WASHINGTON — Japanese automaker Toyota announced Thursday it will stop contributing to Republican members of Congress who on Jan. 6 voted against certifying the 2020 election results after a PAC said it would begin running ads criticizing companies for such donations.
Toyota’s decision to donate to those lawmakers after Jan. 6 “troubled some stakeholders,” and for that reason “we have decided to stop contributing to those Members of Congress,” the company said in a statement.
The move came after an announcement by the Lincoln Project, a PAC formed by Republicans to defeat then-President Donald Trump in 2020, that it would target corporations that donated to Republicans who opposed the formalization of Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential victory. An advertisement aimed at Toyota ran on Thursday.
“Toyota made the right choice today,” the Lincoln Project posted on Twitter after Toyota’s reversal.
The Lincoln Project also criticized the cable company Comcast for refusing to air their advertisement and “opting instead to shield corporate advertisers,” the group said in a tweet. Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC News. A representative for Comcast did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump and his supporters spent months trying to cast doubt on and overturn the results of the election, culminating in an effort to derail the official counting of Electoral College votes on Jan. 6 when a mob of his supporters attacked the Capitol.
After the mob had been cleared from the building, 147 Republicans voted to sustain the objections to the counting of the results in Arizona.
Toyota had previously defended their donations, saying the contributions were “based on their position on issues that are important to the auto industry and the company.”
“We do not believe it is appropriate to judge members of Congress solely based on their votes on the electoral certification. Based on our thorough review, we decided against giving to some members who, through their statements and actions, undermine the legitimacy of our elections and institutions,” a company spokesperson said previously.
