Land O’Lakes has pulled its support for Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, following calls for a boycott of the dairy company prompted by its political action committee donating $2,500 to King’s campaign in June.
“The Land O’Lakes, Inc. PAC has traditionally contributed to lawmakers of both parties that represent the communities where our members and employees live and work and are also on committees that oversee policies that directly impact our farmer owners,” the company said in a statement Tuesday. “We take our civic responsibility seriously, want our contributions to be a positive force for good and also seek to ensure that recipients of our contributions uphold our company’s values. On that basis, we have determined that our PAC will no longer support Rep. Steve King moving forward.”
King, who refused to delete a retweet from Nazi sympathizer Mark Collett in June and more recently endorsed a white nationalist Toronto mayoral candidate who appeared on a neo-Nazi podcast, has faced greater backlash in recent days following the mass shooting a Pittsburgh synagogue that took the lives of 11 people. The suspect involved in the shooting had shared anti-Semitic content on social media.
Calls for boycotting Land O’Lakes started on Monday, after the likes of former presidential candidate Howard Dean tweeted about the donation to King.
Land O’Lakes’ PAC donated more to Republicans than Democrats in both 2016 and in 2018. Republicans received twice as many donations as Democrats during 2016, and 64 percent of the PAC’s donations have been allocated to Republicans during this election cycle for the 2018 midterms, according to the Center for Responsive Politics's OpenSecrets.org.
King is running against Democrat J.D. Scholten in the 2018 midterm election on Nov. 6.
[Related: NRCC chair bashes Steve King for 'completely inappropriate' comments tied to white supremacy]