Major companies pulling support from national party conventions

Major companies have decided they don’t want their brands associated with the political conventions this year. Most of these companies say they won’t be supporting either convention this year, but the suggestion in the story is that one figure in particular may be prompting the reconsideration. Bloomberg reports:

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Among those to signal in recent days that they won’t sponsor the convention this year are Wells Fargo & Co., United Parcel Service Inc., Motorola Solutions Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Ford Motor Co., and Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. All of those companies sponsored the previous Republican conclave, in Tampa, Florida, in 2012.

None would comment publicly on the reason for the decision or say whether Trump played a role. Many said they wouldn’t support the Democratic convention either. The Cleveland host committee, which raised much of the money it needed more than a year ago, says that fundraising remains on track…

“It’s a question of balancing the desire to be present at this convention versus brand association with one figure who is so polarizing,” said Bruce Haynes, a Republican media consultant in Alexandria, Virginia. “That’s why the decision is so difficult, when otherwise it’s so easy.”

Did the companies decide they didn’t want to be associated with Trump and then pull support from Democrats to keep from appearing partisan? That’s what the quote from Haynes seems to suggest. But the companies that have pulled out are claiming they made their decision to do so months ago. UPS, for instance, claims it decided not to support either convention before the primaries.

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One of the few companies that says it plans to donate to the Democratic convention this year but not the Republican convention is Wells Fargo. Well Fargo had donated money to both conventions during the last two presidential campaigns. However, like most of the other companies, Wells Fargo claims this decision to support one side was made before the primaries.

Despite the drop in support the Republican host committee tells Bloomberg, “The sky is not falling.” The petroleum industry and some major tech companies including Google, Cisco and AT&T are still on board with the conventions.

With less than a month to go, there are still several big companies apparently on the fence about participating. Apple, Walmart and Amazon did not respond to Bloomberg’s emails about their participation this year.

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