Big Tobacco in 2017: Full Steam Ahead - OpenSecrets.org - Medium
Nine of the industry’s top 10 congressional recipients in the 2016 cycle were Republicans — and 83 percent of its contributions to candidates and party committees went to the GOP. In fact, the majority of tobacco contributions have consistently gone to Republicans since 1992. Favored Democrats have tended to be those from tobacco country, like Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner — they received about $31,000 and $26,900 in the 2016 cycle, respectively — who both represent Virginia, a premier tobacco-producing state.
Big Tobacco was only modestly on-board with the Trump campaign. Altria Group and Reynolds American, the nation’s largest and second-largest producers of tobacco products, together gave the campaign less than $4,000. They must have had a change of heart after Election Day, though. For Trump’s January inauguration, Reynolds donated a cool $1 million through a subsidiary, while Altria coughed up $500,000.
More: Big tobacco in 2017: Full steam ahead – OpenSecrets.org – Medium