Corporations can’t afford to stop donations to candidates, even those who still support Trump.

After the January 6, 2021 US Capitol insurrection, many companies stopped their donations to candidates who supported President Trump and other enablers of the attack. Melissa M. Smith writes that the need for effective lobbying by these companies means that these donations were only paused. As we head into a midterm election year, and with campaign finance reform still mostly stalled, large companies now face the dilemma of whether to back Trump and his supporters in their own interest, or potentially lose their influence in Washington DC.