Foushee's Finances: Q3

Between July and September 2025, U.S. Rep. Valerie Foushee’s reelection campaign drew from a donor base that included technology, weapons, pharmaceutical and fossil fuel corporations. Many of the companies are regulated by Foushee’s congressional committees or subcommittees. Her PAC, Foushee for Congress, was supported by many individuals of wealth and influence in North Carolina’s Triangle region. The typical third-quarter donor had some of the following characteristics: Chapel Hill resident, academic leader, business owner, or financial sector executive.

This article is based on data from the Federal Election Commission [1]. Only corporations and individuals who donated $500 or more to Foushee are examined in detail.

Entergy Corp., a fossil fuel company, gave $1,000 to Foushee for Congress in July 2025. Three-quarters of Entergy’s owned or leased generation capacity comes from fracked gas, coal, or oil [2, pg. 12]. The utility company serves Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. Entergy does not operate in the 4^th District, or elsewhere in North Carolina.  Foushee sits on the Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials, which sets safety standards for Entergy’s thousands of miles of fracked gas pipelines. She also sits on the Subcommittee on Energy, which has jurisdiction over fossil fuel research and development.

In August 2025, Foushee received a $500 individual donation from Shawna Williams. Based in Greensboro, Williams is a top lobbyist for Reynolds American Inc., the second-largest U.S. tobacco company. The company owns brands such as Camel, American Spirit, and Lucky Strike. Williams is also a member of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro Board of Visitors.

Many of Foushee’s third-quarter donors hold positions of academic leadership. Emily Dickens and Courtney Crowder are on the North Carolina Central University Board of Trustees. Sallie Shuping-Russell was on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Board of Trustees. Radharani Dasi is on the school board in Chapel Hill and Carrboro. Five other Q3 donors who gave $500 or more are university professors.

Caterpillar Inc. was Foushee’s most generous corporate donor in this period, giving $2,500 in September 2025. The company is best known for selling heavy construction equipment. Caterpillar is a prominent target of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement because of the company’s D9 armored bulldozer. The D9 is frequently used by the Israeli military to demolish Palestinian homes and infrastructure. Caterpillar has administrative offices and manufacturing facilities in the Triangle [3].

In October 2025, Indyweek positively reviewed a play called “My Name is Rachel Corrie” at the Burning Coal Theatre in Raleigh [4]. Corrie was a U.S. peace activist killed by the Israeli military in 2003. She was protecting a Palestinian home in the Gaza Strip when a D9 bulldozer saw her, crushed her, then reversed over her. Other defense contractors that donated to Foushee in the third quarter include Honeywell International Inc., Northrop Grumman Corp., Raytheon Technologies Corp., General Dynamics Corp., and Lockheed Martin Corp.

Sallie Shuping-Russell gave $1,000 to Foushee’s campaign in July 2025. Shuping-Russell comes from the power elite of Orange County, like many of Foushee's donors in the third quarter. She was a member of the UNC Chapel Hill board of trustees, co-founder of the Duke University Management Company (DUMAC, Inc.) cofounder, and a BlackRock Inc. managing director. With over $10 trillion in assets under management, BlackRock is the world's largest asset management company. Six other Q3 donors have strong links to the financial sector as banking executives, bank board members, asset managers, major investors, etc.

Meta Platforms Inc., the parent company of Facebook, donated $1,000 to Foushee for Congress. The corporation is controlled by Mark Zuckerberg, one of the wealthiest U.S. oligarchs. His net worth is estimated at $220 billion by Bloomberg. Zuckerberg has strong ties to the second Trump administration. The president’s inaugural fund received $1 million from Meta, more than from any other corporation. Meta has complied with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement requests to remove content that document the agency’s human rights abuses [5].

Zuckerberg has announced plans to spend $600 billion on an enormous network of energy-guzzling data centers through 2028 [6]. To gain access and cooperation from the government, Meta has hired former Trump advisors such as Dina McCormick. Foushee was appointed as co-chair of the House Democratic Commission on Artificial Intelligence despite taking donations from Meta, Google, Garmin Ltd., and other technology companies.

In September 2025, David Steinglass gave $1,000 to Foushee. Steinglass is a co-founder of Northlane Capital Partners, a Maryland private equity firm. He and his wife have given more than $5 million to support Democratic political causes. Through the Patriots Run Project, Steinglass has engaged in the risky practice of donating to far-right candidates in hopes of providing easier opponents for Democratic candidates in the general election. One of these candidates was Thomas Leager, whose close associates included men charged in the 2020 scheme to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Work Cited

1. Foushee for Congress. (n.d.). FEC.gov. https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/?committee_id=C00794727&two_year_transaction_period=2026&data_type=processed

2. Energy for a Better Future - 2024 Performance Report. (2024). Entergy. https://www.entergy.com/wp-content/uploads/08/2024-Performance-Report.pdf

3. Advanced Manufacturing - Company Highlight - Caterpillar. (2026). Research Triangle Regional Partnership. https://researchtriangle.org/industries/advanced-manufacturing/#:~:text=Company%20Highlight-,Caterpillar,nearby%20community%20colleges%20and%20universities

4. Edwards, Sarah (2025, October 13). Burning Coal Theatre produces powerful series of “My name is Rachel Corrie” readings across ten months. INDY Week. https://indyweek.com/news/culture/burning-coal-theatre-my-name-is-rachel-corrie/

5. Meta Removes Facebook Group That Shared Information on ICE Agents. (2025, October 15). New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/technology/meta-removes-ice-facebook-page.html

6. Meta plans $600 billion US spend as AI data centers expand. (2025, November 7). Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/business/meta-plans-600-billion-us-spend-ai-data-centers-expand-2025-11-07/