Walmart, Amazon contribute to US lawmaker promoting conspiracy theorists group QAnon
Walmart, Amazon and other corporate giants donated money to a Tennessee state lawmaker’s reelection campaign after she used social media to amplify and promote the QAnon conspiracy theory, according to an Associated Press overview of campaign finance records and the candidate’s posts.
The corporate support for a QAnon-promoting politician is another exemplory case of the way the conspiracy theory has penetrated mainstream politics, spreading beyond its origins on internet community forums favored by right-wing extremists.
Dozens of QAnon-promoting prospects have run for federal or state offices in this election cycle. Collectively, they have raised huge amount of money from a large number of donors. Individually, however, most of them have run poorly financed campaigns with little if any corporate or party backing. Unlike state Representative Susan Lynn, who chairs the Tennessee House finance committee, few are incumbents who can attract corporate PAC money.
Lynn told the AP within an interview Friday that she will not support QAnon.
Walmart did not react to repeated requests for comment created by email and through its website. An Amazon spokeswoman declined to comment. A spokeswoman for another donor to Lynn’s campaign, Kentucky-based distillery company Brown-Forman, which has a facility in Tennessee, said the business didn’t find out about Lynn’s QAnon posts and wouldn’t have donated to her campaign through its Jack Daniel’s PAC if it had.
“Now that our awareness is raised, we will reevaluate our standards for giving to greatly help identify affiliations such as this later on,” Elizabeth Conway said in a statement.
Corporate PAC managers typically decide which applicants to support based on narrow, pragmatic policy issues instead of broader political concerns, said Anthony Corrado, a Colby College government professor and campaign finance expert.
“In many instances, you don’t have any kind of corporate board oversight or any kind of accountability regarding overview of contributions before they’re made,” Corrado said. “Some corporations now have adopted policies about the supervision of PAC contributions due to the reputational risks involved in this.”
At least 81 current or former congressional prospects have supported the conspiracy theory or promoted QAnon content, with at least 24 qualifying for November’s general election ballot, in line with the liberal watchdog Media Matters for America.
As of Friday, the individuals collectively had raised practically $5 million in contributions because of this election cycle, but only eight had raised over $100,000 individually, based on the AP’s overview of Federal Election Commission data. The FEC’s online database doesn’t have any fundraising reports for 30 of the candidates, almost all whom are running as Republicans.
Congress is virtually certain to have at least one QAnon-supporting member next year. Marjorie Taylor Greene, whose campaign has raised over $1 million, appeared to be coasting to victory in a deep-red congressional district in Georgia even before her Democratic opponent dropped out of the race.
At the state level, the AP and Media Matters have identified a lot more than two dozen legislative applicants who have expressed some support or interest in QAnon.
QAnon centres on the baseless belief that President Donald Trump is waging a secret campaign against enemies in the “deep state” and a child sex trafficking ring run by satanic paedophiles and cannibals. Trump has praised QAnon supporters and frequently retweets accounts that promote the conspiracy theory.
QAnon has been associated with killings, attempted kidnappings and other crimes. IN-MAY 2019, an FBI bulletin mentioning QAnon warned that conspiracy theory-driven extremists have grown to be a domestic terrorism threat.
Lynn said her social media posts usually do not indicate any support for the conspiracy theory.
“This is the United states, and I am for free to tweet or retweet anything I want,” she said. “I don’t realize why this is even a concern. Believe me, I am not in the within of some QAnon movement.”
But in October 2019, Lynn retweeted posts by QAnon-promoting accounts with thousands of followers. Among the posts she retweeted praised Trump and included the hashtag #TheGreatAwakening, a phrase commonly invoked by QAnon followers.
Between Oct. 31, 2019, and Jan. 9, 2020, her campaign received $4,750 in donations from Amazon.com Services LLC, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee’s PAC, health insurer Humana, the Southwest Airlines Co. Freedom Fund and Walmart Inc.
“Like many other companies, our PAC periodically plays a part in elected officials in Tennessee, including those serving in leadership like Rep. Lynn,” BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee spokeswoman Dalya Qualls said in a statement.
In April, Lynn updated her Facebook page with a cover photography that included a flag with stars forming a “Q” above the abbreviation “WWG1WGA,” which means the QAnon slogan “Where we go one, we go all.” In May and June, Lynn punctuated several tweets with the same abbreviation.
And when a respected QAnon supporter nicknamed “Praying Medic” tweeted the message, “Could it be time to Q the Trump rallies?” Lynn responded, “It really is time!” in a May 31 tweet of her own.
Lynn said she viewed “Where we go one, we go all” as a “very unifying slogan” and didn’t know it had been a QAnon motto. However, a small number of Facebook users who replied to her updated cover photography in April commented on the QAnon connection. The flag is no longer her cover image but could still be seen in the feed on her page on Friday.
In July, AT&T Tennessee PAC, Cigna Corporation PAC and Jack Daniel’s PAC contributed a total of $4,000 to Lynn’s campaign.
The PACs linked to BlueCross BlueShield, AT&T Tennessee, Cigna, Southwest Airlines and Jack Daniel’s had also previously donated to Lynn’s campaign before she amplified QAnon-promoting Twitter accounts last year.
AP contacted each of the companies mentioned in this story. Some didn't react to requests for comment and others declined to comment.
