In the aftermath of the riots at the Capitol on January 6, several large corporations have decided not to continue making political contributions to candidates who voted to overturn the election results.
While much of corporate America condemned the violence, these companies have gone a step further and cut off funding to those candidates they deem partially responsible for what happened.
JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley are pausing all political donations. “The country is facing unprecedented health, economic and political crises,” said Peter Scher, chair of the Mid-Atlantic Region and head of corporate responsibility for JPMorgan Chase. “There will be plenty of time for campaigning later.”
Facebook, Microsoft, and Google are suspending all political spending.
Marriott International, which was among the first to announce it was cutting contributions, said it would suspend donations to Republican senators who voted against certifying President-elect Joe Biden after considering the “destructive events” on Wednesday.
Comcast said it was suspending political contributions to elected officials who voted to object to the certification of Electoral College votes.
Verizon also said it was suspending political contributions to lawmakers who voted in favor of objecting to the election results.
Amazon said, “given the unacceptable attempt to undermine a legitimate democratic process, the Amazon PAC has suspended contributions to any member of Congress who voted to override the results of the U.S. presidential election.”
AT&T’s Federal PAC board decided to suspend contributions to members of Congress who voted to object to the certification of Electoral College votes.
Blue Cross Blue Shield Association said it would suspend contributions to “lawmakers who voted to undermine our democracy” by challenging Electoral College results.
Dow, the chemical giant, told Bloomberg it would not donate to lawmakers who voted to object to the certification for one election cycle, which means two years for those in the House and six years for senators.
Airbnb said its PAC would withhold donations to lawmakers “who voted against the certification of the presidential election results.”
Some companies, like Hallmark, are going as far as to ask that contributions be returned from senators who voted to overturn the election results.
Other companies like Exxon Mobil, Ford Motor Company, Wells Fargo, and others said that they are either reviewing their policies on political giving or they will take recent events into consideration before any future donations.
