These Are The 10 Most Conservative Companies In North Carolina

The political climate in America is…

Tense.

To say the least.

By the day, it seems like the two tribes of Democrats and Republicans are splitting apart on basically every issue. Whether it be immigration, taxes, or trade no one can agree on anything except for the fact that everything is becoming more partisan.

So as you choose your tribe, we want to help you understand where companies stand on the issues that matter most to you. Whether it be to see the politics of the company you are thinking of applying to, or where you’re going to grab a coffee, it’s good to know where they stand on issues.

To that end, we have compiled the 10 most conservative companies in North Carolina based on the last ten years of employee political donations. Here’s a look:

1. Swisher International
2. Reynolds American
3. Delhaize America Inc
4. Old Dominion Freight Line
5. Babcock amp; Wilcox
6. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco
7. Golden Corral
8. Hendrick Automotive
9. Ward and Smith, P.A.
10. AGC America, Inc.

When you look at where the employees of companies donate, Swisher International turns out to be the most conservative in all of the Tar Heel State with 93% of 31 donors donating to the Republican party in the past 10 years.

The most liberal company in North Carolina? That would be RTI International.

Read on for a detailed methodology, more in depth statistics on the top ten, and a complete list of the most conservative companies in North Carolina.

How Zippia Determined The Most Conservative Companies In North Carolina

Unlike some other websites, we rely on data over opinion when it comes to understanding companies.

So when we decided to take a look at which companies in the Tar Heel State were the most conservative and liberal, we took a data-centric approach.

Specifically, we dug into the donations to political parties and PACs by employees of the 139 biggest public and private companies in North Carolina.

Of those 139 companies, we limited the analysis to companies with at least 30 donors to stop small, politically active companies from overwhelming the results.

To identify how liberal or conservative a company may be, we obtained data from the Federal Election Committee. They provide detailed donation data for individuals from 2007 onwards — around 32,000,000 political donation records.

We then matched donors to the companies where they reported they worked. We considered a donor to be a unique combination of:

• First Name
• Last Name
• State
• Company

Next, we had to deal with (1) donations to candidates and (2) donations to PACs for determining if the donor gave to a conservative or liberal cause.

1. Donations To A Candidate:
These were easy. We used the candidate’s party to determine if it is was given to a Republican, Democrat, or other.

2. Donations To PACs:
These were a bit trickier since a majority of PACs give to both liberal and conservative candidates. We ultimately only included donations to PACs that gave gt;60% of their funds to a candidates of a certain political affiliation.

Put differently, the PAC had to have a super-majority of its funds go to a specific political party.

Finally, we divided the number of total conservative or liberal donors by the total number of donors at a company. For example, the most conservative company, Swisher International, had 29 conservative donors, 2 liberal donors, and 0 other donors.

29 / (29 + 2 + 0) = 93% Conservative

Any ties went to the company with more donors.

1. Swisher International

Location: Charlotte, NC
Total Donors: 31
Republican: 29
Percent Republican: 93%

Find information about all of your favorite tobacco products from Swisher Sweets, King Edward, Optimo, Kayak Outdoors, e-Swisher, and more.

2. Reynolds American

Location: Winston-Salem, NC
Total Donors: 87
Republican: 79
Percent Republican: 90%

Reynolds American, Inc. is an American tobacco company which is a subsidiary of British American Tobacco and is the second-largest tobacco company in the United States. Its holdings include R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, American Snuff Company (formerly Conwood Company), Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company, and Niconovum AB.

3. Delhaize America Inc

Location: Salisbury, NC
Total Donors: 40
Republican: 36
Percent Republican: 90%

4. Old Dominion Freight Line

Location: Thomasville, NC
Total Donors: 36
Republican: 32
Percent Republican: 88%

Old Dominion Freight Line, Inc. (NASDAQ: ODFL) is a less-than-truckload (LTL), company. It offers regional, inter-regional and national LTL service. In addition to its core LTL services, the company offers logistics services including ground and air expedited transportation, supply chain consulting, transportation management, truckload brokerage, container delivery and warehousing, as well as household moving services. It contracts with freight forwarding services throughout the world.

5. Babcock amp; Wilcox

Location: Charlotte, NC
Total Donors: 35
Republican: 30
Percent Republican: 85%

Established in 1867, Babcock amp; Wilcox is a global leader in energy and environmental technologies and services for power and industrial markets worldwide.

6. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco

Location: Lewisville, NC
Total Donors: 39
Republican: 33
Percent Republican: 84%

The R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company (RJR), based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and founded by R. J. Reynolds in 1875, is the second-largest tobacco company in the U.S. (behind Altria). RJR is an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Reynolds American Inc. which in turn is owned by British American Tobacco of the United Kingdom.

7. Golden Corral

Location: New Bern, NC
Total Donors: 46
Republican: 38
Percent Republican: 82%

8. Hendrick Automotive

Location: Charlotte, NC
Total Donors: 30
Republican: 24
Percent Republican: 80%

Owned by Rick Hendrick, Hendrick Automotive Group operates 99 dealerships with 29 nameplates in 14 states and the online retail site https://t.co/JtiRVvQkEN.

9. Ward and Smith, P.A.

Location: New Bern, NC
Total Donors: 71
Republican: 55
Percent Republican: 77%

Ward and Smith, P.A. is a full-service NC law firm with offices in Asheville, Greenville, New Bern, Raleigh, amp; Wilmington with more than 35 practice groups.

10. AGC America, Inc.

Location: Alpharetta, NC
Total Donors: 62
Republican: 48
Percent Republican: 77%

Wrapping Up The Conservative Politics of North Carolina

There you have it, the most conservative companies in North Carolina based on the political donations of employees — led by Swisher International.

Here’s a quick look at the most liberal companies in North Carolina:

1. RTI International
2. MWW
3. FHI 360

If you’re interested in searching for how your company donates, check out our company donation search. And here are some companies to get the ball rolling:

• Walmart
• Google
• ExxonMobil

Detailed List Of The Most Conservative Companies In North Carolina

Author

Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar is a co-founder of Zippia and the editor-in-chief of the Zippia career advice blog. He has hired over 50 people in his career, been hired five times, and wants to help you land your next job. His research has been featured on the New York Times, Thrillist, VOX, The Atlantic, and a host of local news. More recently, he's been quoted on USA Today, BusinessInsider, and CNBC.