Judd Legum Profile picture
10 Jan, 12 tweets, 12 min read
1. BREAKING

3 major corporations say they'll stop donating to members of Congress who tried to overturn the election

BlueCross BlueShield (@BCBSAssociation)

Marriott (@MarriottIntl)

@CommerceBank

Follow along for more on these 3 plus 141 other corps

popular.info/p/three-major-…
@BCBSAssociation @MarriottIntl @CommerceBank 2. In the last 3 cycles, the BlueCross BlueShield PAC has donated 959K to GOP candidates and 359K to Dem candidates.

Now, BCBS's CEO says it will "suspend contributions to those lawmakers who voted to undermine our democracy"

popular.info/p/three-major-…
@BCBSAssociation @MarriottIntl @CommerceBank 3. @CommerceBank's PAC favors Republicans over Democrats by a 6 to 1 margin. The bank now says it has "suspended all support for officials who have impeded the peaceful transfer of power"

@MarriottIntl released a similar statement to Popular Information.

popular.info/p/three-major-…
4. @tesszeeks and I contacted 144 corporations that donated this cycle to Senators who objected to the Electoral College vote

We asked if their support would continue

We got a lot of other responses + a lot of corporations who, so far, are ignoring us.

popular.info/p/three-major-…
5. More details coming in this thread. But if you value this kind of work, please subscribe to our newsletter, Popular Information.

It's free to sign up.

The newsletter, not this Twitter account, is what makes this work possible.

popular.info/subscribe
6. Four other companies said the events of last Wednesday -- and the Republicans who enabled it with their votes -- would factor into their future decisions about political giving.

@BankofAmerica
@Ford
Berkshire Hathaway Energy (@BHEnergyCo)
@ATT

popular.info/p/three-major-…
7. These four companies seem to be hinting that they won't support the 147 members of Congress who objected to the Electoral College vote but are clearly keeping their options open

popular.info/p/three-major-…
8. Five companies told Popular Information they are "reviewing" their PAC giving in light of Wednesday's events.

@CVSHealth
@exxonmobil
@FedEx
@Amgen
@Target

popular.info/p/three-major-…
9. Three companies responded to Popular Information inquiry but declined to comment.

@3M
@HoganLovells
@NewYorkLife

popular.info/p/three-major-…
@3M @HoganLovells @NewYorkLife 10. 128 companies did not respond to our request for comment. This group includes many of the LARGEST contributors to the Senators objecting to the Electoral College vote:

@comcast
@ups
@Boeing
@AltriaNews
@LockheedMartin
@TMobile

popular.info/p/three-major-…
11. We will hopefully hear from more of these companies in the days to come.

If your company missed our email and you have a response, we will update this article: DMs open, email in bio.

popular.info/p/three-major-…
12. If readers hear anything from the companies that didn't respond (or provided a vague answer) please also get in touch!

Sign up for the newsletter for updates.

popular.info/subscribe

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Judd Legum

Judd Legum Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @JuddLegum

12 Jan
1. Republicans are convinced the PAC announcements are all a bad dream and soon they will wake up and the money will return.
2. "The sheer extent of the Republican opposition will make it difficult for businesses to simply cut off those who voted against certifying Biden’s victory, said a senior Republican business strategist, speaking on condition of anonymity."

reuters.com/article/us-usa…
"Roughly two-thirds of all House Republicans, including seasoned legislators and vocal Trump partisans, supported the challenge."

“Are they all going into the bucket of ‘no contributions’? I would be shocked if they all get put in.”
Read 4 tweets
11 Jan
Companies announcing a "three month pause" in donations are just trying to lay low until things blow over.

There is never much PAC activity during the 1st quarter of a cycle

We'll be monitoring these companies to see what happens after the "pause"
Three companies just told popular.info they would temporarily suspend all donations: @Visa (indefinite), @AmericanAir (3 mos), @ADMupdates (indefinite)
More companies that are pausing all contributions: @Google (indefinite), @UnitedHealthGrp (indefinite), @HRBlock (indefinite).
Read 4 tweets
11 Jan
BREAKING: In an internal memo to staff obtained by popular.info, @AmericanExpress CEO Steve Squeri says the company will no longer support the Republican members of Congress who objected to the Electoral College

popular.info/p/three-major-…
"Last week's attempts by some congressional members to subvert the presidential election results and disrupt the peaceful transition of power do not align with our American Express Blue Box values; therefore AXP PAC will not support them," Squeri writes.
Notably, this announcement does not appear to be time limited.

Sign up for updates and more accountability journalism.

popular.info/subscribe
Read 4 tweets
11 Jan
1. There has been A LOT of news about major corporations suspending their political contributions to members of Congress that objected to the presidential vote.

I'm going to summarize where we are at in this thread.

Follow along if interested.

popular.info/p/three-major-…
2. @Hallmark is demanding refunds from the two senators it supported @HawleyMO and @RogerMarshallMD

@DowNewsroom is suspending donations to Republicans who voted against certification for at least the durations of their current terms

popular.info/p/three-major-…
3. Four companies have indefinitely suspended donations to members of Congress who objected to the presidential vote:

@BCBSAssociation
@MarriottIntl
@CommerceBank
@Mastercard
Read 7 tweets
11 Jan
UPDATE: Dow (@DowNewsroom), the massive chemical company, tells me it will not donate to any member of Congress that objected to the certification of the presidential vote

This is not a pause. The company won't donate to these Republicans ever again.

popular.info/p/three-major-… Image
@DowNewsroom For updates and independent accountability journalism, sign up for my newsletter

popular.info/subscribe
Since 2014, Dow's PAC donated $1.4 million to Republicans and 396K to Democrats.

This is not a company that is pandering to liberals.

But it's drawing the line at the subversion of Democracy.
Read 4 tweets
9 Jan
I am equally impressed with Facebook and Twitter's decision to ban Trump now as Betsy DeVos and Elaine Chao's decision to resign now.
Both acts seems to mostly reflect Trump's waning power and are unconnected to any larger effort to address how they have facilitated the spread of extremism, conspiracy theories, and violence
With respect to Facebook and Twitter, banning Trump now, with hours left in his presidency seems like an easy way to avoid tougher conversations about how their algorithms are used to spread misinformation, extremism, and violence.

I'd prefer to focus on that rather than Trump.
Read 4 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!