Votes against election certification to factor into Cummins’ political giving

The exterior of the Cummins Columbus Engine Plant in Columbus is shown. Mike Wolanin

Cummins Inc. has said it will consider whether lawmakers voted last week against certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s victory before making future donations to their campaigns, joining a growing list of companies that have said the GOP-led effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election results will factor into their political giving.

Through its political action committee, Cummins, a Columbus-based Fortune 150 company, has made at least $26,000 in contributions over roughly the past two years to at least 27 of the 147 Republican members of Congress who voted to overturn election results in Arizona or Pennsylvania — including Sen. Ted Cruz, R-TX, and Rep. Greg Pence, R-IN, according to the Federal Election Commission.

Among the Republicans who voted to overturn the Electoral College results last week, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-CA, and Pence had received the most contributions from Cummins Inc. Political Action Committee, or CIPAC, each receiving $3,000, federal election records show.

The other three members of Indiana’s congressional delegation who voted to object to Electoral College tallies also received donations from CIPAC, including Reps. Jackie Walorski, Jim Baird, and Jim Banks.

Company spokesman Jon Mills told The Republic that CIPAC has “a robust evaluation process” to determine which candidates and elected officials it will support, and the votes to object to election results in Arizona and Pennsylvania will “absolutely” be part of the evaluation process.

For years, CIPAC has made donations to elected officials on both sides of the aisle, including contributions of $3,000 during the past election cycle to both House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY.

CIPAC reported making $268,694.50 in disbursements from Jan. 1, 2019 to Nov. 23, 2020, according to the FEC.

“We are currently not contributing funds at this time,” Mills told The Republic. “Our PAC has a robust evaluation process for each elected official we support, including whether or not the individual reflects our core values. The (election certification votes) will absolutely be part of that evaluation process prior to any contributions being made.”

The statement from Cummins comes as corporate America is quickly distancing itself from Trump and his Republican allies, with many of the biggest names in business suspending political donations after a pro-Trump mob ransacked the U.S. Capitol in a violent spree last Wednesday, The Associated Press reported.

So far, Goldman Sachs, Coca-Cola, Ford, Comcast, Marriott, Hallmark, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Dell, AT&T, JPMorgan Chase and many others have said they will halt political contributions to Republicans who voted against certifying Electoral College Results.

For now, the move is about affirming the rule of law and Biden’s clear victory in the 2020 presidential election, according to wire reports.

But it also signals that companies are growing skittish about lawmakers who backed Trump’s false claims of election fraud, possibly depriving Republicans of public backing from business groups who until recently were the heart of the GOP’s political brand.

Yet the pausing of donations announced by many companies was unlikely to deliver a serious blow to Republicans in Congress who voted to overturn Biden’s win.

Corporate-sponsored political action committees are limited to donating $5,000 per candidate each year. In races that often cost incumbents millions of dollars, such contributions account for just a small fraction of the overall fundraising picture.

Take Congressman Pence for example. The Indiana Republican’s campaign committee, Greg Pence for Congress, reported $3.1 million in receipts from Jan. 1, 2019 to Nov. 23, 2020, according to the Federal Election Commission.

Over the same time period, Pence received at least $40,000 from businesses that have announced plans to review or halt political contributions to Republicans who voted to overturn election results, including Exxon, FedEx, Comcast, Ford, General Motors, Delta Airlines, General Electric and Microsoft.

On Jan. 6, a violent mob loyal to Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol in a failed attempt to overturn America’s presidential election and keep Joe Biden from replacing Trump in the White House, sending lawmakers into hiding and resulting in five deaths.

Hours later, Congress reconvened and 138 House Republicans, including Pence, and seven Republican senators objected to Electoral College tallies in Pennsylvania.

The objection, however, was defeated 282-138 in the Democrat-controlled House and 92-7 in the Republican-controlled Senate.

In a statement, Pence said “violence and anarchy is never the answer” and cited the Constitution and the “disenfranchised voters of the Sixth District” as the reasons for his vote.

Neither Pence nor any of the lawmakers who objected to the results in any state have presented credible evidence of widespread fraud that would change the outcome of the election, according to wire reports.

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Visit www.fec.gov/data/committee/C00377952/ for more information about the Cummins Inc. Political Action Committee.

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