Toyota To Cease Donations To Lawmakers Who Object Election Certification
Toyota announced that it will no longer make donations to lawmakers who earlier objected to the certification of President Joe Biden’s electoral college victory — reversing its earlier decision to continue doing so.
The Japanese carmaker said in a statement that its Political Action Committee (PAC) “equally supports Democrats and Republicans running for Congress,” and said the bulk of its contributions went to lawmakers from both parties who supported the certification of the 2020 election results.
Toyota’s reversal, first reported by Detroit News, comes after Axios reported that the car maker donated $55,000 to 37 election objectors, the most of any corporate PAC by a significant margin.
Toyota faced backlash over its donations — mostly from progressives — who opposed Republican lawmakers for voting not to certify the November election results amid wide-ranging reports of fraud and election irregularities.
In its latest statement, Toyota said it understood that its earlier move “troubled some stakeholders.”
New — Toyota announces it will stop contributing to members of Congress who opposed the election certification https://t.co/V55ycn6qgE pic.twitter.com/Y19BeGvQWV
— Riley Beggin (@rbeggin) July 8, 2021
“We understand that the PAC decision to support select Members of Congress who contested the results troubled some stakeholders,” the automaker said.
“We are actively listening to our stakeholders and, at this time, we have decided to stop contributing to those Members of Congress who contested the certification of certain states in the 2020 election,” it added.
Reports said 147 Republican members of the House and the Senate voted against confirming the win of Democrat President Joe Biden against former President Donald Trump — and backed calls to investigate the 2020 polls before moving to certify the election results.
Earlier, multiple corporations have already announced that they will also cease donations to members of Congress who objected to the Electoral College results on January 6.
Toyota earlier defended its donation decision saying at that time that the company “do not believe it is appropriate to judge members of Congress solely based on their votes on the electoral certification.”
Toyota is the no. 1 donor to Republicans who objected to certifying the 2020 election results — by farhttps://t.co/6zPD5LNpnR pic.twitter.com/coBWOnORoa
— Axios (@axios) June 27, 2021
Toyota on the donation numbers: "We do not believe it is appropriate to judge members of Congress solely based on their votes on the electoral certification." https://t.co/6zPD5LNpnR
— Axios (@axios) June 27, 2021
“Toyota is committed to supporting and promoting actions that further our democracy,” it said. “Our bipartisan PAC equally supports Democrats and Republicans running for Congress. In fact, in 2021, the vast majority of contributions went to Democrats and Republicans who supported the certification of the 2020 election.”
But the anti-Trump GOP group ‘Lincoln Project’ earlier announced a strategy to “combat the Sedition Caucus and its enablers,” calling out Toyota’s continued donation specifically who “enabled, empowered, and emboldened former president Trump and the insurrectionists.”
“The Lincoln Project will not sit by and watch as companies like Toyota — companies that have benefited from America’s economic strength and freedom — give money to politicians who are working to overthrow that same system,” said group co-founder Reed Galen.
“The Lincoln Project will inform employees, shareholders and customers of these companies’ egregious anti-American behavior,” the organization added.
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