Publix Supermarket Heiress Funded Trump Rally Before Capitol Attack

By Ellen Cans

The majority of funding for the Washington Ellipse rally in front of the White House, which occurred shortly before the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, was donated by Publix heiress Julia Jenkins Fancelli, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.  Her father, George W. Jenkins, had founded Publix Supermarkets, the employee-owned chain headquartered in Lakeland, Florida in 1930 and died in 1996 at the age of 88.

As per the Tampa Bay Times, the 71-year-old daughter of Publix founder, contributed $300,000 to the Jan. 6 rally, through a former fundraising representative for the Trump 2020 campaign.  The rally, which cost a total of $500,000, and at which former President Donald Trump spoke, is now being blamed for inciting the attack on the Capitol building which followed. Fancelli and her two children also donated the federal maximum amount of money (roughly $171,000) to Trump’s reelection campaign in 2019.

The WSJ also reported that she contributed about $980,000 to both the Republican Party and Trump’s campaign for the 2020 election cycle.  She had also doled out checks for $10,000 to Republican committees in some 20 states, including Florida, Nevada, and New Mexico. The news is only the latest in a series of conservative contributions made by Publix heirs and even the supermarket itself.

Fancelli’s sister, elder daughter of George Jenkins, also donated generously to GOP causes.  Carol Barnett Jenkins contributed $10,000 to former Georgia Sen. David Perdue’s 2020 campaign, and another $100,000 to a Political Action Committee financing the runoff.  The older sister also gave $800,000 to a conservative initiative trying to stop medical marijuana from becoming legal.  Moreover, Publix itself contributed a significant amount of funds towards Florida’s 2018 elections. The grocery store and its heirs contributed some $670,000 in a three-year-span to Adam Putnam’s bid for governor.

At the time, Publix suffered a good deal of tumult for supporting Putman, with encouraging a boycott on Publix.  The chain had reacted by publicly halting all contributions indefinitely and had said that it was reviewing its policy regarding political donations. In 2019, the supermarket chain restarted its contributions to Florida’s GOP causes.

On social media, Fancelli’s latest donations also sparked criticism.  Publix’s corporate Twitter account responded to one customer, saying “The violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6 was a national tragedy. The deplorable actions that occurred that day do not represent the values, work or opinions of Publix Super Markets.”  Fancelli, who does not hold a formal role in the Supermarket chain, did not respond to the WSJ’s multiple requests for comment.