Jeff Bezos and his wife, MacKenzie Bezos, are donating $10 million to With Honor, a cross-partisan, veteran-focused super PAC.
The donation, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, is the Amazon CEO’s biggest political contribution to date. Others in Bezos’ inner circle have also donated to With Honor: Filings with the Federal Election Commission show that his parents donated $2 million to the fund in two installments, last November and in June, and that Amazon consumer CEO Jeff Wilke donated $50,000 in July.
Founded last year, With Honor is a political organization that backs veterans of both parties who are running for seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. Rather than focusing on partisan affiliation, the group backs candidates who commit to a three-part pledge: integrity, civility, and courage.
The committee divides its spending roughly equally between Republican and Democratic candidates.
With Honor announced the $10 million Bezos contribution today as part of its drive to amass a $30 million fund for military veteran candidates. In addition to that $10 million, the organization said it has attracted another $10 million “in commitments large and small” for the fund.
Retired Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz and his wife, Sheri Schultz, were listed among other donors, along with members of the Walton family (of Walmart fame), L Brands CEO Les Wexner, Humana founder David Jones and others. FEC filings show that Howard Schultz contributed $50,000 in March.
With Honor has endorsed more than 30 candidates so far and aims to use November’s midterm elections build a cross-partisan coalition of at least 20 veterans in the House.
Amazon declined to comment on the Bezos donation.
Bezos has been raising his political profile in recent years. In 2012, he donated $2.5 million to a campaign to protect gay marriage in Washington state. The following year, Bezos bought The Washington Post for $250 million.
Other tech industry leaders are also financing races ahead of this year’s midterm elections. Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen made a $100,000 donation to the Republicans’ Protect the House political action committee, his largest-ever to congressional candidates. Tesla CEO Elon Musk contributed $38,900 to that same group.
The contribution to With Honor places Bezos among the ranks of tech mega-donors such as PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel and hedge fund manager Tom Steyer.
GeekWire’s Alan Boyle contributed to this report.
