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    Koch brothers’ advocacy group courts far-right Republicans it vowed to thwart

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    Koch brothers’ advocacy group courts far-right Republicans it vowed to thwartAmericans for Prosperity Action recently invited two politicians who tried vigorously to overturn the 2020 presidential election At an event in California last weekend, the Koch family political network announced it would move away from Donald Trump, and invest in congressional elections in a bid to break from the far-right, Trump-supporting politicians who have come to the fore in recent years.Americans for Prosperity Action, founded by Republican megadonors Charles Koch and David Koch, who died in 2019, would be seeking to “turn the page on the past”, it said, in remarks that were covered extensively, and favorably, in the US media.But it didn’t take much to expose the hypocrisy of AFP Action’s commitment to move away from Maga politicians who, it said, “go against core American principles”.Present at the network’s meeting in Palm Springs were two of the reactionary and far-right Republicans AFP Action claims it is trying to thwart.In Eric Schmitt, a Missouri senator, and Andrew Ogles, a congressman from Tennessee, AFP Action had invited two newly elected men who tried vigorously to overturn the 2020 presidential election, and seem to have little interest in turning the page on history.Schmitt, who has invoked the “great replacement” conspiracy theory, has already backed Trump for 2024, while Ogles, a culture warrior whose campaign pitch was that the US needs to “go back to honoring God and country”, giddily accepted Trump’s endorsement last year.If, in inviting two politicians who appear to embody the essence of Trumpism, AFP Action exposed a separation between what it says and what does, then it should come as no surprise.For much of the last decade the Koch-funded group has pledged to move away from far-right Republicans, before sending tens of millions of dollars towards those very officials.As the investigative newsletter Popular Information put it: “The reality is that few individuals have spent more money to legitimize Trump and his allies than Charles Koch.”In 2020, Charles Koch, who has an estimated net worth of $68bn, told the Wall Street Journal he would focus on “building bridges across partisan divides to find answers to sprawling social problems”. In a book, published that year, Koch said he regretted his funding of the Tea Party, a far-right movement that emerged under Barack Obama’s presidency.At the beginning of 2021, AFP Action chided Republicans’ actions around the January 6 insurrection and their efforts to prevent Biden taking office. A total of 147 Republicans in Congress voted to overturn the results of the 2020 election.“Lawmakers’ actions leading up to and during last week’s insurrection will weigh heavy in our evaluation of future support,” the organization said.But the pledges from Koch and his network did not come to pass. AFP Action spent $63.4m in the two years leading up to the 2022 midterm elections. Popular Information reported that 86.7% of that spending went to candidates who had been endorsed by Trump.More than $5m of that spending went towards Schmitt’s campaign, according to Open Secrets, while AFP Action spent $302,453 supporting Ogles.In announcing its move away from Trump, AFP Action said: “The Republican Party is nominating bad candidates who are advocating for things that go against core American principles.”“To write a new chapter for our country, we need to turn the page on the past,” AFP Action said in an accompanying memo.