Seattle-based Costco Wholesale and its affiliate, Costco Travel, have given $380,756 in political donations so far this year for the 2022 elections cycle, according to Open Secrets.

                By                    Yaёl Bizouati-Kennedy

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This places Costco at the 1,002nd spot out of 27,872, in terms of largest donors.

Corporations and their affiliates have been playing an enormous role in elections, especially since Jan. 21, 2010, when the Supreme Court overruled the prohibition on corporate independent expenditures in the case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (FEC). Since, corporations can contribute unlimited amounts to campaign spending, according to The Campaign Legal Center (CLC).

“The Court assumed that unlimited corporate campaign spending would pose no threat of corruption or the appearance of corruption because it would be “independent,” CLC said on its website, adding that “it has become clear in the years since that voters are not getting enough information about the true sources of campaign spending and this supposedly independent spending in support of candidates or their campaigns is often intentionally coordinated.”

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Costco predominantly contributed to Democratic congressional and federal candidates, with 68.1% and 69% of the total amount of dollars, respectively, Open Secrets data shows.

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Just a few weeks before the November mid-term elections, let’s take a look at who Costco has donated to.

  • DNC Services Corp. — $210,976Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee — $50,042   Save America — $14,563  Republican National Committee — $12,731National Republican Senatorial Committee — $8,912     Washington Democratic candidate Kim Schrier– $6,668Illinois Democratic candidate Bill Foster– $5,600  Florida Democratic candidate Perry Thurston — $5,000 Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee — $4,353   Georgia Democrat Sen. Raphael Warnock — $3,765

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