After Donald Trump’s failed Jan. 6 coup attempt and the vote by 147 Republicans to overturn the 2020 presidential election results, scores of U.S. corporations pledged to halt their campaign contributions to these politicians. However, more than a year later many of these companies have reneged on that commitment.
Fifteen major corporations, including AT&T, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Walgreens and Walmart, have resumed directly contributing to Republican election deniers. Ten companies have donated to larger multi-candidate groups that include those who parrot Trump’s “Big Lie.” One hundred companies that pledged to suspend or reevaluate their political contributions to the GOP have since restarted making direct or indirect donations.
Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Jenna Grande, press secretary with Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW. Here she discusses CREW’s recent research which found that the U.S. fossil fuel industry, despite pledges to end contributions to GOP election deniers, has given more than $2.6 million to the Republican Sedition Caucus in Congress.
JENNA GRANDE: Following the Jan. 6 insurrection, like many of us, corporations expressed their outrage and shock at what had happened. Several corporations issued public statements disavowing what had happened and were claiming they were going to sever their financial ties to those who opposed certifying the election and therefore interfering with the peaceful transition of power. However, for many of those corporate industry groups, those pledges only lasted for as long as it was publicly good for them to do so.
They ultimately chose political access over our democracy and their own previously stated principles. When we launched our tracker in May 2021, 170 corporate and industry groups — the political parts of corporations — donated more than $2.6 million to those 147 members of Congress. That number is now over $53 million, with over 1,000 corporate industry groups going back on their pledges.
And as members of Congress fundraise on two- and six-year election cycles with strict giving limits, these pauses that they said they were making in 2021 effectively did nothing other than change the date on the checks the corporations were already going to write.
SCOTT HARRIS: We’re focused on the the fossil fuel industry. Can you name some of the major oil and gas companies that have supported these politicians that wanted to overturn the 2020 election and the amounts of money that have been given and received by these right-wing politicians?
JENNA GRANDE: Yes. So when we first published this report, it was just over $1 million had been given by these big oil companies. That number is now over $2.6 million. And it’s from companies like Valero that gave over $667,000; Marathon Petroleum, $375,000. Exxon Mobil gave over $205,000. Chevron gave over $134,000. Occidental Petroleum $148,000. Sunoco Phillips $46,000. And Koch Industries, while not a top oil producer, they do support a lot of major oil producers and they’ve given over $1 million. So it adds up quite quickly.
SCOTT HARRIS: Jenna, maybe you could talk a bit about the politicians who are receiving these corporate contributions and what these major corporations are getting or want in return.
JENNA GRANDE: Some of the top recipients include Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Steve Scalise, John Kennedy, Garret Graves. They’re the top recipients of these oil companies’ contributions. And ultimately, these companies aren’t walking in with a check directly to the member of Congress and placing it on their desk on Capitol Hill. There are many sanctioned ways for a corporation to give to a candidate.
They’re not giving it directly. But a workaround is that a politician likely knows who’s behind the group that gave to a dark money group that boosted them or behind a significant campaign contribution, you know, that’s something that would be related to them. And, a corporate and industry group can make contributions to members of Congress’ campaigns or to political groups like the DCCC or the NRCC in which those funds are distributed to help members or spent to help boost their party.
And corporate and industry groups can also give to these dark money groups that can try to influence elections through ads and mailers and that makes it a lot harder for voters to understand who’s trying to influence their elections and who’s financing them. So members benefit from when corporate industry groups give directly to them, which is really unfortunate. And, you know, we’re seeing two parties that benefit from corporate and industry group money.
Even members of Congress who want a public finance system acknowledge that they are currently beholden to campaign donors like these industry groups and they don’t want to spend their time making calls when they can be actually doing legislative work. But right now, they’re pulling the purse strings and members kind of are at their will.
SCOTT HARRIS: You know, I wanted to ask you about media coverage of these issues of the inherent corruption in our system and particularly when you look at the situation currently where a lot of these big companies pledged not to support the folks who try to overturn the 2020 election and have now since gone back on that pledge. What kind of media scrutiny are these politicians in these big companies getting, if any?
JENNA GRANDE: Well, I think it’s a great sign that you and I are having this conversation because it means that we’re paying attention to it and your listeners are paying attention to it by listening to this conversation and hopefully by checking out CREW’s work, you know, “let me try to read into this a little bit more.” And unfortunately, we do live in a society where money and politics is business as usual.
But when companies pledged to stop giving on Jan. 6, that was striking and newsworthy and people took notice of that. You know, I’m hoping that reporters continue to take notice of when corporate and industry groups are going back on their word and which companies value access over our democracy and when our democracy already is in such a fragile place.
So I’m hoping that we keep having these conversations and people keep talking about it because it really is so important. And the more that people are paying attention to it, I think there will be continued press coverage of that because people will expect those things that are being talked about on a national level.
For more information, visit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington at
www.citizensforethics.
