Foulkes Says She’ll Stand Up to Trump. As CVS President, the Company Was a Major Donor.

Foulkes Says She’ll Stand Up to Trump. As CVS President, the Company Was a Major Donor.

In a new ad released by Democratic gubernatorial candidate Helena Foulkes, she looks into the camera and says, “ I've got lots of experience dealing with a guy like Donald Trump.”

And she does, according to federal campaign records, a report in the Wall Street Journal, data from the Center for Responsive Politics, and a GoLocal story, as President of CVS, the company in 2017 was a leading donor to Trump.

 

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The Wall Street Journal reported:

The largest donors to Mr. Trump’s campaign include political committees for CVS Health Corp. and LendingTree Inc., a loan servicing company, FEC reports show.

 

Foulkes served as President of CVS from January of 2014 to February of 2018.

 

CVS Financial Backing of the GOP

At that time in 2017, CVS PAC had donated $35,000 to Trump Victory PAC that cycle. The PAC is funded in part by the top executives at CVS.

Donors to CVS’s PAC include top executives, CEO Larry Merlo, CFO David Denton, Executive Vice President Helena Foulkes, Dr. Troyen Brennan, Executive VP and Chief Medical Officer, and Chief Legal Counsel Thomas Moriarty, as well as many other top CVS officials.

The CVS PAC had already funneled over $526,000 primarily to Republicans in Congress and the Trump campaign.  

The last report was filed on December 31, 2017, according to data compiled by Center for Responsive Politics.

During Foulkes’ leadership for that campaign cycle, Republicans in Congress have received 54 percent of CVS PAC’s donations. Senate Republicans had received $38,000 and Democrats $29,000, and similarly, House Republicans had received $72,000 and House Democrats $59,000.

The CVS PAC’s largest donations (through Dec. 31, 2017)

The biggest recipients from CVS’s PAC are:

Trump Victory $35,000

National Republican Senatorial Committee: $15,000

National Republican Congressional Committee $15,000

Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee $15,000

[Republican] Ryan for Congress (House Speaker) $10,000

[Republican] Friends of John Barrasso $10,000

[Republican] Jeff Flake for U.S. Senate $10,000

 

Trump and CVS Had Lots of Business Together

As GoLocal reported at the time: 

 

CVS has lots of reasons to support the GOP. Presently, its $69 billion purchase of insurance company Aetna is being reviewed both by the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice. The $66 billion deal is one of the largest business deals in the world in the past ten years. Combined, the two companies’ sales will make it second only to Walmart in the United States.

 

“Trump administration regulators are not ready to sign off on CVS Health's $69 billion deal to acquire Aetna. The Department of Justice asked the firms to provide more information on Thursday, just as the 30-day waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act expired,” reported CNBC.

 

"CVS Health participates in the political process to help shape public policy and address legislation that has a direct impact on the company. The engagement ensures that the interests of our business, customers, shareholders and employees are fairly represented at all levels of government. As part of this process, our company makes donations to both major political parties," Mike DeAngelis, CVS Health's Senior Director of Corporate Communications, wrote in an email to GoLocal in 2018.

 

Foulkes GOP Donations

CVS’s support of the Trump campaign was not the only GOP tie for Foulkes.

As previously reported, Foulkes donated to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell ($500) as well as to a number of other Republican candidates and office holders, RI Republican candidate for Secretary of State Catherine Taylor (3 donations totaling $1,250), and GOP RI Governor Don Carcieri ( two donations totaling $500).

Foulkes also donated more than $23,000 to the CVS PAC and to other industry political committees. The majority of those dollars went to Republican campaigns.