No, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren aren't top recipients of pharmaceutical industry donations
Behind misleading claim by RFK Jr. is a quirk in the OpenSecrets site
Sanders, in fact, received no contributions at all from political action committees affiliated with drug companies, or from top pharmaceutical executives. But because of a quirk in the site's methodology, donations from individual, low-ranking employees are counted the same as official contributions from corporate PACs.
Typically, in Washington, corporations' support for political candidates is measured by donations from its PAC, and to an extent, from its top executives.
OpenSecrets, by contrast, measures corporate giving by combining PAC spending with any contribution of $200 or more from any company employee. In other words: if an entry-level human resources officer at a pharmaceutical company wrote Sanders or Warren even a modest check, the website would count that sum toward the company's total giving, no differently than a check written by the company's PAC.
This methodology appears to have misled users. Both Sanders and Warren ran for president in 2020, and raised millions of dollars from supporters across the country. Many of them were rank-and-file employees at drug companies, whose voting preferences may not always align with their companies' interests.
"Some of the people making these claims know full well that they're being misleading," said Daniel Weiner, the director of elections and government at the Brennan Center for Justice. "There is a distinction between a random donation from someone who happens to work in a particular industry, versus a donation from a corporate PAC."
Historically, Democrats have favored aggressive measures to reduce drug prices, while many Republicans have argued that limiting drug companies' profits could stifle future innovation of lifesaving medicines.
When measuring PAC spending specifically, Sanders and Warren are nowhere near the top. According to OpenSecrets, neither is among Capitol Hill's top 25 recipients of donations from pharmaceutical manufacturing PACs. In 2020, the top pharmaceutical PAC recipient in Congress was Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), who accepted $240,600 in official committee gifts; in 2024, it was Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.), who accepted $441,800.
