U.S. Term Limits

U.S. Term Limits
Basic facts
Location:	Washington, D.C.
Type:	501(c)(4)
Top official:	Philip Blumel, President
Founder(s):	Howard Rich
Year founded:	1990
Website:	Official website

Note: Ballotpedia tracked U.S. Term Limits as a ballot measures influencer through 2014. You can send information about this influencer’s current involvement with ballot measures to editor@ballotpedia.org.

U.S. Term Limits (USTL) is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization. As of September 2025, the organization said its "only focus is term limits on elected officials, particularly the U.S. Congress." Howard Rich founded the organization in 1991. The group supported campaigns to enact Congressional term limits in the 1990s that ended in the Supreme Court's 1995 ruling in U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton that term limits for members of Congress would require amending the Constitution. In 2016, the organization launched the Term Limits Convention, a project advocating for amending the Constitution to allow for term limits for members of Congress.

Background

Howard Rich founded USTL in 1991. Before founding the group, Rich was a real estate developer. As of September 2025, the group described its mission as to "enact and defend term limits on elected offices at all levels of government via the ballot box, legislatures and the courts with an ultimate aim of enacting a congressional term limits amendment to the U.S. Constitution." It said term limits would promote "citizen legislatures arising from competitive elections, rotation in office and expanded citizen access to the electoral process."

Leadership

As of September 2025, individuals holding positions of leadership at U.S. Term Limits included:

• Philip Blumel, president
• Nick Tomboulides, chief executive officer
• Scott Tillman, chief operations officer
• Stacey Selleck, digital director
• CQ Constantin Querard, western regional director
• Shanna Chamblee, southern regional director
• Les Chamblee, Midwest regional director
• Aaron Dukette, northern regional director
• Marlene Vincent, regional director
• Holly Robichaud, director of state chair program

As of September 2025, the following individuals sat on U.S. Term Limits' board of directors:

• Howard Rich, chairman
• Philip Blumel, president
• John Aglialoro
• Travis Anderson
• Paul Farago
• Paul Jacob
• Marshall Stocker
• Bob Gelfond
• Steve Merican
• Chris Ekstrom

Work and activities

Legislative and policy work

As of September 2025, U.S. Term Limits said it had "assisted in enacting and defending term limits on state legislatures in 15 states as well as congressional term limits in 23 states."

In 2016, USTL began a campaign to begin an Article V Convention, which would have allowed the imposition of term limits on Congress without congressional approval. According to USTL, the process would be as follows:

• Two-thirds of state legislatures (34) must pass bills applying for a convention to consider only amendments for congressional term limits.
• Congress is compelled by law to call the convention, which includes delegates chosen solely by their respective states.
• The convention reports out an amendment for congressional term limits.
• The amendment must be ratified by either three-quarters (38) of state legislatures or state conventions.

Ballot measures

See also: Term limits on the ballot

Year	State	Measure	Position	Result
2014	Illinois	Illinois Term Limits for Legislators Amendment (2014)		Not on ballot
2014	Arkansas	Issue 3		a
2008	South Dakota	Amendment J		d
2008	California	Proposition 93		d
2007	Maine	Question Five		d
2006	Oregon	Measure 45		d

Notable endorsements

See also: Ballotpedia: Our approach to covering endorsements

This section displays endorsements this organization made in elections within Ballotpedia's coverage scope.

Notable candidate endorsements by U.S. Term Limits

Endorsee	Election	Stage	Outcome
Gloria Young  source  (D)	Missouri House of Representatives District 16 (2024)	General	Lost General

Notable ballot measure endorsements by U.S. Term Limits

Measure	Position	Outcome
Arkansas Issue 2, Change State Legislative Term Limits Amendment (2020)  source	Oppose	Approved
Arkansas Issue 3, Initiative Process and Legislative Referral Requirements Amendment (2020)  source	Oppose	Defeated
North Dakota Constitutional Measure 1, Term Limits for Governor and State Legislators Initiative (2022)  source	Support	Approved
North Dakota Initiated Measure 1, Congressional Age Limits Initiative (June 2024)  source	Support	Approved

Finances

The following is a breakdown of U.S. Term Limits' revenues and expenses from 2004 to 2023. The information comes from ProPublica

U.S. Term Limits financial data 2004-2023

Year	Revenue	Expenses
2004	$1.3 million	$1.5 million
2005	$0.5 million	$0.6 million
2006	$2.8 million	$2.7 million
2007	$1.4 million	$2.0 million
2008	$1.2 million	$1.5 million
2009	$0.5 million	$0.5 million
2010	$0.4 million	$0.6 million
2011	$0.6 million	$0.4 million
2012	$1.0 million	$0.7 million
2013	$0.3 million	$0.08 million
2014	$1.1 million	$1.3 million
2015	$1.9 million	$0.3 million
2016	$1.4 million	$1.9 million
2017	$2.9 million	$2.5 million
2018	$2.8 million	$3.1 million
2019	$2.9 million	$2.8 million
2020	$5.9 million	$3.8 million
2021	$4.2 million	$2.9 million
2022	$7.3 million	$6.2 million
2023	$7.5 million	$3.5 million

Noteworthy events

U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton

See also: U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton

In 1992, the organization helped place term limits on ballots in 14 states, which was followed in 1994 with measures in eight more states. In 1995, a case challenging the legality of a state placing restrictions on congressional terms was brought before the U.S. Supreme Court as U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton. The Supreme Court concluded, by a 5-4 vote, that it was not legal for a state to impose term limits on elected federal positions. The result of the court's decision de facto struck down all 23 laws that U.S. Term Limits had helped pass around the country. In 1996, U.S. Term Limits put forth new term limit measures in 14 states.

See also

• What is an influencer?
• U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton
• List of term limits ballot measures
• Howard Rich
• Paul Jacob

External links

• U.S. Term Limits
• U.S. Term Limits on Facebook
• U.S. Term Limits on X
• U.S. Term Limits on YouTube