Microsoft has announced that it will suspend all donations for the upcoming 2022 election cycle for any members of Congress, state officials, and organizations that voted to object to the certification of electors in the 2020 election or supported attempting to overturn the election.
The company temporarily suspended all political contributions after the January 6th attack on the Capitol, with Microsoft taking the time to decide “whether to suspend further donations to individuals who voted against certification of the Electoral College.” Today’s announcement makes that decision a permanent one for the coming election cycle, but only for politicians who attempted to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election. (Other politicians will still be eligible for Microsoft’s donations.)
Microsoft also announced a new company program called the Democracy Forward Initiative. It’s designed as an outlet for employees to donate to organizations that look to enact campaign finance reform and protect voting rights instead of supporting politicians.
Lastly, the company also announced a change in the name of its PAC, which was previously known as the Microsoft Political Action Committee (MSPAC). Going forward, the group will be called the Microsoft Corporation Stakeholders Voluntary PAC (MSVPAC) in order to better reflect that the group is “funded exclusively by voluntary donations of Microsoft stakeholders.”
Microsoft isn’t the only major tech company to make the decision to stop funding the members of Congress who sought to overturn the 2020 election. Google made a similar announcement at the end of January: its NetPAC “will not be making any contributions this cycle to any member of Congress who voted against certification of the election results.”
Other tech companies are also pressing pause: as CNN’s comprehensive list shows, AT&T, Amazon, Verizon, Comcast, Dell, and Intel have all indefinitely suspended any donations to electoral objectors.
