The Koch sisters-- the anti-Koch brothers! "... we have our voices, and believe that together they are even more important than the special interests and their vast wealth."

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People before profits
By Joyce and Karen Koch, October 6, 2014

You’ve probably heard of the Koch Brothers but have you heard of the Koch Sisters? Well we are Joyce and Karen Koch. While we share the same last name, we’re nothing like those guys.

Unlike the Koch Brothers, we don’t have a lot of money. We don’t spend hundreds of millions of dollars on political candidates who will pad our pockets and we don’t have governors and senators who heed our every beck and call. Instead, we have something even greater; values that the American people overwhelmingly support.

Like us, most people agree that money shouldn’t dominate the political spectrum. They agree that people should come before profits. And they don’t want their political leaders to look out for only the millionaires and billionaires while the rest of us struggle to scrape by.

It was because of this shared belief that we launched the Koch Sisters campaign. In just a few short weeks, we’ve been amazed by the response we’ve gotten and how many others have joined to become a “Koch Sister” too. There are now more than 1,700 Koch Sisters! Thousands more have sent us letters and emails, pictures, Facebook messages and tweets. They are in unison opposing the unrelenting quest of a select few to buy our elections and rig the system in their favor.

Quite frankly, the passion and the excitement we’ve generated has given us a bit of a shock. We knew we were doing the right thing, but we had no idea so many people would be so ready to link arms with two average women they’d never met. I mean, we had no idea what to expect when we decided we should stand up to the greed of big money donors. But the outpouring of support and solidarity shouldn’t have surprised us at all.

You see, the Koch Sisters campaign isn’t about electing one candidate or supporting one issue. And it’s certainly not about us. It’s about standing up to the way our politics have been polluted. Every day on the TV, we see nasty campaign ads paid for by outside organizations that are awash in cash from anonymous donors. These donors want to create a world, satirized in American Bridge’s Kochville, where profit comes first and all else be damned. While dark money may dominate the American political and legislative spectrum, the values and ideals behind it do not.

The vast majority of Americans agree. They are Koch Sisters, not Koch Brothers. Like us, they want good jobs, affordable education, and real opportunities to get ahead. They think that if you work hard, you should be able to support your family.They value the promise of Social Security and the support they get from Medicare. They don’t believe profits only belong to CEOs. They’re tired of the rules being rigged so only the big corporations get richer while working families get left behind.

Unlike the Koch Brothers, we don’t have billions of dollars to commandeer elections. Instead, we have our voices, and believe that together they are even more important than the special interests and their vast wealth. While the Koch Brothers wield unprecedented and unrivaled money to pollute America's politics, we have and always will support the strongest political force in America: working people.

So we’re going to continue to speak out as this mid-term election approaches and travel the country rallying against the Koch Brothers and the destructive impact of their corporate cash. Everywhere we go, we find more Koch Sisters waiting for us with open arms.

This isn’t about demonizing two brothers who are out to demonize those who stand in their way. This is about raising awareness about who is paying for nasty attack ads that are designed to take our country in the wrong direction. This is about raising awareness about the perverse state of American politics. This about inspiring people who want a better society to stand up and say, ‘it’s time for change.’

If you agree that money shouldn’t buy influence and that each American should have the same chance to choose their leaders, then join us! Help us create a real democracy so we can all be a nation of Koch Sisters!”
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