Coachella Parent Company Owner Philip Anschutz Still Donating Huge Amounts To Right Wing Super PAC and Candidates

With Coachella’s lineup having just been announced yesterday, some bad news comes for liberal fans who may want to attend the festival despite the lineup featuring famously liberal artists, Beyoncé, Eminem and The Weeknd as its three headliners.

The Fader just reported exactly how much Philip Anschutz, CEO of entertainment giant AEG, parent company of Goldenvoice, who puts on Coachella, donated to the Republican party last year ($187,300). Though this feels less significant than the $1,000,000 he contributed the year prior, it is still a significant amount, considering that 2017 was off-cycle election year.

But his newest round of donations are particularly interesting for another reason. The members of Senate he has chosen to support over the past 12 months are notably very conservative in their social views, espousing anti-LGBTQ+ rights, anti-abortion and anti-gun control views.

For example, some of the people and organizations that Anschutz donated money to include Senator Cory Gardner, Rep. Scott Tipton, Rep. Mike Coffman and Senator Deb Fischer, Paul Ryan (Speaker of the House), and the National Republican Senate Committee.

Back when the Fader reported Anschutz’s contributions last year, he had this to say:

“Recent claims published in the media that I am anti-LGBTQ are nothing more than fake news – it is all garbage. I unequivocally support the rights of all people without regard to sexual orientation. We are fortunate to employ a wealth of diverse individuals throughout our family of companies, all of whom are important to us – the only criteria on which they are judged is the quality of their job performance; we do not tolerate discrimination in any form.

Both The Anschutz Foundation and I contribute to numerous organizations that pursue a wide range of causes. Neither I nor the Foundation fund any organization with the purpose or expectation that it would finance anti-LGBTQ initiatives, and when it has come to my attention or the attention of The Anschutz Foundation that certain organizations either the Foundation or I have funded have been supporting such causes, we have immediately ceased all contributions to such groups.”