Dem Rep. Luria takes in $30G from corporate PACs after promising not to

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After vowing to never accept funds from corporate Political Action Committees (PACs) during her 2018 campaign, Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., reversed her stance and accepted over $30,000 to cover 2020 campaign debts.

The Virginia Democrat found herself in hot water by the end of her congressional race last year, owing more than she had reserved to cover her campaign’s finances.

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Luria raised nearly $6.7 million for her 2020 campaign, but by the end of her race, she owed more than $107,000 with only $103,000 in the bank – prompting her to turn towards contributions from PACs affiliated with Altria, Boeing, General Dynamics, Google, Raytheon, and Rolls Royce North America, first reported Roll Call.

Fox News could not immediately reach Luria to comment on her change of heart, but FEC records show she accepted roughly $34,000, which more than covered her arrears.

Corporate PAC campaign contributions are personal donations made from executives or employees of a company and do not come from the corporation’s capital.

But some politicians, in particular Democrats, have been making it a cornerstone of their campaigns not to accept any donations from corporate PACs. This allows politicians to differentiate themselves from fellow candidates by telling voters that their political agenda is not beholden to special interests.

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Corporations and their executives have long utilized the ability to throw money at political campaigns as a method for bridging ties with politicians they believe will legislate policies affecting their industry – though they are legally limited to $5,000 donation limits, unlike Super PACs.

End Citizens United, a left-leaning group that is working to overturn the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Committee -- which deregulated independent expenditures for corporations, previously endorsed Luria, but have since condemned her reversal.

"If you want to know why it’s so problematic [that Rep. Elaine Luria] has broken her #NoCorporatePAC pledge to voters in [Virginia] just tune in and listen to… 2018 Elaine Luria," the group wrote in a December tweet, before posting a 2018 video of her announcing that "a key tenet" of her campaign was that she was "not accepting any corporate PAC contributions."

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"This aged well," the group concluded.

Fox News could not reach Luria’s campaign for comment.