The vast majority of political contributions from Apple employees are directed to liberal candidates or Democratic Party-aligned organizations, according to a report released Thursday amid growing Republican concern over anti-conservative bias.
From 2014 through 2018, some 91 percent of overall donations from the Cupertino, Calif.-based company’s employees went to Democrats, research firm GovPredict found. Nearly 96 percent went to local Democratic committees, while 100 percent of the contributions went to liberal organizations.
Former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton received more than $1.8 million in contributions from employees of the consumer technology giant, by far the most of any politician on either side of the aisle. Former-President Barack Obama received $788,000, while $111,000 went to House Speaker Paul Ryan, the largest haul for any Republican official.
The Democratic National Committee received just over $681,000, while the Republican National Committee got $31,778.
President Donald Trump received just $6,786 from Apple employees, less than the $10,525 that went to Jill Stein, the Green Party’s presidential nominee in 2016. Only Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and former-Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., received less than Trump.
In compiling the report, GovPredict looked at 119 different variants of employer names, including “Apple. IINC” and “Apple Computer Co.” While the Federal Election Commission provided a party affiliation for some committees that received donations, others were labeled by GovPredict.
While the report doesn’t claim that Apple engaged in any bias against Republicans or Democrats based upon the donations, the technology giant’s relationship with the GOP president is complicated.
Trump, among other things, previously called for a boycott of the company’s products after it refused to unlock the iPhone of the terrorist who killed 14 people in a December 2015 shooting in San Bernardino, Calif.
Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive officer, has denounced some of the administration’s signature policies, like the decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. The company also recently pushed back against Trump’s proposed tariffs on Chinese products, arguing that it would raise costs on popular items like the Apple Watch.
Several of the company’s products were ultimately excluded from the $200 billion in Chinese goods affected by the latest tariffs.
Cook also has stressed the importance of corporate advocacy. Speaking at an event earlier this year, he said the “vast majority of people” don’t want top executives to remain quiet on social and political issues.
“For the CEO of Apple, whether it’s me or someone else, you’re never going to fulfill your mission of changing the world in today’s environment by doing that,” he said. “You’re not going to do all that you can do by staying quiet.”
The company’s news division — which earlier this year launched a section dedicated to the 2018 midterm elections — employs humans to both curate and write articles. Cook previously stressed that news would not be selected based upon a political bias and vowed to include views from all ideologies.
For all that, Apple — primarily a manufacturing business — has managed to avoid many of the complaints leveled against digital service providers.
Social media firm Facebook, for example, has been berated for data breaches and criticized, like Twitter and Google, for perceived bias against conservative voices and websites. The three companies have all denied such claims, and legal experts have noted that the firms have a business interest in providing equal treatment to all political viewpoints.
