendar year. Reporting requires listing the contributor’s name, address, and cumulative annual contribution. This is very similar to reporting for ELECT and will largely be managed internally.

Product donations made by corporations are counted as in-kind contributions against the corporation’s annual limit.

Foreign nationals, national banks, and federally chartered corporations are prohibited from making political contributions. Additionally, it is impermissible for someone to make a political contribution in the name of another. All political contributions must be listed by the name of the true donor. Finally, Indiana has specific laws governing political contributions by the regulated gaming industry (e.g. lottery, horse racing, and riverboat gambling) and these groups are not appropriate donors to AgELECT.

A PAC is a contributor driven entity that helps ensure policies you want are supported and that your voice is heard in government by all sides. PACs are generally nonpartisan. Funds collected assist candidates who are like-minded, have a desire to help agriculture and who understand the unique needs of agriculture. A PAC allows contributors to have concentrated involvement in political action. 

Both AgELECT and ELECT allow members and non-members who are concerned about Indiana’s agriculture economy and future to make sure their voice is heard by assisting candidates who understand the fundamentals of the Indiana agricultural community. PACs allow candidates and the general electorate to build relationships. To make sure a candidate does indeed understand agriculture – important conversations must come up. This allows the contributor-voter to get to know the person they are electing to develop such policies. That relationship can be the difference between important policies getting voted into law or not.

The ELECT $5 membership will remain in place on membership renewal forms. As a federal PAC, ELECT is able to make unlimited transfers of funds to the AgELECT state PAC. When needed, funds may be transferred from ELECT to AgELECT as determined by the ELECT Board of Directors. AgELECT is not able to transfer funds to ELECT because ELECT solicitations are limited to a restricted class (INFB members).

Because federal candidate contributions will be covered by the ELECT $5 donations, in-person and other fundraising solicitations will be directed to AgELECT.  Anyone, including corporations and non-members, can be invited to AgELECT fundraising events.

Although ELECT retains the ability to make state level contributions, AgELECT will now be the political action committee used for all state level candidate endorsements and expenditures. ELECT will only be used to endorse and expend on the federal level.