DoorDash expands political footprint with new PAC

San Francisco-based food delivery company DoorDash formed a political action committee on Thursday, allowing it to directly donate to political campaigns and parties.

DoorDash’s new PAC, dubbed DashPAC, is the latest move by the company to grow its political footprint in Washington. It began growing its team of lobbyists in 2020 at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, according to Politico.

“We’re looking forward to supporting those who share our values and mission of growing and empowering local economies,” a DoorDash spokesperson wrote in an email to The Hill.

It’s competitors such as Uber and Grubhub have yet to make such an aggressive move into the national political arena. Uber established a California political action committee last year.

The move comes amid a growing push to redefine gig contractors as employees, which could afford them benefits and other protections. In March, DoorDash formed a trade association with other companies to push back on Democrats’ efforts to redefine gig workers.

President Biden has pushed for passage of the PRO Act, a pro-labor bill in the House that would reclassify some contractors as employees and allow them to unionize. As recently as last month at the AFL-CIO Convention in Philadelphia, he doubled down on Congress to pass the stalled bill.

In 2020, the delivery company poured more than $50 million into a campaign backing a ballot proposal in California to define app-based drivers as independent contractors in the face of a state law similar to the PRO Act, according to the Los Angeles Times. In August 2021, a California court struck parts of the proposition down as unconstitutional.

In another blow to food delivery companies, the Massachusetts Supreme Court struck down a similar ballot initiative in June. 

DoorDash also hired a prominent antitrust lobbyist in February, Politico reported.