Today, the American Independent reported that North Carolina Republican U.S. Senate nominee Ted Budd — days after voting against a 2019 bill that would have lowered the price of prescription drugs — “received thousands of dollars from pharmaceutical industry political action committees.”
On the day the House passed the bill, with almost no Republican support, Budd “received a $2,500 contribution from the political action committee of pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline,” and a “$1,000 check” from Pfizer.
Time and time again, Budd has prioritized the billionaire backers and special interests funding his campaign over the needs of the North Carolinians.
American Independent: GOP Senate nominee Ted Budd voted against bill to lower drug prices as he took Pharma cash
By Josh Israel | July 12, 2022
Key Points:
- “Rep. Ted Budd, who recently won the Republican nomination to run in November for the North Carolina Senate seat being vacated by retiring incumbent Republican Richard Burr, voted in 2019 against H.R. 3, the Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act, which would have lowered the cost of prescription drugs. Within days of that vote, he had received thousands of dollars from pharmaceutical industry political action committees.”
- “The House passed H.R. 3 on Dec. 12, 2019, by a vote of 230-192. Like nearly all congressional Republicans — and the pharmaceutical industry that helps bankroll them — Budd opposed it. The same day, Budd received a $2,500 contribution from the political action committee of pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, which as of May 16 of this year now goes by the name GSK. Five days later, Pfizer’s PAC gave him a $1,000 check. By the end of 2020, he had received a total of $3,500 from each company’s PAC.”
- “Budd, whose Senate campaign site calls him a ‘liberal agenda crusher’ and promises he ‘won’t compromise our conservative values,’ has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump, whose campaign for president in 2016 included a promise to let Medicare negotiate lower prices and ‘save $300 billion’ a year for the program. ‘We don’t do it,’ he told voters at a January 2016 campaign rally. ‘Why? Because of the drug companies.’ Trump abandoned that pledge, as he did most of his campaign promises, after winning the White House, and threatened to veto H.R. 3 in 2019 if it passed.”
- “Budd’s personal financial disclosure for 2021 indicated that he and his wife hold hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of mutual funds, including holdings in an index fund that contains a large amount of pharmaceutical company stock.”
Read the full American Independent report here.
Published: Jul 12, 2022 | Last Modified: Aug 29, 2022