Major corporations bankroll political ad featuring white supremacist slogan

(Andy Barr for Senate, YouTube)

Congressman Andy Barr (R-KY), who is running to replace Mitch McConnell in the United States Senate, released his first television ad earlier this month. In the ad, Barr speaks directly to the camera and declares, “It’s not a sin to be white.”

The language used by Barr is a variation of the phrase “It’s OK to be white,” which has been adopted by white supremacists. It has been designated as a “hate slogan“ by the Anti-Defamation League.

According to campaign finance records reviewed by Popular Information, Barr’s campaign ad is being bankrolled by dozens of major corporations, including General Motors, State Farm, JPMorgan Chase, Delta, and Microsoft.

“It’s OK to be white,” sometimes abbreviated as IOTBW, was popularized on the notoriously racist message board 4chan in 2017. It was then adopted by neo-Nazis and white supremacists, who plastered schools and other public spaces with flyers featuring the slogan. Former KKK grand wizard David Duke, a prominent white supremacist, promoted the campaign:

It was also championed by the neo-Nazi website Daily Stormer.

IOTBW “has a fairly long history in the white supremacist movement,” according to Mark Pitcavage, a researcher who studies extremism. In 2001, the phrase was used as the title of a song by the “white power music band Aggressive Force.” ADL has been tracking it since at least 2005 and, in 2012, a Ku Klux Klan group, United Klans of America, used the hashtag #IOTBW on Twitter.

The purpose of the 2017 campaign was to “trigger“ liberals and journalists with a purportedly innocuous phrase to prove that they are motivated by a hatred toward white people.

The Barr campaign appears to have similar goals. Barr concludes the ad by stating, “I’m Andy Barr, and I approve this message to give woke liberals something else to cry about.” In a press release, the Barr campaign bragged that the ad had already “inflamed woke leftists.” The campaign gleefully reported that it “prompted unhinged tweets from woke liberals across [Kentucky] and the country.” The press release includes a sampling of “woke liberal meltdowns” in response to the ad.

The ad also lambastes Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives, saying the acronym really stands for “Dumb, Evil, Indoctrination.” According to Barr, “Woke liberals spew it, corporate losers fall for it.” As Barr decries “woke liberals,” the ad features a still image of a Black man in a Martin Luther King Jr. t-shirt, holding a sign that reads “Stay Woke America.”

Barr’s campaign announced it would spend $1 million to promote the ad across Kentucky on broadcast, cable, and digital platforms. Former Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who is Black, is Barr’s top Republican primary opponent. The two were virtually tied in two polls conducted before Barr released the ad.

The ad has drawn comparisons to an infamous ad, “Hands,” aired by the campaign of the late Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC) in 1990. “You needed that job, and you were the best qualified. But they had to give it to a minority because of a racial quota. Is that really fair?” the narrator in the ad asked as a pair of white hands crumpled a piece of paper.

Barr is not a stranger to racial controversy in his campaigns. When Barr first ran for Congress in 2010, it was reported that he was a life-long member of a country club, Idle Hour, that was all-white until 2009. Barr’s campaign responded by saying the news was the result of dirty politics by his opponent and did not apologize for his association with the club.

Corporate PAC donors to Barr’s campaign

Barr’s Senate campaign has raised nearly $1.4 million from PACs, including dozens of PACs representing corporations and trade associations. A Popular Information review of Barr’s filings with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) revealed contributions from at least 67 major corporations.

Some companies that donated to Barr appear to be the “corporate losers” that he attacks in the new ad. In 2022, for example, MetLife CEO Michel Khalaf said:

MetLife’s purpose calls on us to build a more inclusive and equitable world for all our stakeholders. The breadth of these commitments demonstrates that we are significantly advancing our DEI efforts on every front. Setting clear expectations for our progress will hold us accountable and sustain our momentum.

In 2025, MetLife’s PAC donated $5,000 to Barr’s Senate campaign.

A top Delta executive said last year that, despite pressure from the Trump administration, it remained steadfast in its commitment to diversity. “​​DEI is about talent, and that’s been our focus,” Delta Chief External Affairs Officer Peter Carter said. “And, of course, the key differentiator at Delta is our people.” A few months later, Delta donated $5,000 to Barr’s Senate campaign.

In other cases, corporations have supported Barr as they scaled back efforts to promote diversity. Microsoft, for example, ceased publication of its annual diversity and inclusion report in 2025 and donated $5,000 to Barr. Last year, Wells Fargo “discreetly deleted its DEI page detailing a long history of diversity and inclusion work dating back to the early 1800s” and donated $5,000 to Barr’s campaign. It was a dramatic about-face for Wells Fargo, which pledged $50 million to the NAACP in 2023.

Other corporate donors to Barr’s Senate campaign that recently donated to the NAACP include JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Nationwide, and UPS. Meanwhile, Comcast, Bank of America, and TD Bank donated to Barr and are listed as the ADL’s Corporate Partners Against Hate.

Popular Information contacted all 67 corporate PAC donors to Barr’s Senate campaign for comment. All of the corporations either did not respond or declined to comment.