Dozens of companies that pledged to withhold donations to members of Congress who objected to the 2020 presidential election results after the January 6 insurrection have since resumed some of those contributions, according to recent campaign filings.
The Independent reviewed data compiled by Accountable.Us’s Corporate Donation Tracker and examined only corporations that released a statement pledging to withhold donations to election deniers after the Capitol attack, tracking them from 7 January 2021 to the most recent campaign filings as of Friday.
At least 80 companies, business organisations, or corporate political action committees donated a total of more than $6m to at least one of the 147 members of the House or Representatives and eight of the United States Senators who objected to election results after they had said they would either withhold money or review their practices.
The American Bankers’ Association’s PAC, known as BANKPAC, donated the most to Republicans who objected, contributing $724,000 to 109 Republicans, with $10,500 going to Representative Michael Guest of Mississippi’s 3rd District.
Other companies that said that they would refrain from giving to election deniers included Amazon. After the company said it had “suspended contributions to any Member of Congress who voted to override the results of the US Presidential election,” its PAC subsequently contributed to nine different Republicans who voted to object, Gizmodoreported last month. Among the recipients were representatives August Pfliger of Texas; Stephanie Bice of Oklahoma; Tom Cole of Oklahoma; Darrell Issa of California; Garrett Graves of Louisiana; Sam Graves of Missouri; Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida; Mike Rogers of Alabama; and Rob Wittman of Virginia.
In February of this year, it also contributed $30,000 to the National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee, the House GOP’s campaign arm. In an email to The Independent, Amazon said that it has long given to members of both parties.
“When we announced shortly after the attack on the Capitol in January 2021 that we would suspend donations to members of Congress who voted against certifying the results of the 2020 U.S. Presidential election, it was not intended to be permanent,” it said. “It’s been more than 21 months since that suspension and, like a number of companies, we’ve resumed giving to some members.”
But Lindsey Melki of Accountable.Us said that caps on donations are for the entire cycle, which means that it makes no difference whether a company contributed in January 2021 or September 2022.
“The result is the same tacit endorsement of those who reject the democratic ideals shared by most Americans,” she told The Independent. “It sends a clear message that politicians who devalue democracy need only wait out phony condemnations of their behaviour from corporate donors, which only threatens our fragile democracy more.”
Robert Maguire, research director at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, also criticised the defense.
“If an actual attack on the Capitol that aims to stop the peaceful transfer of power and essentially reinstall the losing candidate as president can’t stop major donors from giving to these lawmakers who hold power over their business in one way or another, then what will?” he told The Independent.
Mr Maguire said that tracking campaign contributions mattered because the lie that the election was stolen from former president Donald Trump has become a core tenet of Republican ideology.
“Every day is January 6 now,” he said. “The emergency that was exposed on January 6 did not start on January 6 and did not end on January 6. We still are facing a losing candidate who is spreading lies about winning an election that he lost, and that lie is forming the basis of…