An American tradition almost as sacred as Thanksgiving happens the very next day: Black Friday.

Consumers on Friday will rush to major retailers like Walmart, Amazon and Best Buy to spend their hard-earned dollars, in person or digitally, on stampede-inducing sales. Meanwhile, this election cycle, those retail giants have been turning their profits into powerful political influence.

Here are the details on the millions of dollars these companies and their employees spent on campaigns and lobbying efforts in 2018.

Walmart

Walmart and its employees spent over $2.1 million on the midterm elections. Over half of those funds — $1.2 million — came from Walmart PACs and slightly more went to Republican candidates. Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.) received $65,100 and Rep. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.), who lost her bid for Arizona’s Senate seat, received $22,675.

Walmart was under fire this week for its political donation to Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.). Hyde-Smith joked about sitting front row of a public hanging, and now many donors, including Walmart, are asking for their money back. Walmart contributed $1,000 to Hyde-Smith’s campaign. Walmart gave Hyde-Smith’s opponent, Democrat Mike Espy, $15.

The superstore chain wields its influence more in the lobbying sphere. At this point in 2018, Walmart spent $4.7 million, mostly on legislation related to taxes and trade.

Amazon

Black Friday is not just for brick-and-mortar stores. Massive online retailers, like Amazon, dominate the day of deals as well.

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Amazon — which recently announced its second headquarters will be split between Queens, New York and Crystal City, Virginia — brandishes extensive political influence in Washington. This cycle, the online giant and its employees gave $12.9 million, mostly to outside spending groups.

The With Honor Fund, a super PAC that supports veteran candidates, received $10.1 million of those contributions. Most of it came from Amazon’s founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos.

Democrats receive more from Amazon than Republicans. Democratic candidates received $1.4 million, while Republican candidates received $704,854. Amazon gave the most to Beto O’Rourke, who challenged Sen. Ted Cruz in Texas. O’Rourke received $77,653.

On the lobbying front, Amazon spent heavily on influencing Capitol Hill in 2018. So far this year, the company spent $10.6 million on issues related to computer and information tech, taxes and consumer product safety.

Best Buy

Another popular Black Friday chain is Best Buy. This cycle, the tech retailer contributed $532,927, mostly from Best Buy PACs to candidates and party committees.

Best Buy gave the National Republican Senatorial Committee $35,400 and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee $30,250. Republican and Democratic candidates received roughly the same amount of donations from Best Buy. Rep. Erik Paulsen (R-Minn.) received $13,650 and Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn) received $13,525 from the tech chain, which is headquartered in Minnesota.

As with the aforementioned retailers, Best Buy spends more on its lobbying efforts. In 2018, Best Buy so far spent $990,000 on tax and trade legislative issues.



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