European business corporations, including the Spanish Iberdrola through its subsidiary, diverted approximately 14.3 million dollars toward the campaigns of the two main parties in the United States ahead of the elections on November 5, according to a report by Euronews. Specifically, around 56% of these funds were allocated to the Republicans, while the remaining 44% went to the Democrats.
According to the Lyon-based channel, most of this spending was focused on Congressional candidates rather than presidential ones. The data was obtained from Open Secrets, an organization that monitors campaign financing in the U.S. Although U.S. laws prohibit foreign companies from directly contributing to electoral campaigns, this restriction can be circumvented by using U.S. subsidiaries to establish political action committees.
Among the European corporations that have contributed the most in this electoral cycle is Avangrid Inc, a subsidiary of Iberdrola, which donated 255,000 dollars. Surprisingly, subsidiaries of Spanish and Portuguese companies have invested more in Democratic candidates than Republicans during 2023-2024, according to the Euronews report. The list of major contributors is led by UBS Americas (UBS AG) with 1.4 million dollars and T-Mobile USA with 888,500 dollars.
In total, 143 European companies based in 13 countries, including 10 EU member states, have invested money in the U.S. elections through PACs. Sarah Bryner from Open Secrets noted that while PACs are an important lobbying tool, they are not powerful enough to directly influence electoral outcomes. According to Bryner, 'It is not necessarily that there are foreign interests creating PACs to influence U.S. politics.'
