What do major corporations mean when they say they’re cutting off campaign contributions to the congressional Republicans who tried to overturn the election in order to keep Donald Trump in power? It depends which company you’re talking about, because they’re all over the map. Some companies are promising a real change targeting those specific Republicans. Others are somehow bothsidesing this, cutting off all federal campaign contributions. Still others are talking big but leaving the door open to resume contributions in time for the 2022 elections.
CNN did an analysis of the 280 Fortune 500 companies that had previously given money, through their PACs, to the 147 Republicans who objected to counting the electoral votes of key states, with 153 answering questions about their plans going forward. Of those, 120 said they planned to do … something. But 73 were suspending contributions to all federal candidates! Which makes the effort to undermine democracy perhaps the biggest thing Republicans have done to get corporate money out of politics in the past decade.
By contrast, 33 companies said they were not going to give money specifically to those 147 Republicans. None of them had bothered to ask for refunds on previous contributions, though. Just four companies were pledging to definitely halt contributions all the way through the 2022 elections.
This is one specific set of companies—others may take stronger action. But when you hear companies saying they’re suspending contributions, definitely ask to whom and for how long. And be prepared to keep the pressure up, especially with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell looking to keep his party's chances intact.