New York, San Francisco, Düsseldorf, Munich. Richard Hudson and Doris Matsui don't always agree on US telecommunications policy. The Republican Hudson heads the relevant subcommittee in the US Congress, the Democrat Matsui is the highest-ranking opposition representative there. However, both have something in common: they receive money from the same house.
The fundraising committee (Pac) of Deutsche Telekom's US subsidiary, T-Mobile, has so far transferred $7,000 to Hudson and $9,500 to Matsui in the run-up to the midterm elections on November 3rd. This is not a contradiction for T-Mobile. Anyone who is dependent on political decisions in Washington maintains contacts with both parties - and especially with the representatives who oversee their own industry. This pattern is also evident at other German companies in the USA.
Before the midterm elections, their US employees have so far transferred almost two million dollars to more than 300 candidates for the US Congress through company committees. This emerges from an evaluation of data from the US electoral authority FEC by the transparency organization Open Secrets for the Handelsblatt.
This means that US employees of German companies are likely to donate a similar amount before the upcoming elections as they did in the election campaign two years ago. At that time, according to Open Secrets, their employee fundraising committees transferred around $2.5 million to congressional candidates up to a few days before the election.
For the evaluation, the transparency organization evaluated all donations to congressional candidates' campaign committees between January 2025 and June 2026 - the end of the most recently fully reported period. The complete information for the third quarter is not yet available. The actual amounts are now likely to be higher.
The subsidiaries of German companies are not allowed to transfer money directly from the company treasury. That's why US employees and shareholders collect voluntary contributions in company fundraising committees, so-called Political Action Committees (Pac). The parent companies therefore emphasize that they have no influence on employees’ decisions.
Nevertheless, a pattern emerges in the money flows. The largest amounts of money go to incumbents who decide on what particularly affects German companies at the moment: tariffs and regulation.
T-Mobile leads the list of donors: Employees of Deutsche Telekom's US subsidiary have so far donated $557,000 to candidates via the company's Pac, more than twice as much as that of the second largest donor, BASF.
The largest block behind the donations is the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry: the employee pacs from Fresenius Medical Care, Boehringer, Bayer and Merck together account for a good third of the money. This is followed by committees from chemical companies such as BASF and Covestro as well as from industrial and financial houses from Siemens to SAP to Allianz.
“The donations from corporate pacs are very much in favor of the incumbents and especially the committee chairs,” says Open Secrets analyst Andrew Mayersohn, summarizing the numbers. That also explains the moderate trend in favor of the Republicans. Around 59 percent of donations go to Republican candidates and around 41 percent to Democratic candidates.
“The Republicans control both chambers of Congress as well as the presidency,” says Mayersohn. This donation pattern is not only evident in the employee pacs of the subsidiaries of German companies, but across all donors.
Most of the money – around $55,000 – has so far gone to Brett Guthrie, the Republican chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee. Its responsibility ranges from telecommunications to the energy and chemical industries.
The employee pacs of the German subsidiaries are also particularly committed where decisions are being made about trade barriers. Republican Jason Smith, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, which is responsible for taxes and tariffs, follows with just under $40,000. The biggest recipients also include Democrats Suzan DelBene and Brad Schneider, both members of the Commerce Subcommittee.
Only certain employees are allowed to contribute to the employee pacs, in particular US citizens or people with permanent residency rights. Although the company sets up the committee and is responsible for its administration, the money itself comes from the employees' pockets. Accordingly, when asked, the companies emphasize that they do not make any direct political donations in the USA and have no influence on the distribution through the employee pacs.
At BASF, a Pac steering committee made up of US employees decides on the distribution. The company points out that the Pac has set specific rules: The recipients "represent areas in which BASF employees work. They serve on relevant committees or they share our vision of a sustainable future in another way," says BASF.
Merck makes a similar statement. The employee pac of the US subsidiary EMD Serono promotes “candidates who support medical innovations, patient access and clinical progress,” says the company. “This is in line with our corporate values.”
A spokesman for Siemens emphasizes that the Pac “acts in a non-partisan manner and supports building and maintaining relationships with elected officials from both parties who represent the communities in which we live and work.”
The US umbrella organization for corporate PACs, Nabpac, considers such committees to be the most transparent and strictly regulated part of the American campaign finance system. The employee committees, emphasizes association boss Micaela Isler, “are funded by voluntary contributions from employees, not from unlimited company money.”
Instead, the big money in the US election campaign flows through so-called Super Pacs, which collect unlimited donations and spend them on behalf of candidates regardless of their campaigns. American corporations are allowed to finance this from the company treasury. Because of their foreign connection, this route is hardly possible for US subsidiaries of German companies. They usually only have the small, strictly capped channel: donations from their US employees to individual candidates, a maximum of $5,000 per election. Internal party primaries are considered independent elections.
T-Mobile, whose employee PAC donated the most, declined to comment when asked. There is currently a lot at stake in the USA for the parent company Deutsche Telekom: Telekom is by far the largest shareholder in T-Mobile and is reportedly considering taking over the US subsidiary completely. Both could then merge into a new holding company to form a transatlantic group.
Such a merger would require the approval of regulators, especially the telecommunications regulator FCC. The Energy and Economic Affairs Committee in Congress oversees the FCC. The T-Mobile employee pac is one of the donors of its chairman Brett Guthrie - with $9,000 so far.
According to Open Secrets analyst Mayersohn, it is also noticeable that the car companies have held back considerably in this election campaign. The Mercedes-Benz committee only contributed a few transactions and small sums; there are no donations from BMW in the evaluation. A similar picture can even be seen among domestic manufacturers: Ford's fundraising committee is not one of the 500 largest donors in this election cycle.