“So the best thing for the country would be to have a president in 2025 who represents a new chapter. The American people have shown that they’re ready to move on, and so AFP will help them do that.”AFP Action said it would get involved in elections “earlier and in more primaries” in a bid to turn out more voters and elect what it described as “better people”.But in inviting Schmitt and Ogles – their attendance was first reported by the Washington Post – AFP Action sent a mixed message. Both candidates have tied themselves to a former president that Koch’s network says it is ready to ditch.Neither Schmitt nor Ogles replied to requests for comment, but they would appear to have a history of advocating for things that go against what some would define as core American principles.Ogles, a former county mayor who previously described himself as the “most conservative mayor in Tennessee”, said people were “defrauded out of a true and honest election” as he denied the legitimacy of Biden’s 2020 victory.Mitt Romney to mull Republicans’ ‘slide toward authoritarianism’ in biographyRead moreIn one of his first acts in Congress, Ogles joined with a gang of hard-right Republicans to vote against Kevin McCarthy for the House speaker, a move which triggered an embarrassing saga for the GOP and was condemned by Republican leadership.Ogles, who during his campaign for the House said conservatives need to “go after gay marriage”, used a flamethrower last July to illustrate what he thinks of Joe Biden’s policies.“We’re at war. This is a political war, a cultural war, and it’s a spiritual war,” Ogles said in his victory speech in November. “And as we go forward, we’ve got to get back to honoring God and country.”During his primary campaign, Ogles called for Biden and Harris to be impeached. He has also said Alejandro Mayorkas, the Department of Homeland Security secretary, should be charged with treason over the administration’s handling of immigration issues.Perhaps unsurprisingly, on Tuesday, Ogles was one of the Republicans who heckled Biden during his State of the Union address.During the weekend at AFP Action’s California retreat, Ogles probably found a kindred spirit in Schmitt, who has already said he will support Trump for president in 2024.As Missouri attorney general, Schmitt was one of the Republican attorneys general who challenged election results in Pennsylvania in 2020. He also signed on to a separate lawsuit, which attempted to overturn election results in Michigan, Georgia, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.While in the same office, Schmitt signed a lawsuit, with others, arguing LGBTQ people were not protected against discrimination under federal law.Since then, Schmitt has spoken of the “great replacement” conspiracy theory, which charges that Democrats are seeking to disempower white people through changing the racial makeup of the US. Democrats, Schmitt said, are “fundamentally trying to change this country through illegal immigration”.Neither candidate represents a break with the past, and it raises questions as to the seriousness of AFP Action’s new path. The organization did not respond to requests for comment.As Popular Information reported, this is not AFP Action’s first contradiction.In 2018, Koch criticized Trump’s presidency, and said he would be willing to back Democrats. AFP Action went on to spend $3,948,640 supporting Republicans and $2,835,924 opposing Democrats, Popular Information reported, and zero dollars on Democrats.Nikki Haley presidential run would sink DeSantis and hand Trump victory – pollRead moreGoing back further, Koch said in 2016 that he not support Trump – or Hillary Clinton – in the presidential election. But, Popular Information found: “He spent millions on ads that, while formally opposing Democratic Senate candidates, savaged Trump’s opponent Hillary Clinton.”Given Koch’s, and AFP Action’s history, it seems unlikely there will be much change in the future.And for all AFP Action’s talk of “bad candidates who are advocating for things that go against core American principles”, and of ending bipartisanship, it seems perfectly happy with the Republican members of Congress so far.On an AFP Action “national scorecard”, which gives elected officials scores out of 100 for their performance in office, so far every single Republican has a score of 100.TopicsUS politicsKoch brothersRepublicansDonald TrumpnewsReuse this content More

