Google's Raga donations climbed from $50,000 to $325,000 this cycle

Companies gave $1 billion to state 527 groups since 2010, CPA finds

Airbnb, DoorDash, Target and Zillow are among more than a dozen US companies that signed a 2021 letter urging Congress to strengthen the Voting Rights Act and continue to contribute to state political groups working to undermine the legislation, according to research by the nonpartisan Center for Political Accountability shared exclusively with the Guardian. The CPA, which tracks corporate financial disclosures, identified 527 organizations — tax-exempt political groups overseen by the Internal Revenue Service — as the recipients of those ongoing contributions.

Four longtime donors — Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft — had either stopped contributing or reduced their donations to Republican and Democratic state-level groups during the 2022 midterm cycle, the CPA found. All four have since resumed contributions in the current election cycle.

Google’s contributions to the Republican Attorneys General Association illustrate the reversal. The company’s Raga giving fell from $100,400 in the 2018 election cycle to $50,000 in 2022, the CPA data shows. So far in the current cycle, Google has donated $325,000 to the group.

The CPA findings document a reversal in corporate political giving since the January 6, 2021 insurrection, when many executives publicly criticized Donald Trump’s role in the violence. Raga came under scrutiny after reports emerged that the group had funded robocalls encouraging attendance at the “Stop the Steal” rally at the Capitol that day. Raga leaders later said they had no knowledge of the robocalls.

State attorneys general have since gained prominence as central figures behind several consequential Supreme Court rulings. The court ruled in favor of Alabama’s Republican attorney general in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the 2022 decision that overturned Roe v. Wade and gave states authority to legislate abortion access. Earlier this summer, the court ruled in favor of Louisiana’s Republican attorney general in Louisiana v. Callais, overturning key components of the Voting Rights Act.

Raga praised the Louisiana v. Callais ruling, saying in a May statement that “no group of elected officials make a bigger impact than Republican AGs.”

The 527 organizations typically receive less public attention than Federal Election Commission–overseen political action committees, but political analysts say their influence on state-level races is substantial — and public corporations tend to be their dominant funders.

“A $100,000 contribution that ends up impacting a handful of state races can flip a state legislature, can flip an AG’s office,” said Jeanne Hanna, CPA’s vice-president of research. “It’s a trickle-up effect on state, and then federal policy, for a much smaller price tag. So while the numbers may not be as big and as flashy, the impact can be even more significant.”

Republican 527 groups are outraising their Democratic counterparts in this election cycle. Major Republican state groups have raised $240 million so far in the 2026 cycle, compared with $197 million raised by Democratic groups, according to the CPA. Since 2010, public corporations and trade associations have contributed $1 billion of the $2.5 billion raised by 527 organizations that assist governor, attorney general and legislative races. Historically, 62% of all corporate contributions to such groups go to Republican organizations, while 38% go to Democratic ones.

For the 2026 cycle so far, corporate contributions make up 39% of all Raga fundraising and 33% of Republican Governors Association fundraising, totaling $63 million to the two groups. Corporate contributions to their Democratic counterparts total $54 million, about a third of total fundraising.

A third major group, the Republican State Leadership Committee — which focuses on competitive legislative races — has raised $55 million this cycle. It is unclear how much of that comes from corporate contributions, because the organization has not yet filed specific contributor data for part of the cycle, according to the CPA.

“These groups are helping to elect officials who are undermining not only the broader environment that companies need to be successful, but also the commitments that these companies are making to their employees, to their consumer base, to their investors,” said Bruce Freed, president and co-founder of CPA. “You need to have consistency. There has to be an alignment between company policies, where their contributions go and what they enable.”

In a research primer released with the Wharton School earlier this month, corporate ethics experts said boards should exercise more active oversight over political spending and adopt policies requiring regular reporting of contributions and how receiving groups intend to use the funds.