August 18, 2020/Media, Press

Tillis Raked in Campaign Cash from Embattled USPS Chief Yet “Still Silent” on DeJoy’s Attacks on Postal Service

“The Tillis campaign did not respond to questions about the donations or the last time Tillis and DeJoy spoke.”

Senator Tillis has taken nearly $50,000 from USPS Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and his wife, and benefited from DeJoy’s contributions to PACs that “spent heavily for Tillis” and his use of “a nearly untraceable North Carolina shell company” to support Tillis. Yet amid those many connections, Senator Tillis is “still silent” on DeJoy’s attacks on the USPS.

Tillis and DeJoy have a close relationship. Tillis skipped a Veterans’ Affairs hearing last year to attend a political fundraiser at DeJoy’s Greensboro residence. DeJoy bankrolled American Crossroads and John Bolton’s super PAC in 2014, both of which helped elect Senator Tillis. It’s no wonder Tillis is now refusing to stand up to his donor’s attacks on the Postal Service and refusing to answer questions “about the donations or the last time Tillis and DeJoy spoke.”

“Louis DeJoy’s attempts to undermine the USPS are hurting rural North Carolinians and veterans and threaten North Carolinians’ right to make their voice heard this fall, yet Senator Tillis can’t muster a peep to stand against his political donor,” NCDP spokesperson Robert Howard said. “Senator Tillis is staying shamefully silent because DeJoy has helped fill Tillis’ campaign coffers and bankrolled outside groups who helped get him elected. Once again, Senator Tillis shows his allegiance is with the wealthy special interests who fund his campaign, not North Carolinians.”

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Salon: DeJoy donated big to GOP senators up for re-election; they’re still silent on USPS
By Roger Sollenberger
August 18, 2020

Key Points:

  • Recently appointed Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a top donor to Donald Trump and until earlier this year the head fundraiser for the Republican National Convention, has given tens of thousands of dollars to Republican Senators up for re-election this November, according to Federal Election Commission records reviewed by Salon.
  • DeJoy’s political fundraising and donor records have come under scrutiny since his appointment to the head of the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors. He caught fierce backlash last week from Democrats and Postal Service employees after reports broke that USPS warned 46 states that their mail ballots might not be delivered on time for the November election, potentially disenfranchising millions of voters.
  • The news accompanied other reports that USPS mail sorting machines and drop boxes have been removed, as well as another notice from DeJoy that the agency is engaging in a sweeping overhaul that might delay delivery times.
  • Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina and his affiliated committees have taken a combined $48,500 from fellow state residents DeJoy and his wife, Aldona Wos, former head of the North Carolina Health and Human Services Department. The couple have contributed to Tillis’ election efforts since his 2014 campaign.
  • DeJoy also gave to the John Bolton Super PAC, which has spent heavily for Tillis and, like Tillis, has ties to the shadowy data firm Cambridge Analytica, the subject of subpoenas during special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into 2016 election interference.
  • Tillis, one of the chief early architects behind North Carolina’s controversial voter ID law — dubbed the “monster” law by critics — played a central role in what a federal judge called the state’s “sordid history” of voter suppression when she struck down a North Carolina voter ID law late last year.
  • The Tillis campaign did not respond to questions about the donations or the last time Tillis and DeJoy spoke.
  • The Greensboro-based businessman once used a nearly untraceable North Carolina shell company, LMD Properties LLC, to give $50,000 to Karl Rove’s American Crossroads super PAC in 2014. That year, DeJoy merged New Breed, Inc., his former contracting logistics company, with freight delivery company XPO Logistics, serving on the board of directors until May 2018, according to his bio on the DeJoy-Wos Family Foundation website.
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