Land O & # 39; Lakes could be the subject of a boycott following a donation to Iowa Republican Steve King


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Land O 'Lakes faces calls for a boycott of financial support from the dairy company to representative Steve King, a Republican from Iowa who drew attention to what the critics said to be his link with white nationalists.

Among other things, King provoked controversy by refusing to remove a retweet of a British activist and a sympathetic Nazi, Mark Collett, and sported a Confederate flag on his Washington desk. In September, King also sponsored a Toronto mayoral candidate who espoused the views of white supremacy.

Land O 'Lakes, which operates a member-owned food and agricultural cooperative, spent $ 2,500 on King's campaign in June, according to the records of the Federal Election Commission. This donation was condemned by Liberals, including former presidential candidate Howard Dean, and television host Soledad O. Brien, who described the organization's donations to the king as "dreadful".

"The dairy company Land O Lakes has sent money to this guy, we need to let them know that honest people do not like it," said Dean in a tweet last week, which had prompted hundreds of responses calling for a boycott of butter, cream and dairy products sold by private Fortune 500.

The tweets of Dean and O & # 39; Brien sparked hundreds of responses calling for a boycott.

A spokesman for Land O 'Lakes did not return requests for comments.

The US chip giant Intel has confirmed that it has withdrawn its support to King, having already donated $ 2,000 to the campaign legislator. A political bulletin, Popular Information, reported Sunday that Intel had said in an internal email to employees that it would no longer contribute to King's campaigns after reviewing his public statements and determined that they were contrary to the values ​​of the company.

"We spoke with Representative King because of his support for protection against IP theft, which is important for Intel's business, but an Intel employee raised concerns over more Earlier this month, we reviewed the congressional public statements and determined that they were contradictory, and as a result, we are no longer donating to their campaigns, "said Dawn Jones, Director of Policy and Policy. Intel's external partnerships, in an email dated October 25th.

Intel declined to comment further.

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