On the last day of its session, May 8, 2026, the Hawaiʻi Legislature passed SB2471, the Sunshine over Dark Money bill, by a vote of 74-1. Six days later, Governor Green signed SB2471 into law as Act 11 of 2026.
The Associated Press immediately covered the story nationally. https://apnews.com/article/corporate-campaign-money-citizens-united-hawaii-71a28bc7e8f6e0279b31e999f222519a
Caption: Our North Hawaiʻi Indivisibles (Waimea on the Big Island) wasted no time in thanking the Governor and their State Representative Tarnas, who was one of the key committee chairs and conferees. Indivisibles came out on May 14, the very afternoon when the Governor signed.
Undoing Citizen United
Think back to President Obamaʻs 2008 presidential campaign. Although the financial crisis was wreaking havoc with people’s lives, politics was so much more civil. John McCain, Obama’s opponent, made sure his supporters knew that the Democratic candidate was a good man. If they chanted otherwise, he corrected them, on camera.
In 2010, the Supreme Court decided Citizens United v. FEC, and opened the floodgates to dark money, that is, unlimited spending from untraceable sources outside the limits of campaign finance law.
So how can Hawaiʻi stand up to the US Supreme Court? In our webinar at the legislative close, Emeritus Professor and Former Dean of Richardson Law School at UH Manoa, identified the factual error in the Courtʻs opinion:
In Citizens United, Justice Kennedy for the court said that contributions, including by corporations, don't raise issues of corruption, or even the appearance of corruption. And I'm afraid we know better than the court at that point knew. It was a naive statement, and we've seen dark money, and we've seen billionaires bragging about how much they gave. … And I'm pretty confident that we've got a strong bill, and that it will survive constitutional review. https://youtu.be/I9Gjmo2i1HY?si=eRJLyU2Y2sW82qaq
The Atlantic reported on the likely success of Hawaiʻi’s bill to become a precedent for states nationwide.
As a political matter, the gambit is likely popular. … YouGov polling last year for Issue One, a group advocating for more restrictions on money in politics, found that 73 percent of Democrats and 53 percent of Republicans disapproved of the Citizens United finding that corporations have the same free-speech rights as individual citizens.
Hawaiʻi Indivisibles made that happen, start to finish.
Skeptical? Read on.
It started November 2025 on our Signal message board. Maryellen Tuttell form the Kona Indivisible leadership, shared a Substack publication from Robert Reich titled "How to Get Rid of 'Citizens United". Then as the lead of Indivisible Hawai'I’s Public Policy Action Group (PPAG), Younghee Overly forwarded the essay to the chair of the Senate Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs Committee, Karl Rhoads, the chair of the Senate Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs Committee, Karl Rhoads. We also started coordinating with all our partners in HAPA and Clean Elections Hawai‘i. (And a BIg Mahalo to them for much of the heavy lifting.)
Senator Rhoads told us that he had been thinking for years about how to deal with Citizens United, and that Reich's essay was the first time he saw a workable plan. He submitted it at the start of the legislative session, where it became SB2471. Marlene Thom, who lead the Good Government issue for PPAG, tracked the bill through the legislative session and ensured we continued advocating for it. We harnessed the Indivisible Hawai'I Statewide Network.
In the webinar, Senators Rhoads and Keohokālole and Representative Matayoshi confirmed that, without the Indivisibles continual outreach, this bill would have died. https://youtu.be/I9Gjmo2i1HY?si=eRJLyU2Y2sW82qaq
Indivisibles testified in all committee hearings, reached out to the conferees, pushed their legislators for a floor amendment and passage. Even on Friday morning, the last day of the session, the sponsors were worried about the floor votes. In the end, we won with a nearly unanimous vote.
Over the weekend, we organized statewide rallies for Tuesday morning, asking the Governor to sign the bill into law.
Caption: Indivisibles rallying at the Capitol, Tuesday, May 12, to call on Governor Green to sign SB2471.
It's true: You and I - we Indivisibles did it! 🎉🎉🎉
There were many, many times when this measure seemed doomed, in committee, in conference, in floor amendment, on the Governor’s desk, and nonetheless by the end, every one of our electeds has boarded this train.
Dark Money Will Defend Itself
There will be lawsuits filed in short order. Excellent lawyers will argue on both sides. And 49 states will be watching.