Photo: Spencer Platt / Getty Images
The pockets of some Republican politicians have already begun to feel the impact of their actions on January 6 in the United States Congress.
More of 20 large US corporations have announced the suspension of their campaign contributions, mostly those destined for the Republican legislators who objected to the electoral victory of Democrat Joe Biden.
This occurred during the joint session of the two houses of Congress to certify the votes of the Electoral College that were was interrupted by the assault on the Capitol by violent supporters of President Donald Trump.
After the resumption of the session, more than 100 members of the House of Representatives and almost a dozen Senators, all of them from the Republican Party, went ahead with their objections, without and the violent events experienced minutes before made them change their minds.
The list of companies that have decided to suspend their contributions grows every day.
Other donors are rethinking their strategies after the Trump supporters will storm the Capitol.
A growing list
American politics is awash with Wall Street money.
It is common for large corporations to make donations to both Republicans and Democrats in support that is usually tied to issues of specific interest to their industries.
The assault on the Capitol, and specifically the action of Republican legislators who objected to Biden’s victory, has prompted multiple companies to reconsider the contributions they make through political action committees (PAC, for its acronym in English) corporate.
Some of them have decided to suspend all donations while reviewing their policies in this regard and others have chosen to stop contributions specifically to members of Congress who opposed the certification of Electoral College results.
In this second group, these are the most prominent names:
- The financial multinational Morgan Stanley .
- The hotel chain Marriott .
- Chemical Company Dow . The corporation also specified that the suspension will last an electoral cycle: two years for legislators of the House of Representatives and up to six years for senators.
- The telecommunications company AT&T , one of the largest political contributors in the United States.
- General Electric , whose suspension will last until the end of 2022. After that, an employee board overseeing the PAC will consider, on a case-by-case basis, requests for support from those legislators who objected to the certification.
- The greeting card maker Hallmark . This Kansas-based company went further and called for the return of its PAC campaign contributions to Republican Senators Josh Hawley (Missouri) and Roger Marshall (Kansas). “Hallmark believes that the peaceful transfer of power is the foundation of our democratic system and we abhor violence of any kind,” the company explained in a statement. “The recent actions of Senators Josh Hawley and Roger Marshall do not represent the values of our company.”
- The online rental sharing platform AirBnB condemned the violence in Washington DC and said: “We will update our framework for action and we will stop supporting those who voted against the certification of the results of the presidential elections. ”
- The insurance company Blue Cross Blue Shield , whose PAC has favored Republicans in every election since 1996.
- The manufacturer of medical devices Boston Scientific .
- The finance company Commerce Bancshares .
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Suspension of all donations
Other companies have chosen to suspend all donations , both to those who voted for keeping the results as the ones they wanted to reverse them, a tactic that has caused surprise and misunderstanding in the Democratic field.
In this group are technological giants such as Facebook, Amazon , Microsoft and Google , in addition to other important companies such as Coca Cola , Verizon , banks JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs , the hotel chain Hilton , the services firm financial Charles Schwab and the c manufacturing agglomerate 3M .
Credit card signatures credit American Express and Mastercard have also announced that they are suspending their donations without determining who will be affected by the measure.
Other companies such as Bank of America, FedEx and Wells Fargo said they will review the corporate contribution strategy.
Real damage or advertising resource?
With a few exceptions, most companies have not specified how long their suspension will last.
This lack of precision causes some voices to question the true scope of these measures, especially in an era when The fundraising activity is in a post-election lull.
This gives businesses and groupings time to decide how to approach the situation.
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