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The Bezoses has chosen a super PAC, called With Honor, which works with candidates from different political parties. Its 2018 mission is to reverse the "declining trend of veterans in Congress."
The founder and CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, and his wife, MacKenzie Bezos, make their first major political contribution with a $ 10 million donation to a super PAC focused on the election of veterans to public functions.
The Super PAC, entitled With Honor, works with candidates from different political parties. Unlike other mega-donors who have invested tens of millions of dollars in Republican or Democratic campaigns, the Bezoses have chosen a group whose mission in 2018 is to reverse "the declining trend of veterans in Congress" .
Earlier this year, Forbes ranked Bezos – which owns the Washington Post – the richest man in the world, with a net worth of more than $ 150 billion. On Tuesday, Amazon became the second US-listed company to reach a value of more than $ 1 trillion.
The most important political gift of Bezos prior to this cycle was in 2012, when he donated $ 2.5 million to the campaign to defend gay marriage in Washington State. Bezos has already given to Republican and Democratic candidates in Congress. He and his wife gave the political action committees of Amazon.com and Blue Origin, the commercial space company created by Bezos. Both committees supported Democrats and Republicans, including this election cycle.
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The Bezoses also made sporadic contributions to the federal campaign committees. Since the 2014 election cycle, they have donated $ 37,600 to four federal candidates, according to the CEF's records: Senator Patty Murray, D-Wash; Senator Orrin Hatch, R-Utah; Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, and Senator Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.
The contribution, reported Wednesday by the Wall Street Journal, was confirmed by a spokeswoman for Amazon and With Honor. Bezos declined to comment by the spokesman of Amazon.
With Honor's website, it is said that "hyperpartisanship tore the country apart" and that "the Americans know that extreme partisanship has gnawed away at our national legislature". The fund argues that no national institution suffers from a lack of mutual trust more than Congress.
According to With Honor, veterans accounted for more than half of Congress for most of the 20th century. But the decline of veterans in Congress has far outpaced the decline of veterans in the global American population, according to the group. The Brookings Institution recorded a 19% representation of veterans in Congress, a near historic trough.
With honor, at least 25 candidates will be appointed in 2018, because of their leadership history and their alignment with the fund's commitment to integrity, civility and courage. This promise includes meeting with a person from a different political party at least once a month and sponsoring legislation with a member of an opposing party at least once a year.
The super PAC has already received about $ 2 million from parents of Bezos, Jacklyn and Miguel. This is the first electoral cycle that the Bezos family has dedicated to super PAC, according to the records of the Federal Election Commission. In previous years, Bezos' parents supported individual nominating committees, whose donations are capped at $ 5,400 per cycle.
With the last donation to With Honor, Bezos and his wife are now among the biggest donors for the super PACs this cycle.
The $ 10 million donation marks the largest contribution to the super PAC so far this election cycle. Previously, the super PAC's biggest donors were retail magnate Leslie Wexner and his wife, Abigail, a lawyer and philanthropist, who donated $ 2.8 million to the group, according to the FEC's archives.
With the support of Honor, many veterans presented themselves at the Congress, and most of his expenses paid for advertisements for Congressional veterans or advertisements against their opponents.
As of Wednesday, With Honor has identified 33 candidates for home racing across the country. Among the group-backed candidates are some of the most prominent veterans of both parties, such as Democrats Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey, MJ Hegar in Texas, Amy McGrath in Kentucky and Republican Jim Baird in Indiana.
Bezos' choice of a super PAC to elect veterans across the political spectrum sends a message about his values, said Jason Schloetzer, a professor at Georgetown University. But the decision was probably strongly verified given its dominance and "people watching every move you make."
"I do not think too many business people have done a good job on one side or the other in terms of politics, so you absolutely have to be careful," Schloetzer said.
Schloetzer said that the Bezos passage in political waters is different from Amazon as a company fit in a political or social cause, and that the personal gift would not be inextricably linked to the Amazon brand. "
But Tom Lin, a law professor at Temple University who studied corporate governance, said it was hard to "separate Amazon from Jeff Bezos and Jeff Bezos from Amazon."
Lin said companies and their leaders need to be aware of how political affiliations can harm their business and risk alienating customers and investors, or even spurring activism against society. Lin also noted that companies and their leaders were directly attacked by President Trump during tweet storms that sparked online vitriol.
On Monday, for example, Nike revealed Colin Kaepernick, the unemployed NFL quarterback, who was controversial over kneeling during the national anthem protesting racial injustice and police brutality. Wednesday morning, Trump doubled his criticism of Nike and the NFL, tweeting that the sportswear giant "was completely killed by anger and boycott."
"Just as our policy has divided the country into red states and blue states, red counties and blue counties," said Lin, "the political commitment of leaders can fragment the market into blue businesses and businesses."
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