Publix heiress Julie Jenkins Fancelli provided the “lion’s share” of funding for the Washington Ellipse protest ahead of the January 6 uprising, the Wall Street Journal Saturday reported.
This is only the latest in a series of important contributions to far-right cases by Publix heirs or the popular supermarket chain itself.
Fancelli, a part-time Lakeland resident, reached out to Judge Host Alex Jones over funding a Jan. 6 event and eventually contributed $ 300,000 to the protest by a former fundraising representative for the Trump 2020 campaign. The money helped pay for most of the $ 500,000 protest where former President Donald Trump spoke, ahead of the Capitol riots. Magazine found. Fancelli did not respond to numerous requests for comment in the newspaper.
The Wall Street Journal also reported that Fancelli has chosen Caroline Wren, a fundraiser from Trump campaign, to coordinate funding for the Jan. 6 event. Wren was listed as a ‘VIP coordinator’ in the permit and played an important role in its organization.
Fancelli is the daughter of Publix founder George W. Jenkins, who died in 1996.
According to the Miami New Times, Fancelli and her two children contributed the federal maximum amount to Trump’s re-election campaign in 2019 and contributed about $ 171,000 to Trump Victory. The Wall Street Journal reported that she donated more than $ 980,000 to an account for both the Republican Party and Trump’s campaign in the 2020 election cycle.
Fancelli is not the only heiress of Publix to be active in IDP fundraising. Carol Barnett Jenkins, the daughter of George Jenkins and the older sister of Fancelli, made a $ 10,000 donation to former George Senator David Perdue’s 2020 campaign, and then another $ 100,000 to a PAC that runs the run-off campaigns for Perdue and Kelly Loeffler in Georgia, according to CLTampa. . Both lost on January 5 against Democrats Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock. In 2016, she also contributed $ 800,000 to a conservative campaign to prevent medical marijuana from becoming legal.
Campaign contributions from Publix itself, not just its heirs, became a polarizing issue during Florida’s 2018 election. The grocery store and its heirs have contributed more money to Adam Putnam’s government as a candidate since at least 1995 and probably for the company’s history.
Publix, the heirs of the company’s founder and current and former leaders, gave Putnam $ 670,000 over a three-year period. The company-hired company also helped bankroll a handful of well-connected business groups that contributed millions of dollars to the Republican candidate. Putnam, like Publix, is a product of Polk County – which, according to company officials, was a factor in their support.
Survivors and gun activists were furious that Publix had thrown its support behind Putnam in the aftermath of the deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. Putnam, a Republican, declared himself a “proud NRA sale” in 2017. Parkland students led by David Hogg encouraged a boycott of Publix and activists offered the-ins at its stores. In its claims control, Publix responded by discontinuing all contributions indefinitely and informing employees internally that it was reviewing its political policies.
After the shouting was dead, Publix resumed its political contributions in 2019.
Forbes considers the Jenkins family to be one of the richest in America. According to Forbes, from 2020 it has a net worth of $ 8.8 billion.
Fancelli is a graduate of Mount Vernon Seminary in Washington and the University of Florida. In 1972, she married Mauro Adolfo Dino Fancelli, whom she met while studying abroad while at UF. He was the head of his family’s vegetable and vegetable wholesale business in Florence.
According to The Ledger, the couple spends most of their time in Florence and visits Lakeland during holidays and winter months.