Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., lauded Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, for saying he no longer would accept donations from corporate political action committees.
Gaetz made a similar pledge in February last year, Newsweek reported.
“I’m fed up,” Cruz tweeted Thursday night. “If woke corporations declare themselves the enemies of free enterprise, the enemies of liberty, and if they fight the American people on behalf of the Radical Left, then I don’t want their money,
“Enough is enough,” he added, sharing a video of an interview he gave to Fox Business about his decision, which he announced in a Wall Street Journal op-ed.
Gaetz praised his fellow lawmaker.
“Welcome to the club, @TedCruz,” Gaetz tweeted later Thursday.
“Last year, I became the first Republican in Congress to swear off all federal PAC money. The American people should be our one and only special interest.
“Thank you Senator Cruz for joining the pledge!”
Cruz, Gaetz, and Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., are the most prominent Republicans to say they won’t accept PAC money. During the 2020 election cycle, a record 155 Democrat candidates did the same.
Cruz called on Republicans “at all levels” to join him in rejecting corporate PAC money in the op-ed published Wednesday. He suggested the GOP could refuse to listen to corporations’ concerns and condemned what he called “woke CEOs” in the wake of corporations’ response to Georgia’s controversial new election law.
Coca-Cola and Major League Baseball were among the companies that issued statements criticizing the new law, which opponents say will limit access to voting and disproportionately affect minorities.
“For too long, Republicans have allowed the left and their big-business allies to attack our values with no response,” Cruz said. “We’ve allowed them to ship jobs overseas, attack gun rights and destroy our energy companies. We’ve let them smear Republicans without paying any price.
“To them I say: when the time comes that you need help with a tax break or a regulatory change, I hope the Democrats take your calls, because we may not. Starting today, we won’t take your money either.”
At last year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, Gaetz said he no longer would accept donations from PACs.
He said he was “a different kind of Republican” and “the only Republican returning to Congress to make this no-PAC pledge.”
“Remember our independence from special interests is our loyalty to America and the America First movement that President Trump began when he came down that escalator, armed with our well-wishes and prayers,” Gaetz said.
Hawley also announced they would no longer accept donations from any corporation’s PAC.
He retweeted Cruz’s Journal piece with the message: “Yes! Corporate America has put Americans last. They ship our jobs to China, mock middle America’s way of life, try to control our speech and run our lives. It’s time we stood up to them. I won’t take corporate PAC donations & I’ll fight to break up their monopoly power.”
Source: Newmax
