GOP Donor Les Wexner Announces Departure From Republican Party After Obama Visit
Wexner, the CEO of retail conglomerate L Brands, which owns Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works, announced at a leadership summit in Columbus on Thursday that he “won’t support this nonsense in the Republican Party” anymore,
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Lex Wexner
Wexner hosted a fundraiser for Mitt Romney in 2012. [30] Wexner donated $250,000 to Restore Our Future , Romney's Super PAC . [31] In 2015, Wexner donated $500,000 to the Right to Rise USA Super-Pac that supported the 2016 presidential campaign of Jeb Bush . [32]
Wexner said he’s been telling lawmakers that he is now an independent. “I just decided I’m no longer a Republican,” he said.
Last year, following a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, Wexner condemned the racists in a speech to his employees. He said Trump’s tepid response to the violence ― in which a white supremacist killed counterprotester Heather Heyer ― made him feel “dirty” and “ashamed,” the Dispatch reported.
Wexner has long donated to Republican causes, including cutting a check to Jeb Bush for $500,000 in 2015 during Bush’s presidential run. The billionaire philanthropist has also donated $2.8 million to With Honor, a super PAC that endorses both Republican and Democratic candidates.
In 1989, Wexner and his mother Bella were the first to make a $1 million personal donation to the United Way. Both their names were inscribed in marble, and are on display in the lobby of the United Way Headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia.[11]
Wexner is the wealthiest man in Ohio.[12] He is known for his philanthropy,
On May 11, 2004, Wexner received the Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship at a dinner in Columbus, Ohio. The award was presented by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. Wexner was honored because of his commitment to the public good.[citation needed]
On February 16, 2011, Wexner pledged a donation of $100 million to Ohio State, which will be allocated to the University's academic Medical Center and James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute, with additional gifts to the Wexner Center for the Arts and other areas. This latest gift is the largest in the University's history.[15]
Through the L Brands Foundation, Wexner and L Brands contributed $163.4 million to the Columbus Foundation.[16]
Charlottesville was a litmus for many people. There were many like Wexner, who were disgusted by those who justified her murder.
Here on NT, we had quite a few members who expressed the idea that because Heather Heyer protested against neo-Nazis and White Supremacists, she was responsible for her own death.
You might want to look at this ...
LOL-- I did it again! (Seeded something after it already been seeded).
Anyway, thanks for pointing that out . . .