Stewart’s pauses political giving after outcry over Stefanik donations – Times Union

WASHINGTON The owners of Stewarts Shops, big donors to U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, have decided to pause all political contributions for "further review" after pressure from individuals calling and threatening on social media to boycott the chain over their support for the congresswoman.

Stewarts started logging Twitter and Facebook comments denouncing the contributions to Stefanik from Stewarts President Gary Dake and his family on Monday, emails obtained by the Albany Times Union show.

In response to Stewart's Shops' decision, local conservatives encouraged supporters Saturday to call or email the family-owned chain to register their opposition and tell them "not to bow down to cancel culture."

Dake and his family gave $34,800 to Stefanik's campaign and her joint fundraising committee in the 2020 election cycle, Federal Election Commission records show. Dake and individuals affiliated with Stewart's Shops are one of the largest contributors to hercommittee.

"Individual contributions are given to various political parties, in this case, they were given to the Stefanik campaign due to her immense support of local dairy farmers," a spokeswoman for Stewart's Shops said. "Stewarts Shops was founded as a dairy company and 100 years later, Stewarts remains a dairy company, supporting 20-plus local dairy farms. All political contributions will be paused for the time being for further review."

Stefanik may take another fundraising hit after at least 14 major companies that gave nearly $100,000 to her in 2020 announced this week they will suspend giving to Republicans who objected to certifying the election results.

Stefaniks senior advisor Alex DeGrasse expressed confidence that her campaigns would weather these developments just fine.

Congresswoman Stefanik shattered records as the top Republican fundraiser in New York State and she will continue to do so, he said. Congresswoman Stefanik's strength as a candidate is her strong support from the people in NY-21 across party lines who re-elected her with the most total votes of any Congressional candidate in the history of the North Country, despite facing millions in attack ads.

American Express, AT&T, Dow Inc., Amazon, General Electric, Comcast Corp., Marriott International Inc., Verizon Communications, Airbnb Inc., Nike Inc. and Walmart have all announced in recent days that they will halt contributions to lawmakers who voted against certifying 2020 Electoral College votes. Blue Cross Blue Shield said it would suspend contributions to those lawmakers who voted to undermine our democracy; and State Street Corp. said it will not support lawmakers or candidates who undermine legitimate election outcomes.

In the 2019-2020 election cycle, these companies collectively gave $99,643 to Stefaniks campaign committee or her leadership PAC, which supports Republican women running for Congress, an Albany Times Union analysis found. They contributed to Stefanik through their political action committees or donations from their owners or employees.

Blue Cross Blue Shield was the largest contributor to her campaign and leadership PAC, while Comcast Corp. was the sixth-largest and AT&T was the ninth-largest this cycle, according to the database maintained by Open Secrets.

Stefanik proved to be a prolific fundraiser in 2020. If she can keep it up, shell feel very little impact from these losses. Moreover, many of these companies have not specified how long they will suspend contributions for. Theres almost two years before the next Congressional elections.

In 2020, Stefanik raised over $14.1 million for her campaign, her leadership PAC, called E-PAC, and her joint fundraising committee (which supports her campaign, E-PAC, New York Republicans and the National Republican Congressional Committee), Federal Election Commission records show.

The majority of the campaign's funding comes from small-dollar donors who have donated over $6 million to her campaign, DeGrasse said. Elise for Congress has $2 million in the bank and her re-election campaign has never been in a stronger position politically.

A host of other companies have said they will temporarily suspend political contributions to lawmakers of both parties or will otherwise re-evaluate their giving. Some of these companies, including Boeing, Raytheon Technologies, United Parcel Service and Alphabet Inc (the owner of Google), are also among Stefaniks top contributors. Democrats and Republicans may both feel an impact from the decisions of these companies, however.

Stefanik was one of 147 Republicans who voted to object to certifying the 2020 electoral votes last week, the same day that the U.S. Capitol was invaded by supporters of President Donald J. Trump seeking to keep him in office.

From New York, Republican Reps. Lee Zeldin of Shirley, Nicole Malliotakis of Staten Island and Chris Jacobs of Orchard Park also voted to object. No Democrats objected, and Republican Reps. Tom Reed of Corning, John Katko of Syracuse and Andrew Garbarino of Sayville did not.

Stefanik said she objected because tens of millions of Americans are concerned that the 2020 election featured unconstitutional overreach by unelected state officials and judges ignoring state election laws. We can and we should peacefully discuss these concerns.

After she objected, Harvard Universitys Kennedy School decided to remove Stefanik from the advisory board of it Institute of Politics because its dean determined she has made public assertions about voter fraud in Novembers presidential election that have no basis in evidence, and she has made public statements about court actions related to the election that are incorrect.

Stefanik blasted the decision from Harvard, saying it was caving to the woke left and creating a monoculture of liberal views.

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Stewart's pauses political giving after outcry over Stefanik donations - Times Union