Tech, telecom giants give to inauguration
Major technology companies like Google and Microsoft, as well as telecommunications giants like Comcast and Verizon, are among the nearly 1,000 people and groups that have donated at least $200 to the committee organizing President-elect Joe Biden’s scaled-back inauguration celebration this month.
The donor list, released Saturday evening by the committee, was filled mostly with individual donors, including major givers to Democrats such as Arthur Blank, the owner of the Atlanta Falcons; Richard Blum, the husband of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.; and Donald Sussman, a hedge-fund mogul.
The inaugural committee did not list any of the amounts that these 959 donors had given as of Dec. 31, the end of the period covered in the voluntary disclosure.
The actual donor amounts may not be known until 90 days after the inauguration when the committee will be required under law to disclose the names and amounts of all donations over $200. There are no legal limitations on how much a donor can give to an inaugural committee, but Biden’s committee voluntarily limited contributions by individuals to $500,000 and by corporations to $1 million.
Many of the major corporations that traditionally make large contributions to inauguration events are missing. Some have explained that they are not going to donate given that the event will largely be virtual because of the pandemic. Others have said they are focusing their donations on helping people affected by economic downturn caused by the coronavirus.
But the technology and telecommunications industries, a major source of cash for Biden’s campaign and the groups supporting it, are well represented on the list, with donations also coming from Qualcomm, a semiconductor and software company based in California, and Charter Communications, a cable company.
Google was included on the list because it provided online security protections without charge to the inaugural committee, said Jose Castaneda, a Google spokesman.
Other corporate donations came from the Enterprise Holdings political action committee, which is associated with the company that owns the Enterprise Rent-A-Car, National Car Rental and Alamo Rent A Car brands.
Health care companies also are prominent on the list, including Anthem Inc., the health insurance giant; MedPoint Management, which provides management services to physicians groups; and Masimo Corp., a maker of electronic patient monitoring devices.
Boeing Co., the aerospace and military contracting giant, is also listed as a donor.
The Biden team prohibited donations from the oil, gas and coal industries and registered lobbyists.
Labor unions including the American Federation of Teachers, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the United Food and Commercial Workers union made contributions.
A spokesman for the inauguration declined to comment when asked Saturday how much in total Biden’s committee had raised.
The fundraising effort is likely to pale in comparison to the record $107 million raised four years ago by Trump for his inauguration, with donations of as much as $5 million from major supporters like Sheldon Adelson, a casino executive and major Republican donor.
Biden has urged his supporters not to travel to Washington for the inauguration Jan. 20, because outside of the swearing-in ceremony, there will be few large-scale in-person events.
Details on the inauguration schedule still have not been released, and planning for the event has also been affected by the storming of the Capitol on Wednesday by Trump supporters in an outbreak of violence that stirred concerns about security around the swearing-in ceremony.