Publix heiress Julie Jenkins Fancelli provided the “lion’s share” of funding for the Washington Ellipse rally prior to the January 6 Capitol insurrection, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.
It is just the latest in a series of important contributions to extreme right causes by the heirs of Publix or the popular supermarket chain itself.
Fancelli, a part-time resident of Lakeland, approached far-right host Alex Jones to help fund a January 6 event, and ultimately contributed $ 300,000 to the rally through a former fundraiser. of funds for the Trump 2020 campaign. The money helped pay for most of the $ 500,000 rally where former President Donald Trump spoke before the Capitol riots, daily found. Fancelli did not respond to the newspaper’s multiple requests for comment.
The Wall Street Journal also reported that Fancelli chose fundraising for Trump’s campaign, Caroline Wren, to coordinate funding for the January 6 rally. Wren was listed as “VIP Coordinator” in the event’s permission and played an important role in his organization.
Fancelli is the daughter of Publix founder George W. Jenkins, who died in 1996.
According Miami New Times, Fancelli and his two sons contributed the maximum federal amount of money to Trump’s 2019 reelection campaign, contributing about $ 171,000 to Trump Victory. The Wall Street Journal reported that she gave more than $ 980,000 to an account for both the Republican Party and the Trump campaign in the 2020 election cycle.
Fancelli is not the only Publix heir active in raising funds for the Republican Party. Carol Barnett Jenkins, daughter of George Jenkins and Fancelli’s older sister, made a $ 10,000 donation to the 2020 campaign from former Georgia Sen. David Perdue and then another $ 100,000 to a PAC that funded the Perdue and Kelly Loeffler outlets in Georgia, according to CLTampa. Both lost on January 5 to Democrats Jon Ossoff and Reverend Raphael Warnock. In 2016, she also contributed $ 800,000 to a conservative campaign that was pushing to prevent medical marijuana from becoming legal.
Publix’s own campaign contributions, not just from his heirs, became a polarizing issue during the 2018 Florida elections. The supermarket and its heirs have contributed more money to Adam Putnam’s candidacy for governor than any other candidate since at least 1995 and probably throughout the company’s history.
Publix, the heirs of the company’s founder and its current and former leaders, gave Putnam $ 670,000 over a three-year period. The employee-owned company also helped finance a handful of well-connected business groups that contributed millions of dollars to the Republican candidate. Putnam, like Publix, is a product of Polk County – which company officials said was a factor in their support.
But survivors of armed violence and activists were outraged that Publix supported Putnam after the deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. Putnam, a Republican, declared himself a “proud NRA sold” in 2017. Parkland students led by David Hogg encouraged a boycott of Publix and activists staged deaths in their stores. In his damage control, Publix responded by suspending all contributions indefinitely and internally told employees that he was reviewing his political donation policies.
Well after the clamor subsided, Publix resumed its political contributions in 2019.
Forbes ranks the Jenkins family as one of the wealthiest in America. In 2020, it had a net worth of $ 8.8 billion, according to Forbes.
Fancelli is a graduate of Mount Vernon Seminary in Washington and the University of Florida. In 1972, he married Mauro Adolfo Dino Fancelli, whom he met while studying abroad during UF. He was the head of his family’s wholesale fruit and vegetable business in Florence.
According The Ledger, the couple spends most of their time in Florence and visits Lakeland during the holidays and the winter months.