Federal Campaign Contributions and the Alcohol industry in 2024

The alcohol industry sure did love Nikki Haley!

It’s the middle of August in a presidential election year. What this means is the money is really going to start pouring into candidates both at the state and federal level. I’m wondering: who are the top alcohol industry donors to campaigns and PACS, which sector of the alcohol industry gives the most, and where do they land ideologically? Plus, which Republican candidate for the presidency did the alcohol industry love the most?

TOP 20 ALCOHOL COMPANIES WHOSE EMPLOYEES AND OWNERS GAVE THE MOST TO FEDERAL CANDIDATES DURING THE 2023-2024 ELECTION CYCLE

It’s important to note that in the above chart, it’s not the company that gave these amounts of campaign contributions. Rather, it is the owners and employees of these companies whose donations are tabulated and associated with the company they work for or own. That is to say, when a manager at, say, Brown-Forman gives a $100 donation to Nikki Haley in the primaries, they list their employer as “Brown-Forman” and that donation is assigned in this chart to Brown-Forman contributions.

That said, there are some companies where tremendous amounts are given by a small number of individuals. Moreover, when an association like the National Beer Wholesalers of America is listed, most of the contributions come from their PAC, which raises money from their members.