UPDATE: More corporations suspend donations to Republicans who objected to Electoral College vote
On Sunday, Popular Information broke the news that three major corporations — Marriott, BlueCross BlueShield, and Commerce Bank — were suspending PAC donations to the 147 Republicans who objected to the Electoral College vote. This newsletter uncovered this information by asking 144 companies if they planned to continue supporting the politicians who tried to overturn the election. Popular Information's report quickly became a national and international story, receiving coverage in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Bloomberg, The Financial Times, Reuters, MarketWatch, Forbes, Business Insider, The Daily Beast, Axios, and other publications. Why was the story picked up so extensively? The three companies were cutting off donations to more than half of the Republicans in Congress. As Public Citizen explained, that kind of action is virtually unprecedented in corporate America.
Popular Information does not accept advertising and is funded exclusively by readers. Last year, that support enabled Popular Information to hire its first research assistant, Tesnim Zekaria. This project, which involved analyzing thousands of FEC records and contacting nearly 150 companies over two days, would not have been possible without her. You can support this work — and help us do more of it — by becoming a paid subscriber. It's $6 per month or $50 per year. You can read more about Popular Information's impact last year HERE. More corporations take actionSince the initial publication of the report, Popular Information obtained an internal memo from Citigroup regarding the company's PAC. The memo, authored by Citi's Head of Global Government Affairs, Candi Wolff, said that Citigroup's PAC would "not support candidates who do not respect the rule of law." Further, the company will suspend all its PAC activity for the first three months of the year. Popular Information also obtained an internal memo written by Deloitte CEO Joe Ucuzoglu and Board Chair Janet Foutty that was sent to the company's leadership. The Deloitte executives note there has been a "high volume of questions within the firm… and on social media on how Deloitte PAC makes decisions for PAC giving." Ocuzoglu and Foutty do not announce any specific changes but said that a "revised PAC strategy" is being developed and promised to engage the company's leadership on the topic "in the near term." Other companies became more responsive. 3M, who initially declined to comment, told Popular Information on Sunday evening that the company has "adopted a hold on all federal and state political expenditures for the first quarter of the year" and "will reassess its political contributions policy in April 2021." T-Mobile, which initially did not respond to Popular Information's inquiry, sent the following statement on Sunday:
Walmart told Reuters that it regularly reviews its donations to “examine and adjust our political giving strategy and "will factor last week’s events into our process.” JPMorgan told the Wall Street Journal that it will suspend all of their political donations for six months. |
Older messages
Three major corporations say they will stop donating to members of Congress who tried to overturn the election
Sunday, January 10, 2021
On January 6, a violent mob stormed the Capitol of the United States, disrupting the joint session to confirm Joe Biden's victory. The incident left five people dead, including a member of the
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Thursday, January 7, 2021
For the first time since 1812, the United States Capitol was breached. A mob of violent Trump supporters pushed past a police barricade, smashed windows, vandalized Congressional offices, and posed for
20 corporations, $16 million, and 138 Republicans trying to subvert democracy
Wednesday, January 6, 2021
On Wednesday, dozens of Congressional Republicans will object to the certification of the Electoral College vote that made Joe Biden the next President of the United States. Their goal is to set aside
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Facebook fails Georgia
Monday, January 4, 2021
Over the last two weeks, Facebook has repeatedly allowed a top Republican Super PAC, American Crossroads, to run dishonest attacks against Democratic Senate candidate Raphael Warnock — in violation of
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