Last updated on July 18th, 2023 at 12:28 pm
The Koch network, the darling of the corporate donor class, has announced that lawmakers’ actions before and after last week’s attack on the Capitol will “weigh heavily” on who will receive future support in the next election cycle.
“Lawmakers’ actions leading up to and during last week’s insurrection will weigh heavy in our evaluation of future support. And we will continue to look for ways to support those policymakers who reject the politics of division and work together to move our country forward,†said Emily Seidel, CEO of Americans for Prosperity and senior adviser to AFP Action, the group’s super PAC.
The announcement comes amid the Koch network’s efforts to distance itself from President Donald Trump: Charles Koch, the network’s billionaire benefactor, declined to support Trump in 2016 and 2020. Other companies have also announced they will stop donating to politicians who have supported the president’s fictions that the election was fraudulent, a claim for which there is no evidence and that even the president’s own cybersecurity agencies have repeatedly debunked.
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Companies that have cut off their funding include Airbnb, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Dow Chemical, and Mastercard.
The announcement adds to the troubles facing Republicans, who have had to contend with a break within the party after 10 Republicans joined Democrats in impeaching President Trump for a second time and condemn him for the role he played in sparking the insurrection, which resulted in five deaths. The death toll includes Brian Sicknick, a Capitol Police officer who was bludgeoned with a fire extinguisher when a pro-Trump group breached the Capitol in a bid to stop Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 election for President-elect Joe Biden.
Alan is a writer, editor, and news junkie based in New York.
