Who Does Costco Give Political Donations To?
Written by
Yaël Bizouati-Kennedy
Edited by
Nicholas Morine
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Seattle-based Costco Wholesale and its affiliate, Costco Travel, gave $380,756 in political donations during the 2022 elections cycle, according to Open Secrets.
This places Costco at the 1,002nd spot out of 27,872, in terms of largest donors.
Corporations and their affiliates have been playing an enormous role in elections, especially since Jan. 21, 2010, when the Supreme Court overruled the prohibition on corporate independent expenditures in the case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (FEC). Since, corporations can contribute unlimited amounts to campaign spending, according to The Campaign Legal Center (CLC).
“The Court assumed that unlimited corporate campaign spending would pose no threat of corruption or the appearance of corruption because it would be “independent,” CLC said on its website, adding that “it has become clear in the years since that voters are not getting enough information about the true sources of campaign spending and this supposedly independent spending in support of candidates or their campaigns is often intentionally coordinated.”
Costco predominantly contributed to Democratic congressional and federal candidates, with 68.1% and 69% of the total amount of dollars, respectively, Open Secrets data shows.
Following is a list of who Costco has donated to, as formulated in advance of last November’s mid-term elections:
- DNC Services Corp. — $210,976.
- Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee — $50,042.
- Save America — $14,563.
- Republican National Committee — $12,731.
- National Republican Senatorial Committee — $8,912.
- Washington Democratic candidate Kim Schrier– $6,668.
- Illinois Democratic candidate Bill Foster– $5,600.
- Florida Democratic candidate Perry Thurston — $5,000.
- Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee — $4,353.
- Georgia Democrat Sen. Raphael Warnock — $3,765.
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