Former U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is scheduled to appear in Butte on May 17 in support of Initiative 194, a proposed Montana ballot measure that would ban corporations and other "artificial persons" from contributing anything of value to candidates, political parties, or state and local ballot campaigns.

Organizers reached out to Buttigieg, the former two-term mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, after he mentioned the initiative during a podcast interview with the Texas Tribune. "He was doing a podcast with the Texas Tribune and he mentioned the Montana plan so we asked him," said Jeff Mangan, lead organizer for the Transparent Election Initiative and former Montana commissioner of political practices.

Mangan describes I-194 as a return to campaign finance limits Montana previously had in place before the U.S. Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling, which equated political spending with First Amendment free speech and struck down limits on corporate campaign expenditures. The initiative would extend the ban to nonprofits, trusts, partnerships, trade associations, and unincorporated associations — any entity that is not a natural person. Violations would carry a penalty of being denied a license to do business in Montana.

The May 17 rally in Butte will mark one of the higher-profile appearances in the campaign to gather signatures and build public support for the initiative ahead of any potential ballot placement.