In Pennsylvania’s crucial elections this month, Outback Steakhouse’s attempt to back a pro-business candidate went over like a week-old Bloomin’ Onion.
The restaurant chain’s publicly traded owner, Tampa-based Bloomin’ Brands, this summer bet that Mehmet Oz could win the Keystone State’s fiercely contested U.S. Senate seat. Oz, a talk-show doctor endorsed by Donald Trump, had promised in January that he would “not take one dime of corporate PAC money, not one dollar.” But some corporate political action committees donated anyway, wooed by Oz’s opposition to environmental regulations and tax hikes—potential that eventually won him the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s endorsement as a “pro-business champion.” In July, Bloomin’s PAC donated $2,500 to Oz.
