Minnesota companies fund election deniers despite vowing not to

by Christopher Ingraham, Minnesota Reformer
 

In the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, many leading Minnesota businesses announced they were pausing their political donations to review their giving strategy.

Some went further, vowing not to bankroll political candidates who supported Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election.

But today, three and a half years later, nearly all of them have resumed giving money to politicians engaging in election denial, according to an analysis by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonprofit that investigates government corruption.

Among them were some of Minnesota’s blue-chip mega corporations: UnitedHealth, Target, Best Buy, 3M, U.S. Bancorp, Ameriprise and Ecolab, which all promised not to donate to members of what CREW calls the “sedition caucus.”

But as of today, they’ve given hundreds of thousands of dollars to politicians who voted against certifying the 2020 election, opposed the establishment of the Jan. 6 committee, or otherwise supported Trump’s attempt to undo the 2020 results.