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      US corporations gave more than $8m to election deniers’ midterm campaigns

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      US corporations gave more than $8m to election deniers’ midterm campaignsBrands such as the Home Depot and Boeing donated to candidates who falsely claimed that Trump won presidency in 2020 Some of the best-known corporations in the US, including AT&T, Boeing, Delta Air Lines and the Home Depot, collectively poured more than $8m into supporting election deniers running for US House and Senate seats in this month’s midterm elections.‘Extremists didn’t make it’: why Republicans flopped in once-red ArizonaRead moreA study by the non-partisan government watchdog organization Accountable.US, based on the latest filings to the Federal Election Commission, reveals the extent to which big corporations were prepared to back Republican nominees despite their open peddling of false claims undermining confidence in democracy. Though many were ultimately unsuccessful in their election bids, the candidates included several prominent advocates of Donald Trump’s lie that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen from him.At the top of the list of 20 corporations backing election deniers through their political action committees (Pacs) is a familiar name in the world of rightwing agitating – Koch Industries. According to the Accountable.US review, the Koch energy conglomerate spent $771,000 through its Pac on Republican candidates with a track record of casting doubt on elections.Koch Industries is the second-largest privately owned company in the US. It is notorious for using its largely oil-related profits to push conservative politics in an anti-government, anti-regulatory direction under its owner brothers, Charles Koch and David Koch, the latter of whom died in 2019.Close behind Koch is the American Crystal Sugar Company Pac, which spent $630,000 supporting election deniers running for federal office; the AT&T Inc Employee Federal Pac, which contributed $579,000; and the Home Depot Inc Pac, which gave $578,000. Lower down on the list comes the media giant Comcast Corporation & NBC Universal Pac, which contributed $365,000; and the Delta Air Lines Pac, which gave $278,000.The $8m contributed by the top 20 corporations was just a slice of overall corporate giving to election deniers in the 2022 cycle. An earlier analysis by Accountable.US found that, in total, election deniers benefited to the tune of $65m from corporate interests.The new study suggests that top corporations that chose to use their financial muscle to enhance the chances of election deniers waged a non-too-successful gamble. The Washington Post has chronicled how 244 Republican election deniers ran for congressional seats in the midterms, and, of those, at least 81 were defeated.Kyle Herrig, president of Accountable.US, said that the fact that election deniers at both the federal and the state level struggled at the polls should make corporations reconsider their strategies. Backing candidates who advanced conspiracy theories harmful to democracy could damage their public reputations.“Voters’ rejection of numerous election objectors at the polls should send a clear message to corporations that prioritizing political influence over a healthy democracy could threaten their own bottom line,” Herrig said.The Guardian reached out to several of the top 20 corporate donors for their response. The Home Depot said that its associate-funded Pac supports candidates “on both sides of the aisle who champion pro-business, pro-retail positions that create jobs and economic growth”.AT&T and Delta did not immediately reply. The decision to support election-denier candidates stands in contrast with the strong public stance initially taken by several of the corporations in the wake of the 6 January 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol. Boeing released a statement days after the insurrection in which it said it “strongly condemns the violence, lawlessness and destruction that took place in the US Capitol”. In the 2022 cycle the Boeing Company Pac contributed $418,000 to support Republican candidates who had been vocal in forwarding lies questioning the validity of the 2020 presidential election.Boeing declined to comment.Among the individual candidates whose bid for federal office was supported by top corporations was Derrick Van Orden, who won a close race to represent a swing district in Wisconsin with backing from Koch Industries. Van Orden, a former Navy Seal, was inside the Capitol grounds on January 6.Scott Perry received support from the Kochs, AT&T, Boeing and other corporations in his successful campaign to hold onto his House seat in Pennsylvania. Perry was deeply involved in attempts to block Biden’s victory in 2020, and in the weeks after January 6 sought a presidential pardon from Trump.TopicsUS midterm elections 2022The fight for democracyUS political financingDonald TrumpRepublicansUS politicsKoch brothersAT&TnewsReuse this content More

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      Alarm as Koch bankrolls dozens of election denier candidates

