‘I won’t accept a dime of corporate PAC money,’ Tran said before accepting $46,500 from corporate PACs
As a fresh-faced political candidate, Rep. Derek Tran (D., Calif.) promised voters he wouldn’t accept donations from corporate PACs. But once elected, he broke his word and accepted tens of thousands of dollars from corporate benefactors, campaign finance records show.
Tran, a self-professed workers’ rights advocate, declared twice in October 2023 that he “won’t accept a dime of corporate PAC money.” It was his opening pitch to voters shortly after he announced his campaign for Congress, and to his credit, it’s a pledge he stayed true to until right after he won his election by just 0.2 points. After that, the pledge went out the window. Since March, the California Democrat has accepted at least $46,500 from 30 separate corporate PACs, Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show, including contributions from some major conglomerates that are frequently targeted by the left for their alleged labor abuses.
Tran got his first taste of corporate campaign money in March when he accepted funds from the PAC representing Boeing. Since then, the freshman Democrat hasn’t looked back, with his campaign raking in cash from corporate PACs run by Amazon, Walmart, Google, Honeywell International, Pacific Life Insurance, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, Home Depot, Nike, General Motors, Lockheed Martin, and Coinbase, among several other major multinational firms and special interest groups, the records show.
The California Democrat’s seemingly unrelenting thirst for corporate cash has shown no signs of abating. Tran expanded his roster of corporate benefactors in the most recent campaign reporting period covering the third quarter of 2025, with his campaign accepting funds from companies including Microsoft, CVS Health, Hims & Hers, and Cigna.
Tran’s betrayal of his “no corporate PAC” pledge was first reported by the California Globe.
As for the left-wing groups that endorsed Tran’s 2024 campaign because he promised to reject corporate cash, it appears words speak louder than actions. That includes the anti-corporate PAC group End Citizens United, which endorsed Tran in May 2024 specifically because he “doesn’t take a dime of corporate PAC money.”
The Washington Free Beacon informed End Citizens United in an email that Tran had betrayed his “no corporate PAC” pledge. The email linked to FEC records showing Tran had accepted dozens of corporate campaign contributions. An email tracker utilized by this reporter shows representatives of End Citizens United viewed the message at least 16 times since Thursday afternoon, but End Citizens United ultimately didn’t return a request for comment. The group continued to inaccurately promote Tran on its website as an adherent to their “no corporate PAC” pledge as of Friday afternoon.
The freshman Democrat’s acceptance of cash from dozens of corporations could open him up to criticism from left-wingers, who often rage at prominent companies targeted for their alleged labor abuses, including Walmart and Amazon, the latter of which was sued in 2023 for allegedly forcing its delivery drivers to pee in bottles and defecate in bags in order to meet strict delivery goals.
It’s those same sort of labor abuses Tran said he’d fight against during his 2024 campaign.
“As a workers’ rights advocate, I’ve stood up to the abuse of corporations on their workforce and consumers,” Tran told the Orange County Register in January 2024. “I know the importance of holding corporations accountable to their workers, and I know the underhanded, unethical and often illegal methods they use to keep workers from unionizing and stop collective bargaining.”
Tran’s betrayal of his pledge could come back to bite him in 2026. He won his 2024 election by just 653 votes, and under normal circumstances, he would be considered one of the most vulnerable Democrats heading into the midterm elections.
But Tran may have an easier path to reelection after voters passed California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D.) Prop 50 during Tuesday’s elections, which will allow Democrats to redraw the state’s congressional districts in their favor ahead of the 2026 midterms.
It’s not clear if Tran intends to return the dozens of corporate PAC contributions his campaign has accepted. His office did not return a request for comment.
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