For Immediate Release
Monday, December 18th, 2023
Contact: Victoria Opperman, communications@azdem.org
MONEY, MONEY, MONEY: “David Schweikert gets political donation by plugging weight-loss drugs to help shrink debt” [AZCentral]
Rep. Schweikert pedals Big Pharma talking points to help fund his vulnerable re-election campaign
ARIZONA- Today, the Arizona Republic exposed why Representative Schweikert (AZ-01) has been peddling Ozempic as a tool to lower the national debt: Big Pharma is funding his tight re-election campaign. According to Arizona Republic, Novo Nordisk, a maker of an Ozempic like drug is the the second largest contributor to his reelection campaign’s third quarter haul – giving $5,000 to Schweikert’s PAC.
“I said in October that if Schweikert cared about lowering the deficit and making healthcare more affordable for Arizonans he would have voted for the Inflation Reduction Act, which lowered the cost of insulin to $35 a month,” said Chairwoman of the Arizona Democratic Party Yolanda Bejarano. “It’s clear that Schweikert doesn’t care about the everyday lives of Arizonans – he cares about who can fund his vulnerable re-election campaign. Schweikert is one of the most vulnerable Republicans in Congress because of his long voting history of tax cuts for the wealthy, co-sponsoring legislation before Roe was overturned that would have banned abortions nationwide, and advocating for cutting social security and medicare. Now he’s catering to Big Pharma as a last ditch attempt to save his seat.”
What We’ve Said:
- August, 2023: On the anniversary of the passage of Social Security and Medicare, we did a round up of all the times Rep. Schweikert has called for cutting the program.
- October, 2023: We called out Rep. Schweikert for calling for the use of Ozempic- citing his failure to vote for the Inflation Reduction Act.
- December, 2023: Rep. Scweikrt was again on the House Floor calling for cutting social security and Medicare: “It’s past time Congress stops ignoring our fiscal reality”
- December, 2023: We bumped Rep. Andy Biggs reminder of Schweikert’s long history of scandal with: 11 ethics violations, being fined $50,000 for lying to the Ethics Committee and fined $175,000 by the Federal Election Committee for misusing campaign money.
What AZCentral Exposed:
- “He also spoke about it [using ozempic to lower the national debt] during a Sept. 26 presentation to a local Young Republicans group.Shortly after that discussion, where Schweikert mentioned GPL-1 agonist drugs, Novo Nordisk, maker of such drugs, contributed $5,000 to Schweikert’s re-election campaign. The Sept. 29 donation came through its political action committee.”
- “In a Nov. 27 newsletter to constituents, Schweikert provided a link to a news article that originally appeared in the Financial Times, in which Novo Nordisk president and CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen said the company was negotiating to increase the use of its drugs.”
- “Schweikert also posted an interview to YouTube on Nov. 27 that he conducted on NewsNation where curbing debt through reducing obesity was discussed.”
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