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      Alarm as Koch bankrolls dozens of election denier candidates Election watchdogs say Koch’s about face after pledging change following January 6 is disturbing given the threats to democracy Fossil fuel giant Koch Industries has poured over $1m into backing – directly and indirectly – dozens of House and Senate candidates who voted against certifying Joe Biden’s win on 6 January 2021.Koch, which is controlled by multibillionaire Charles Koch, boasts a corporate Pac that has donated $607,000 to the campaigns or leadership Pacs of 52 election deniers since January 2021, making Koch’s Pac the top corporate funder of members who opposed the election results, according to OpenSecrets, which tracks campaign spending.In addition, the Super Pac Americans for Prosperity Action to which Koch Industries has given over $6m since January 2021, has backed some election deniers with advertising and other communications support, as well as a few candidates Donald Trump has endorsed who tried to help him overturn the 2020 election, or raised doubts about the final results.A top official with AFP Action told Politico after the January 6 insurrection by Donald Trump supporters that it planned to “weigh heavily” future spending and back “policy makers who reject the politics of division”.Altogether, 139 House members and eight senators voted against certifying Biden’s win in Arizona or Pennsylvania.Election and campaign finance watchdogs say that the financial support for candidates who were election deniers by Koch’s Pac and the Super Pac AFP Action is very disturbing given the threats to democracy posed by election deniers. “There’s a unique danger in having politicians who cast doubt on the validity of the last election results play a role in certifying the next election,” said Ian Vandewalker, a senior counsel for the Democracy program at the Brennan Center for Justice.“Even if they don’t take any overt action to reject the will of the voters, the election denial message itself harms voter confidence in the system. Democracy requires the losing side to accept the results – without that we could see civil unrest on a much larger scale than January 6.”Although the Koch-funded Super Pac AFP Action had suggested it would not back election deniers after 6 January, analysts aren’t shocked given Koch’s lobbying and legislative priorities, which include fighting various tax and regulatory measures related to fossil fuel issues including climate change that affect the company’s bottom line. Koch spent $12.2m last year on lobbying – more than any other oil and gas company during 2021.“Like other corporations pledging change following January 6, Koch Industries has returned to business as usual,” said Sheila Krumholz, who leads OpenSecrets.” Without repercussions and continued public attention, companies will go back to funding politicians who support their agenda.”“Like many big business spenders, Koch seems more interested in their favored party controlling Congress than the characteristics of specific members,” Vandewalker added.To be sure, the Koch Pac’s support for 52 election deniers included a number of members whose votes are often helpful to fossil fuel interests.Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana, who is often a staunch ally of fossil fuel interests, received $20,000 from Koch’s Pac, a sum only matched by the corporate Pac of Capital One. Kennedy teamed up with other senators in January 2021 on a statement that claimed the 2020 election was “rife with allegations of fraud and irregularities that exceed any in our lifetimes”.Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas, where Koch is headquartered, also voted against certifying Biden’s election and has received support from Koch’s Pac. Marshall is not up for re-election this year.Separately, Americans for Prosperity Action, to which Koch has donated $6m, has spent almost $20m on ads and other communications much of which has gone to support some election deniers running for the Senate and House, plus Senate candidates who tried to help Trump reverse the 2020 election results or who have raised doubts about its outcome.For instance, House member Ted Budd, who voted against certifying Biden’s win on 6 January, and now hopes to win a Senate seat in North Carolina, has benefited from almost $3.1m that AFP Action has spent to help him win the seat of the retiring senator Richard Burr. Budd has also told CNN that he had “constitutional concerns” about the election while acknowledging that Biden is president.Similarly, two House members who opposed certifying Biden’s victory, Kat Cammack of Florida and Steve Chabot of Ohio, have both attracted backing from AFP Action. AFP Action has spent $369,750 to help Cammack and $287,902 to help Chabot.Moreover, AFP Action has spent $4.9m to boost the Missouri attorney general, Eric Schmitt, who filed a lawsuit in December 2020 in tandem with the Texas attorney general to overturn the election results, and is running for an open seat.The Wisconsin senator Ron Johnson also has benefited from $4.2m spent by AFP Action to help him in what seems to be a tight re-election race. According to revelations at a House January 6 committee hearing in June, an aide to Johnson reportedly helped promote efforts to substitute fake electors for Trump for legitimate ones that Biden won in the run up to 6 January when Congress certified the election results.And Mehmet Oz, the GOP Senate candidate in Pennsylvania, whose campaign has been backed by over $2m of ad and other support from AFP Action, told Fox News in September that “lots more information” was needed to assess whether Trump won the 2020 election, contradicting prior Oz remarks that he would have certified Biden’s election if he was senator.Election objectors won substantial donations from other corporate Pacs besides Koch’s. OpenSecrets reported in August that altogether members who voted against certifying Biden’s win received a whopping $22m post-January 6 from the Pacs of 700 corporations. Besides Koch’s Pac, the other top corporate Pacs were those of Home Depot and Boeing that respectively ponied up $593,000 to 44 members and $520,000 to 27 members.Still, at least one veteran of a thinktank that Charles Koch co-founded and has helped fund says that the company’s ongoing support for election deniers is very troubling.“When the only elected officials who will carry your political water are proto-fascists, what is one to do?” said Jerry Taylor, a former vice-president at the Cato Institute in DC where he oversaw climate and energy issues. “Charles Koch has made his choice. This self-proclaimed voice of freedom and liberty has apparently decided that advancing the public policies he desires is more important than democracy.“His choice is not unlike the choices that most German industrialists made in the Weimar Republic.”TopicsUS elections 2020Koch brothersUS politicsUS midterm elections 2022newsReuse this content More

