Understanding the Midterm Elections' Connection to the Alcohol Industry

You'll Be Shocked!!

Everyone seems entirely focused on the coming mid-term election. I get it. The future of the world is at stake.

But with the election in mind, I thought I’d take a look at campaign contributions—in particular, contributions to state-level campaigns this year by elements of the wine industry. Below I’ll show the contributions breakdown by tiers, show the largest contributors by tier, the recipients receiving the most, and the states where the most alcohol industry contribution were given.

The alcohol industry has spent upwards of $30 million on state-level elections during this election cycle. (an “election cycle” is defined as the two years ending in even years—so, 2021/2022). No one will be surprised to see the breakdown below:

I should note that contributions are still coming in at this late hour. Additionally, of the contributions that have come in, no more than 87% have been uploaded to the OPEN SECRETS website where the following figures are accessible. Add about 15-20% to the amounts listed below and you’ll be very close to what the total contributions will be at the end of the cycle.