Hallmark Wants PAC Money Back from Sens. Josh Hawley, Roger Marshall

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(Image credit: Crown Media)

Hallmark said its political action committee, HALLPAC, supports government officials "from a wide variety of viewpoints—including Democrats, Republicans and Independents." But there are a couple whose viewpoints have proven too wide for Hallmark to get its arms around.

Also Read: Comcast Suspends Contributions

That comes in the wake of the storming of the Capitol Jan. 6 by Trump supporters while Congress was counting the electoral votes for President-elect Joe Biden and some Republicans, led by Sens Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), from Hallmark's home state, were objecting to the count and calling for a commission to study the President's claims, rejected by dozens of courts and proffered on no evidence beyond conspiracy theories, of widespread election fraud.

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"Hallmark believes the peaceful transition of power is part of the bedrock of our democratic system, and we abhor violence of any kind," the company said, known best for family friendly movies and mysteries and iconically heartwarming card commercials, said in a statement. "The recent actions of Senators Josh Hawley and Roger Marshall [R-Kan.] do not reflect our company’s values. As a result, HALLPAC requested Sens. Hawley and Marshall [who also challenged the Biden victory] to return all HALLPAC campaign contributions."

Also Read: AT&T Suspends Funding for GOP Election Vote Challengers

That Hallmark request is a variation on a theme, the theme being a groundswell of companies--banks, AT&T, Comcast--suspending their PAC contributions to all the republicans--there were close to 150 in the House and Senate--who supported electoral vote count objections.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.