Toyota announced on Thursday that the company will no longer be making donations to members of Congress who contested the 2020 election results.
via People:
The announcement was made one week after Axios reported that Toyota contributed $55,000 to Republican objectors, leading all major companies in donations — and shortly after The Lincoln Project released an online ad calling on people to take action.
“We understand that the PAC decision to support select Members of Congress who contested the results troubled some stakeholders,” the company wrote in a statement. “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.”
Toyota also noted in the statement that the “vast majority” of their contributions this year “went to Democrats and Republicans who supported” certifying President Joe Biden’s election.
A company spokesperson told The Washington Post that Toyota will not seek refunds for past contributions.
According to data gathered by the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Axios reported that Toyota’s donations to Republican objectors were double the amount of those from the second-highest donor, San Diego-based defense contractor Cubic Corp.
At the time, a company spokesperson told the outlet in a statement that “we do not believe it is appropriate to judge members of Congress solely based on their votes on the electoral certification.”
Following the publication of the report, in addition to backlash from social media users, The Lincoln Project released their critical ad — which was scheduled to run on Fox Business and CNBC, according to The Detroit News.
“We’re just getting warmed up,” The Lincoln Project wrote on social media after Toyota’s announcement. “We’ve won this round, but there are more fights right in front of us — more corporations, financiers, and seditionists we need to hold accountable.”
Following the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, a number of major companies announced that they would stop making political contributions to lawmakers who voted against certifying the election results.
However, as the Associated Press recently noted, in the months since the insurrection, a number of companies have resumed donations. Since then, Walmart, Pfizer, Intel, General Electric and AT&T have all donated money to organizations that support Senate and House Republicans in elections, per the news agency.
Pfizer spokeswoman Sharon Castillo told the AP in a statement that the company felt there was a difference between contributing to specific lawmakers who contested the election rather than groups that support them. “We just don’t think it is an accurate connection,” Castillo said.
Now, all we need is for other companies to follow suit and stop funding ANY politician who willingly participated in Trump’s foolishness.
