According to finance records obtained by the Associated Press, several companies donated money to the reelection campaign of a Tennessee state lawmaker Rep. Susan Lynn, who chairs the Tennessee House finance committee. She has also used social media to promote QAnon, an unfounded conspiracy theory that says that Donald Trump is waging war against elite Satan-worshipping pedophiles within government, business, and media. Believers of the theory speculate that the war will come to a head with prominent people being arrested and executed. The list of politicians that Trump is supposedly at war with includes former opponent Hillary Clinton.
While dozens of QAnon-believers have run for federal or state offices during this election cycle and raised millions from donors, the majority of them have run poorly financed campaigns with little to no corporate or party backing. Lynn has been one of the few who is able to run a well thought out and successful campaign. Though she has repeatedly posted a well-known QAnon slogan on both her Facebook and Twitter pages, the Trump devotee said she does not support the conspiracy theory in an interview on Friday with the Associated Press.
Now that the donations are being revealed, companies are reneging on the support.
Amazon revealed in a statement that it had “made a donation to Rep. Lynn nearly a year ago,” but “we do not plan on making another one.” Kentucky-based distillery company Brown-Forman, which has a facility in Tennessee, said in a statement that the company was unaware of Lynn’s QAnon posts and wouldn’t have donated to her campaign through its Jack Daniel’s PAC if they had known about it.
“Now that our awareness is raised, we will reevaluate our criteria for giving to help identify affiliations like this in the future,” Elizabeth Conway said in the statement.
Walmart has not commented on the donation.
