Amazon funnels money to 9 election deniers — after post-January 6 pledge to stop backing them

On Wednesday, Gizmodo reported that online retail giant Amazon has quietly begun resuming contributions to Republicans who deny the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election — despite their pledge in the wake of the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol that they would not do so going forward.

"Last year, in a public stand following January 6th, Amazon pledged to stop its corporate PAC contributions to politicians who tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election," reported Lauren Leffer. "'Given the unacceptable attempt to undermine a legitimate democratic process, the Amazon PAC has suspended contributions to any Member of Congress who voted to override the results of the US Presidential election,' the company wrote back in January 2021. Amazon made that promise along with multiple other tech leviathans."

"But now, the company has quietly re-started funneling money to election denying House members," said the report. "Amazon’s political action committee sent at least $17,500 total to nine different such GOP Representatives in just the month of September, as first reported by Judd Legum on his news site Popular Information."

In addition to those nine Republicans, including Reps. Stephanie Bice (R-OK), Darrell Issa (R-CA), and Mike Rogers (R-AL), Amazon's PAC also contributed $30,000 each to the National Republican Congressional Committee and National Republican Senatorial Committee, both of which are funding a number of candidates who push election conspiracy theories.

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"It’s worth noting that, even during the so-called 'suspension' Amazon’s corporate lobbyists never stopped funding election deniers," noted the report. "So, it’s unclear what benefit the action truly had on campaign finances or the health of U.S. democracy."

Legum has spent the last year tracking companies that broke their pledge not to contribute to election-denying Republicans. He has uncovered donations to election deniers by numerous companies that promised not to cease those contributions, including American Express, AT&T, Comcast, Disney, General Electric, Hallmark, Home Depot, Mastercard, Verizon, and Walgreens, among many others.