Toyota draws left-wing ire for resuming donations to Republicans who questioned 2020 vote

The political left is lambasting Toyota for resuming donations to Republican lawmakers who questioned the results of the 2020 presidential election, continuing a pattern of attacking firms and other groups for acting in their own interests and bucking attempts to blacklist GOP election skeptics.

Toyota's political action committee gave $1,000 to Republican Reps. Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.), David Kustoff (R-Tenn.), Garret Graves (R-La.), and Trent Kelly (R-Miss.), according to Federal Election Commission filings. All four lawmakers voted against certifying the results of the 2020 election on Jan. 6 of last year.

The donations came after Toyota said last summer it would stop contributing to members of Congress who contested the certification of certain states' results in the election.

Following the Jan. 6 Capitol riot last year, Toyota continued donating to GOP election objectors. Public scrutiny, especially from the left, led the company to send an email to customers that April.

The automaker "decided against giving to some members [of Congress] who, through their statements and actions, undermine the legitimacy of our elections and institutions," according to the email. However, the message continued, Toyota does "not believe it is appropriate to judge members of Congress solely based on their votes on election certification."

Donations to some GOP election skeptics continued until July, when the public scrutiny intensified and led Toyota to announce it would stop donating to anyone who contested the results — that is, until last month.

"After a pause of six months, during which time Toyota had extensive discussions with internal and external stakeholders, Toyota's employee PAC, like others in the auto industry and nearly 800 companies and industry groups nationwide, has resumed contributing to some members of Congress," Toyota said in a statement Monday.

"We will not support those who, by their words and actions, create an atmosphere that incites violence," the automaker added.

Popular Information first reported on Toyota's new donations, which quickly led to a severe backlash.

The Lincoln Project, for example, said it will restart an ad campaign accusing Toyota of "helping finance a movement that violently sought to take votes away from American customers, not to mention Toyota's own employees." The scandal-ridden never-Trump PAC has referred to lawmakers who questioned the 2020 election results as seditionists and insurrectionists.

"Toyota broke its promise and rejoined the sedition caucus," Lincoln Project cofounder Reed Galen said in a statement. "Companies like Toyota benefit from the free markets that are protected by our democratic institutions, but they're endorsing and supporting Big Lie politicians who backed the violent attack on the Capitol."

Numerous Republican lawmakers who voted against certification, including those who received Toyota donations last month, condemned the Jan. 6 Capitol breach.

"Violence and destruction are never the answer," Walorski tweeted during the riot. "Stop these attacks on our country now and keep the protests peaceful. Grateful to the U.S. Capitol Police for protecting everyone in our Capitol."

The Lincoln Project wasn't alone in attacking Toyota on Monday.

"Why is Toyota now funding insurrectionist politicians who want to overthrow democracy?" asked progressive podcast host Brian Tyler Cohen.

"If this country ultimately falls into the hands of white nationalist authoritarians, just remember it was companies like [Toyota] that helped make it happen," added Kurt Bardella, an adviser to the Democratic National Committee. "Who made the business decision that democracy was worth sacrificing for their own interests?"

Toyota hasn't been the only company to recently receive such criticism for its political donations.

The watchdog group Accountable.US penned a letter last month to Eli Lilly castigating the drugmaker, its executives, and affiliated trade groups for resuming campaign contributions to members of the "Sedition Caucus," the nickname opponents have given to the 147 lawmakers who voted against certifying the election.

Like Toyota, Eli Lilly said last year it would suspend contributions to GOP lawmakers who contested the 2020 presidential vote but resumed donations months later.

"Rewarding these clearly unapologetic election objectors with big campaign checks simply flies in the face of your company's stated goal of being a 'unifying force in our democracy,'" wrote Accountable.US President Kyle Herrig.

The letter noted nearly all the contributions came after each of the lawmakers either opposed or refused to vote on a measure to form a select committee to investigate the Jan. 6 riot.

Critics have accused Democrats of weaponizing the committee and the events of Jan. 6 to attack Republicans rather than to conduct a bipartisan investigation into the events of that day and prevent such an incident from happening again.

Herrig similarly blasted Home Depot late last month after it reportedly became the top corporate donor to Republicans who didn't certify the election.

"No corporation can truly claim to be on the side of democracy while they throw money at the election objectors in Congress who tried to finish what violent insurrectionists started," said Herrig.

Several other companies and trade groups have come under fire for continuing donations to this group of lawmakers, including Intel, which ended its suspension of donations last month.

"These unscrupulous companies will bear responsibility for the attacks on democracy that have happened and will follow," wrote Ja'han Jones, a liberal writer who works with MSNBC host Joy Reid.

However, corporations aren't the only ones making such donations and triggering intense backlash from the left.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a prominent lobbying group that has long championed bipartisanship and advocates a strong U.S.-Israel alliance, was lambasted for including election skeptics among the pro-Israel candidates whom it endorsed.

AIPAC defended its endorsements, saying it will cultivate politicians of all stripes who share its mission of supporting Israel, which the group noted currently faces multiple existential threats.

In response to AIPAC's defense, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) tweeted, "AIPAC is now endorsing & donating to Republicans who voted to overturn the US election on Jan 6th because, according to their statement, it's more OK to dismantle US democracy than it is to question if US tax dollars should fund detention & abuse of Palestinian kids. Got it."

Despite some companies resuming donations, Republican candidates who voted to challenge the election results have so far collected significantly less corporate cash than at this point last election cycle.

Prominent media outlets have been highlighting those companies that have been giving to election skeptics in an apparent effort to pressure them to stop such donations.

Many of the companies have faced boycott threats.

Similarly, some Democrats, led by election lawyer Marc Elias, have been leading an effort to try to disqualify Republicans who supported efforts to challenge the 2020 presidential election from running for office, labeling them as insurrectionists who tried to overrun American democracy.

Meanwhile, more evidence has emerged nationwide in recent months exposing fraud, illegalities, and irregularities in the 2020 election — not enough to change the results but enough to concern election experts and state officials about the integrity of U.S. elections.

In Georgia, for example, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has opened a criminal investigation into allegations that activists engaged in illegal ballot harvesting, a tactic, outlawed in most states, in which third-party activists gather and deliver voters' ballots.

Still, those who are attacking groups donating to election skeptics insist questioning the vote is a sign of anti-democratic sedition.

The intensity of such left-wing backlash raises an obvious question: Why are companies resuming donations and willing to endure such vilification?

One reason may be that Republicans are widely expected to retake the House in this year's midterm elections and potentially regain control of the Senate.

"It's going to be a terrible cycle for Democrats," Doug Sosnik, a former political adviser to Bill Clinton, told the New York Times last week.

Robert Gibbs, a former White House press secretary who worked under Barack Obama, added that Democrats are "feeling like it's time to head for the lifeboats rather than trying to steer the ship" as they distance themselves from President Joe Biden.