Was the Sephora company "a huge donor" to Donald Trump's 2024 campaign? No, that's not true: Neither the company nor any Sephora employee donated to the Trump campaign or Trump-favored political action committee, according to OpenSecrets.org. The company said in a statement: "Sephora does not make corporate donations to political candidates." Records show some Sephora employees did contribute to Kamala Harris' campaign. Employees of Sephora's parent company donated a small amount to Trump.
The claim appeared in a November 10, 2024, post on Threads (archived here). It said:
Sephora was a huge donor to the Trump campaign. I wondering how many women would give up Sephora to show they mean business.
Here is what the post looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: Threads screenshot taken on Tue Nov 12 14:38:57 2024 UTC
Sephora is legally barred from being a "huge donor to the Trump campaign," as the Threads post maintains. That's because campaigns are "prohibited from accepting contributions" from corporations, according to the Federal Election Commission (archived here). Sephora (archived here), a beauty products firm with over 500 stores, is owned by LVMH Moët Hennessey Louis Vuitton.
Individual donors are asked to list their employer when they give to a candidate, which means whether Sephora employees donated to Trump could be tracked.
A search for all Sephora employees who donated to Trump's 2024 campaign yielded no results (archived here) on the website of the nonpartisan campaign finance tracking site OpenSecrets.org. A search for all Sephora employees who donated to Harris' campaign produced 15 donors totaling $5,332 (archived here).
What about Sephora's parent company, LVMH? An OpenSecrets.org search (archived here) showed employees of LVMH companies donated $78,601 to all candidates, parties or political organizations in the 2024 election cycle. Of that amount, $35,423 went to the Harris campaign. Trump's campaign received $318. Hawaii Conservatives Federal received $4,999 from LVMH employees. The Republican National Committee received $97. Another conservative group, Save America, collected $62 from LVMH employees.
The remainder of the $78,601 went to other candidates in other races across the country.
Sephora issued this response to Lead Stories:
It has come to our attention that there is incorrect information circulating on social media regarding company donations. Sephora does not make corporate donations to political candidates. Sephora's mission is to create a welcoming beauty shopping experience for all. To learn more about our community efforts and support, please visit: https://www.inside-sephora.
com/en/usa/community-impact.
Other Lead Stories fact checks on claims regarding campaign donations can be found here. Other Lead Stories fact checks on claims concerned the 2024 presidential election can be found here.
