SAN FRANCISCO – JPMorgan Chase will resume making donations to United States politicians – except for those who voted in January against certifying Joe Biden as president.
The bank, the US’ largest in terms of assets, suspended donations to politicians of either the Republican or Democratic Party following the violent assault on the Capitol by Donald Trump supporters on January 6.
“This was a unique and historic moment when we believe the country needed our elected officials to put aside strongly held differences and demonstrate unity,” said the bank’s political action committee in a memo sent to employees on Friday and obtained by AFP.
The employee-financed committee said the “handful of members of Congress to whom we may have given this year, who voted against counting the electoral votes that states certified and submitted to Congress”, will receive no further donations during the cycle that ends with the November 2022 midterm elections.
Several other companies and business leaders similarly denounced the Capitol violence and suspended donations.
More recently, several large and small business groups have opposed planned changes in election law by Texas and other states aimed ostensibly at making polls more secure, while in effect, limiting voters’ options for casting ballots.
The changes will particularly affect minority groups, notably African Americans, and have been blasted by Democrats as an attack on their voter base.
The JPMorgan committee said it plans to give to a wider range of recipients, favouring politicians who seek to narrow racial, economic and education divides, and to address other “moral and economic imperatives” that are also “commercially critical for businesses like ours”. – AFP, June 6, 2021