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      Pressure mounts on Koch Industries to halt business in Russia

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      Pressure mounts on Koch Industries to halt business in RussiaWhile hundreds of companies have paused operations, three Koch subsidiaries are still operating in the country Pressure is mounting on Koch Industries, the conglomerate run by the rightwing billionaire Charles Koch, to pull out of Russia after it was revealed it was continuing to do business in Russia through three wholly-owned subsidiaries.Hundreds of companies including Coca-Cola, KPMG, McDonald’s, Netflix and Starbucks have paused operations in Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. But, as news site Popular Information revealed last week, three Koch subsidiaries are still operating in the country.Burger King owner says operator in Russia refuses to shut shopsRead more“Koch Industries is shamefully continuing to do business in Putin’s Russia and putting their profits ahead of defending democracy,” the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, and Senator Ron Wyden, said in a joint statement. “As the democracies of the world make huge sacrifices to punish Russia for Putin’s illegal and vicious invasion of Ukraine, Koch Industries continues to profit off of Putin’s regime.”“It must stop,” Schumer wrote on Twitter, adding that he and Wyden were “exploring legislation to add Russia to existing laws denying foreign tax credits for taxes paid to North Korea & Syria.”Koch has defended its Russian operations. The company has three subsidiaries still operating in the country: Guardian Industries, a glass manufacturer; Molex, an electronic components manufacturer; and Koch Engineered Solutions, a provider of industrial products.In a statement released on Wednesday Dave Robertson, Koch president, condemned the invasion. “The horrific and abhorrent aggression against Ukraine is an affront to humanity,” he wrote. But he said the company would not “walk away” from its employees.“Koch company Guardian Industries operates two glass manufacturing facilities in Russia that employ about 600 people. We have no other physical assets in Russia, and outside of Guardian, employ 15 individuals in the country. While Guardian’s business in Russia is a very small part of Koch, we will not walk away from our employees there or hand over these manufacturing facilities to the Russian government so it can operate and benefit from them (which is what the Wall Street Journal has reported they would do). Doing so would only put our employees there at greater risk and do more harm than good,” he wrote.Robertson said the company was “complying with all applicable sanctions, laws and regulations” and would continue to monitor the situation.The statement was released on the same day that the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, made an address to Congress. “All American companies must leave their market immediately because it is flooded with our blood,” said Zelenskiy.The Kansas-based conglomerate – the second-largest private company in the US – is one of 40 companies “digging in” and refusing to leave Russia, according to a tally compiled by the Yale professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and his research team.Popular Information also revealed last week that a network of pundits and groups funded by Koch has been publicly advocating against imposing economic sanctions on Russia.TopicsKoch brothersUkraineUS politicsRussianewsReuse this content More

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      Love the billionaire bucks flooding the 2020 elections? Thank Charles Koch | Lisa Graves

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      New documents reveal Koch attack on campaign laws began more than four decades ago When Michael Bloomberg entered the 2020 race, some declared his $60bn fortune an asset for taking on Donald Trump, who once claimed he was going to self-fund his own campaign. Related: The Guardian view on Trump’s acquittal: over to the voters […] More