Can Corporations Support Democracy?: The Vanishing Cost of Election Denial

• In Event: Congressional Fundraising: Tactics and Consequences

Abstract

Can large corporations play a sustained role in the support of democracy? Through an examination of Fortune 500 campaign contributions to Republicans in the House of Representatives in the wake of the 2021 Capitol Insurrection, I interrogate the capacity of corporate actors to hold undemocratic politicians accountable. Using a multi-period Difference-in-Difference design across the 2018-2024 cycles, I find evidence of a short-run penalty within the 2022 primary and general election cycles, as election deniers received significant reductions in corporate money when compared to election certifiers. This penalty has not persisted into the 2024 cycle. I additionally find no significant changes in contributory behavior between those corporations that pledged to halt their contributions, and those that did not do so. My findings suggest that the corporate commitment to democracy, rooted in short-term public relations and political social responsibility concerns, does not have the capacity to establish a lasting democratic accountability among members of Congress.

Author

• Alexander Cohen, University of California, Davis