Big corporations halt funding political parties

Whether it be creating an efficient method to package and deliver necessities and goods, informing the public on relevant topics and current events, or even managing large amounts of money at a time, big businesses have all sorts of important responsibilities.

Along with all of these tasks and goals, for years large corporations such as Amazon, Airbnb, Hallmark and more have been known to give generous donations to both the Democratic and Republican parties.

These corporations have made it crystal clear that they do not side with simply one political party. They have explained that they would prefer to disperse their support due to the many different issues that affect their industries.

Although, after the attack on the Capitol by a large group of Trump supporters sent our country into a frenzy, strains between political parties have reached even more of an all-time high.

Additionally, even prior to this attack, several lawmakers were attempting to overturn President-elect Biden’s win due to the prospect that there was voter fraud. Even the most neutral companies have suddenly flipped the switch and decided they were no longer comfortable supporting those who were partaking in or encouraging these actions.

AT&T released a statement on Twitter this week expressing their decision.

“Employees on our Federal PAC Board convened a call today and decided to suspend contributions to members of Congress who voted to object to the certification of Electoral College votes last week,” AT&T tweeted. 

AT&T was not the only company that made this kind of decision. In addition, Airbnb made it clear they too would be halting giving through their PAC.

Airbnb released a statement on Jan. 11.

“Airbnb strongly condemns last week’s attack on the US Capitol and the efforts to undermine our democratic process. We will continue to uphold our community policies by banning violent hate group members when we learn of such memberships, and the Airbnb PAC will update its framework and withhold support from those who voted against the certification of the presidential election results,” the Airbnb statement read.

Along with these big corporations, Hallmark, the Coca-Cola Company, Blue Cross Shield, Dow and Morgan Stanley are all following their lead and doing the same. Furthermore, big banks are also taking a break from donating through their PACs.

According to the New York Times, these banks include not just ones who voted to uphold the election, but also those who voted to overturn it, something that is “raising eyebrows.”

Overall, the choice to halt support through companies’ Political Action Committees is definitely something that is gaining a large amount of attention across the globe and is posing a question: How will this affect political parties in the long run?

I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.