WASHINGTON (AP) – When executives at Coca-Cola and Delta Air Lines demonstrated against Georgia’s new voting law as overly restrictive last week, it seemed to signal a new activism emerging from corporate America.
But if the leaders of the country’s most prominent companies reject legislators who support restrictive electoral measures, they will have to abruptly reverse the course.
State lawmakers across the country who pushed for new voting restrictions and also took advantage of the unfounded allegations of electoral fraud by former President Donald Trump have raised more than $ 50 million in corporate donations in recent years, according to a new report by Public Citizen, a Washington-based government watchdog group.
Telecommunications giant AT&T was the most prolific, donating more than $ 800,000 since 2015 to authors of proposed restrictions, co-sponsors of such measures or those who voted in favor of the projects, the report concluded. Other major donors during the same period include Comcast, Philip Morris USA, UnitedHealth Group, Walmart, Verizon, General Motors and Pfizer.
The money may not have been given with voting laws in mind, but it nevertheless helped cement Republican control in state chambers, where many of the prohibitive measures are now advancing.
The fact that companies continue to contribute to these legislators will test how far risk-averse corporate leaders are willing to go in their increasingly blunt criticisms of restrictive efforts, which voting rights groups have criticized as an attack on democracy.
“It is really corporate America, as a whole, that is funding these politicians,” said Mike Tanglis, one of the report’s authors. “It seems that many are trying to hide under a rock and hope that this problem will pass.”
More than 120 companies detailed in the report previously said they would rethink their donations to members of Congress who, acting with the same falsehood as state lawmakers, opposed the certification of President Joe Biden’s victory after Trump’s deadly attack on United States Capitol backers.
The tension is most evident now in Georgia, where a new long-range voting law has drawn intense national scrutiny, sparking criticism from Delta and Coca-Cola. On Friday, the MLB announced that it would no longer host the 2021 All-Star Game in Atlanta.
However, it is not clear whether this new aggressive stance will extend to corporate campaign donation practices. And the first indicators show that there is a risk.
Georgia-controlled House of Representatives voted to withdraw a tax cut worth tens of millions of dollars annually to Delta for its criticisms of the new law, although the action was considered debatable after the Republican Party Senate did not accept it before the legislative session ended.
What is certain, however, is that retaining corporate donations to state candidates, as many companies did at the federal level, would have a much greater impact on state chambers.
“A $ 5,000 contribution to a US senator who is raising $ 30 million is a drop in the ocean. But in some of these state disputes, a few thousand dollars can buy a lot of advertising time, ”said Tanglis. “If corporate America is going to say that (Trump’s) lying is unacceptable at the federal level, how about at the state level?”
Public Citizen analyzed about 245 proposed voting restriction bills before March 1. They selected a list of sponsors and co-sponsors, while analyzing roll-call votes. They then matched the data with the 2015 state-level donation records, which included money from the company’s political action committees, as well as direct contributions from corporate treasures.
Among his discoveries:
– Companies donated at least $ 50 million to lawmakers who supported voting restrictions, including $ 22 million in the 2020 campaign cycle.
– At least 81 Fortune 100 companies donated a combined total of $ 7.7 million to advocates of restrictions.
– Almost half of all Fortune 500 companies donated a combined total of $ 12.8 million to advocates of restrictions.
– About three-quarters of companies that changed their donation policies after the attack on the United States Capitol also made donations to lawmakers who supported restrictions on voting rights.
– More than 60 companies donated at least $ 100,000 to lawmakers who supported the restrictions.
– Separately, industry groups and trade associations contributed an additional $ 36 million to lawmakers, $ 16 million of which was donated during the 2020 cycle.
In response, AT&T said “the right to vote is sacred”, but declined to say whether the company would withhold donations to state lawmakers, as it did with members of Congress who opposed Biden’s victory.
“We understand that electoral laws are complicated, not the experience of our company and, ultimately, the responsibility of elected officials. But as a company, we have a responsibility to engage, ”said AT&T CEO John Stankey in a statement.
Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg said in a statement: “We are strongly opposed to passing any legislation or adopting any measure that makes it more difficult” to vote. But he stopped promising any specific action.
Comcast said in a statement that “efforts to limit or prevent access to this vital constitutional right for any citizen are not consistent with our values”. The company declined to comment on whether it would evaluate the donation to parliamentarians who support the measures.
Altria, the parent company of Philip Morris USA, said in a statement that “every eligible voter must be able to exercise their right to vote” and pledged to monitor “the alignment of legislators with our guiding principles of political contribution when making decisions about contributions ”.
Other companies listed in the report declined to comment or did not respond to questions from The Associated Press.
On Monday, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell urged companies to resist what he called a “campaign coordinated by powerful and wealthy people to deceive and intimidate the American people”.
“Our private sector should stop receiving suggestions from the Indignation Industrial Complex,” said the Kentucky Republican in a statement. “Americans do not need or do not want large companies to expand … or to react to all controversies fabricated with frantic signals from the left.”
The pressure has been particularly intense in Georgia, where Republican Governor Brian Kemp recently signed a new comprehensive law that prohibits people from distributing food or water to voters waiting in line and allows the Republican-controlled state electoral council to remove and replace voters. county election officials, among many other provisions.
Two of the main recipients of corporate contributions detailed in the Public Citizen report were among the sponsors of the measure.
Since 2015, Republican state senator Jeff Mullis has raised more than $ 869,000 in corporate PAC donations. Its main corporate donors include AT&T ($ 15,900) and UnitedHealth Group ($ 12,900), according to the report. Mullis is chairman of the Georgia Senate Rules Committee, which plays a key role in determining which bills come to the floor for voting.
Republican state senator Butch Miller, another sponsor of the project, has received at least $ 729,000 in corporate donations since 2015. His main corporate donors include the UnitedHealth Group ($ 15,700) and AT&T ($ 13,600), the report says. .
Miller and Mullis did not respond to requests for comment.