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- A trade body that advises major business PACs wants companies to restart political donations, Popular Information reported.
- The National Association of Business PACs has urged members to "move beyond" the Capitol siege.
- Many companies stopped donations after the siege, including to GOP lawmakers that voted to overturn the election results.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
Companies that temporarily stopped political donations after the January Capitol siege are being urged to restart contributions by a trade association that advises firms' political action committees (PACs), according to a report by Popular Information's Judd Legum.
The National Association of Business PACs (NABPAC) has encouraged its members to "move beyond" the siege by restarting donations, the publication reported, citing internal documents. The group's membership includes more than 250 corporate PACs, and its board features representatives from Microsoft, Koch Industries, Kraft Heinz, and Cigna.
On January 6, a mob of supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol to try and prevent Congress from certifying Joe Biden's election win. In the immediate aftermath, many top US companies cut ties with the 147 GOP lawmakers who voted against the results.
Dozen of companies, including Walmart, Amazon, Morgan Stanley, and AT&T, said they would stop giving donations to these specific lawmakers, while other companies, including Microsoft, Deloitte, and Goldman Sachs, said they would instead pause all political donations to both Republicans and Democrats.
Popular Information reported that NABPAC hosted a webinar in March with Republican strategist Michael DuHaime, who advised companies on how to restart donations – and how to communicate this with the public, given that there would be "fallout."
About 80 corporate PAC representatives attended the call, including representatives from Delta, Dow, and Boston Scientific, Popular Information reported.
DuHaime said that companies shouldn't be pressured to stop donations to the lawmakers who voted against Biden's certification, and encouraged companies to "do what's right for your organization," per Popular Information. He has publicly stated that the election was fair and has criticized Trump's adamance that the election was stolen.
He added that restarting donations to GOP objectors "most likely … would be a one day story and most likely you are not going to lose customer share over it."
PAC donations to incumbents dropped 40% in the first three months of 2021, compared to the same period during the 2020 election cycle, according to Bloomberg Government. But recent Federal Election Commission filings show that some companies, including Cigna, Toyota, and JetBlue, are still giving to lawmakers that opposed Biden's certification.
DuHaime said that if companies choose to set limits for their PAC donations, they should avoid committing to time frames because it gives "reporters a time to check back in with you," but he added that companies who already have time commitments in place should uphold these.
Popular Information reported that the webinar was available on Vimeo but has since been removed, although the publication uploaded some clips to YouTube.
The racial justice organization Color of Change is urging companies to halt donations to the GOP objectors, and is asking people to sign a petition encouraging this.
"What we see is that corporations are very, very reactive to the concerns of consumers," Jade Ogunnaike, senior campaign director at Color of Change, told Insider. "We've seen corporations change their minds on an important issue within moments because consumers reached out."