The weakening of democracy in the United States has been financed in part by the money of large American companies, including Home Depot, UPS, Boeing or Delta Airlines, which during the last American electoral cycle paid no less than 8 million dollars to candidates promoting conspiracy theories about the theft of the 2020 election, even though the existence of this fraud has no basis.
This is what has just been brought to light by the latest compilation of electoral contributions, declared to the Federal Election Commission, carried out by the independent organization Accountable.us.
These campaign donations went into the pockets of dozens of the 244 candidates running for Senate or House of Representatives seeking to undermine public confidence in democracy and the electoral process. These politicians came to the defense of the Capitol insurgents on January 6, 2021, several even took part in this insurrection, and the majority arise in mouthpiece of the unfounded accusations of electoral fraud made on purpose by the ex- President Donald Trump to justify his defeat.
The American multinational hardware company Home Depot, which has 182 stores in Canada, arrives at the 4e rank of the 20 American companies having massively financed these candidates with more than half a million dollars poured into their campaigns during the last mid-term elections. She did this through her political action committee in the United States.
At the top of this list, the second largest private company in the United States, Koch Industries, which paid more than $770,000 to these candidates denying the legitimacy of the presidential elections of 2020 just like that of the current president Joe Biden.
The conglomerate whose fortune is largely based on oil exploration is known in the political finance community in the United States for its support for right-wing candidates and conservative policies aimed at limiting laws and regulations that hinder the smooth running of its energy business.
Among the 20 generous contributors to the campaigns of these conspirators, we also find the multinationals United Parcel Service (UPS), The Boeing Company, the communications giant Comcast Corporation & NBC Universal, the American division of the Swiss bank UBS, Delta Air Lines, PricewaterhouseCoopers or the Lockheed Martin Corporation Employee Political Action Committee. All of these companies have economic interests and commercial activities in Canada as well.
Nearly another $11 million has also been placed in the pockets of these populist candidates challenging the foundations of American democracy through corporate interests through the political action committees of the National Association of Realtors — representing the interests of real estate agents — the National Beer Wholesalers Association, the National Automobile Dealers Association or the American Bankers Association, reveals Accountable.us. To recite nobody else but them.
According to the Brennan Center for Justice, which closely monitors threats to the electoral system and American democracy, Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus also personally contributed to the campaign of several of these conspirators, to the tune of 3 .5 million dollars. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis received half a million dollars. Republican candidate for governor of Michigan, Tudor Dixon, received $100,000. She was defeated at the end of a campaign during which she claimed that Donald Trump had been elected in 2020. Which is false.
Contacted by The dutythe Canadian division of Home Depot has not yet commented on the results of this analysis of campaign contributions made by its American parent company.
According to the Washington Post, of the 244 Republican candidates promoting the electoral conspiracy in the 2022 race for US congressional positions, 81 of them were defeated. These elections therefore ensured the presence of a hundred of these conspiratorial populist conservatives within the American legislative apparatus.
Resistance to the anti-democratic discourse carried by the Republican camp, however, enabled the Democrats to avoid the red wave – in the color of Donald Trump’s party – that political observers were announcing for these mid-term elections. Worse, for 20 years, Joe Biden has been the American president who has saved the most furniture during this electoral cycle, generally unfavorable to the party which occupies the White House. He retained his majority in the Senate and lost that of the House with a narrow majority granted to the Republican opposition.
For Kyle Herrig, president of Accountable.us, this support for conspiratorial candidates could damage the reputation of companies that have loosened their purse strings to help them get elected. “Voter rejection of many conspiracy theorists should send a clear message to these companies, he told the Guardian in an interview: prioritizing political influence over protecting democracy could threaten their own bottom line [financiers] “, he said.