Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, gestures toward a crowd of supporters of President Donald Trump gathered outside the U.S. Capitol to protest the certification of President-elect Joe Biden's electoral college victory Jan. 6, 2021 at the US Capitol in Washington, DC. Some demonstrators later breached security and stormed the Capitol. (Francis Chung/E&E News and Politico via AP Images)
JEFFERSON CITY — The Lincoln Project, which flooded screens last year with biting attacks on President Donald Trump, has turned its attention to Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, who raised his fist to a crowd of pro-Trump protesters before a deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol last week.
Steve Schmidt, a founder of the Lincoln Project, a political action committee made up of anti-Trump Republicans, revealed the group’s next move on Tuesday night. It involves pressuring Hawley’s donors to demand their money back.
“We will be buying full-page ads in Missouri papers listing all of the @HawleyMO donors demanding their money back,” Schmidt said. “We will also be buying advertising focusing on the continuing financiers of Hawley’s insurrection and sedition.”
We will be buying full page ads in Missouri papers listing all of the @HawleyMO donors demanding their money back. We will also be buying advertising focusing on the continuing financiers of Hawleys insurrection and sedition.
— Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) January 13, 2021
One corporate donor, Kansas City-based Hallmark Cards, asked Hawley on Monday to return $7,000 its employees contributed to the senator through the company’s political action committee.
Kansas City-based Cerner Corp., which has contributed $10,000 to Hawley’s election efforts, announced it would stop donations to Hawley and others it believes incited the siege, the Kansas City Star reported on Wednesday.
It’s unclear what effect the Lincoln Project’s ads will have in Missouri, where Trump remained overwhelmingly popular in the 2020 election, winning 56% of the state’s vote over President-elect Joe Biden’s 41%.
Even if Hawley feels a financial squeeze, his move could generate increased devotion from Trump loyalists in future campaigns. But whether Trump retains the same influence as a former president is to be determined.
Hawley has kept a relatively low profile in recent days. His spokeswoman didn’t immediatelyrespond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
After thanking Capitol Police and calling on rioters to stop committing acts of violence, Hawley moved forward last Wednesday with his planned challenge to Pennsylvania’s Electoral College votes during the congressional certification, which is typically a formality. Many other Republican lawmakers who had planned to challenge the results backed down after the riots.
He issued a statement in the following days that was widely circulated among media outlets, in which he said he wouldn’t resign and that he wasn’t sorry for his actions.
Last Thursday, he criticized the “woke mob” at New York publisher Simon & Schuster for canceling his contract to write a book about Big Tech.
U.S. companies suspend political donations after Capitol attack
A number of large U.S. companies, including AT&T Inc., American Express and Dow Inc., have said they would cut off campaign contributions to those who voted to challenge President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, with Republicans in the U.S. Congress facing growing blowback from Corporate America. — Reuters (updated Friday, Jan. 15, 2021)
| COMPANY | ACTION |
|---|---|
| Airbnb Inc. | Withholds support from those who voted against the certification of the presidential election results |
| Alphabet Google | Temporarily suspends donations to both parties |
| Amazon.com | Suspends donations to lawmakers who voted against Biden certification |
| Ameren Corp. | Suspending all federal PAC contributions for the immediate future |
| American Express | Halts donations to lawmakers who opposed Biden certification |
| Aon PLC | Confirms it has ended its relationship with the Trump Organization |
| Archer Daniels Midland | Suspends new political donations, reviews donation policies |
| AT&T | Suspends donations to lawmakers who opposed Biden certification |
| Bank of America | Will halt all PAC funding decisions in the immediate future |
| Best Buy | Stops providing campaign contributions to the 147 members of Congress who objected to certifying the election results |
| Biogen Inc. | Suspending all political donations to allow a thorough review of its political contribution criteria and policies |
| BlackRock | Will temporarily suspend donations to Democrats and Republicans alike |
| Boeing Co. | Not making political contributions at this time, will continue to carefully evaluate future political contributions |
| BP | Employee group suspends campaign donations for six months, will re-evaluate support criteria |
| Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner | Paused all political contributions |
| CBOE Global Markets | PAC is temporarily pausing all donations |
| Charles Schwab Corp. | Will discontinue PAC and no longer accept contirubtions from employees or make financial contributions to lawmakers |
| Citigroup | Intends to pause its contributions during the quarter, according to memo seen by Reuters |
| CME Group | Will suspend all political contributions through political action committee for foreseeable future |
| Comcast Corp. | Suspending contributions to U.S. lawmakers who opposed Biden certification |
| Deutsche Bank | Will not do business in the future with Trump or his companies, the New York Times reported |
| DoorDash | Has communicated its outrage with RAGA and made it clear that it expects immediate action |
| Dow Inc. | Suspends contributions to all lawmakers who opposed certification of the presidential election |
| Edward Jones | Paused all political contributions |
| Expedia | Suspends all political contributions at the federal, state and local levels as it reevaluates approach moving forward |
| Temporarily suspends donations to both parties | |
| Ford Motor Co. | Suspends all donations as it reviews events of last year |
| General Electric | GEPAC board voted to suspend donations to those who voted to oppose the electoral college results |
| GoFundMe | No longer allows people to raise money for travel to a political event where there is risk of violence by the attendees |
| Goldman Sachs Group | Pausing political funding, considering new strategy in response to last week's violence, according to sources |
| Hallmark Cards | Requests Missouri Senator Josh Hawley and Kansas Senator Roger Marshall, both of whom objected to Biden's certification, to return all campaign contributions |
| Hilton | Will not be making political donations and will keep its PAC suspended indefinitely |
| Johnson & Johnson | Pauses all political contributions, has not made any federal political contributions in 2021 |
| JPMorgan Chase | Will pause all contributions from its political action committee for at least the next six months |
| Leidos Holdings | Leidos' Political Action Committee (PAC) decides to temporarily pause all political donations |
| Lockheed Martin | Not making political contributions, continues evaluation to ensure political donantion and engagement project remains aligned with its business priorities |
| Marriott International | Suspends donations to lawmakers who voted against certifying President-elect Joe Biden's victory |
| Microsoft Corp. | Temporarily suspends donations to both parties |
| Nasdaq | PAC will pause political donations for the next several months |
| Nike Inc. | PAC will not support any member of Congress who voted to decertify the Electoral College results |
| PepsiCo | Suspending all political contributions while conducting a full review to ensure they align with company's values and our shared vision |
| Raytheon Technologies | Pauses all political action committee contributions |
| Signature Bank | Called for Trump to step down; Trump's ethics disclosures show he has checking and money-market accounts at the bank |
| Smithfield Foods | Will temporarily suspend donations to Democrats and Republicans alike |
| State Street Corp. | Will not support lawmakers or candidates who undermine legitimate election outcomes |
| Stripe Inc. | Stops processing payments for Trump's campaign website |
| Tyson Foods | Temporarily suspending all political action committee activity while the company reviews and considers the events of the past week |
| Union Pacific | Will temporarily suspend donations to Democrats and Republicans alike |
| Verizon Communications | Suspends political contributions to members of Congress who voted to object to the certification of electoral college votes |
| Visa | Temporarily suspends all political donations |
| Walmart | Suspends donations to U.S. lawmakers who voted against President-elect Joe Biden's election certification |
| Wells Fargo | PAC will pause political contributions for the foreseeable future to review strategy at the outset of the new Congress and administration |
Explore campaign contributions to Missouri’s state and congressional politicians with this database.
Jack Suntrup
Jack Suntrup covers state government and politics for the Post-Dispatch.
