New Report Released—Politics Under the Influence
Over the past two election cycles (2017 – 2020) more than $230 million has been spent by the alcohol industry for political influence. The details of campaign contributions and lobbying expenses at both the state and federal level make up the content of “Politics Under The Influence”, a report I recently completed and that is released today:
CLICK TO DOWNLOAD “POLITICS UNDER THE INFLUENCE”
This new report is based on information available in public databases that track campaign contributions at the state and federal level as well as spending on lobbying, again both state and federal. What will not come as a surprise to many of my readers or to those who have spent any time working in beer, wine or spirits is that it is the middleman wholesalers who contribute far and away the vast amount of political donations. In fact, The $55 million spent by wholesalers on state and federal candidates over the past two election cycles is nearly double what all wineries, brewers, distillers, and wine retailers spent collectively in the same time period.
Another detail uncovered by the new report is that of the wholesale, producer and retail tiers of the alcohol industry, only America’s wholesalers supported Donald Trump during the 2020 presidential election, giving 60% of their presidential campaign contributions to the former president. Wineries, brewers, distillers and retailers supported President Biden in the campaign, each directing more than 75% of the presidential campaign contributions to the new president.
Among the other areas covered in the report are:
-Which individuals, companies and trade associations gave the most campaign contributions
-How much wholesalers spent in each state on campaign contributions in total and on a per capita basis
-Which politicians receive the most campaign contributions from wholesalers, producers and retailers
-How each tier of the alcohol industry spent on federal and state lobbying
-Which companies and trade associations spent the most on federal and state lobbying
-Which political parties received the most campaign contributions from the industry
I’ll be writing more about the contents of “Politics Under the Influence” in the coming days. However, in the meantime you can down the entire report here: CLICK TO DOWNLOAD “POLITICS UNDER THE INFLUENCE”
Thank you for this report. Learning about contributions is a huge contribution to understanding why things are the way they are. I was hoping to tease out some information on how the wine tariffs might have affected the 2020 cycle contributions. Perhaps some of the increase 2018-2020 was attempting to counteract them.