Dwayne Andreas

Dwayne Orville Andreas (b. 4 March 1918, Worthington, Minnesota), is one of the most prominent political campaign donors in the United States, having contributed millions of dollars to Democratic and Republican candidates alike. For thirty years, he was in the leadership of Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), the largest processor of farm commodities in the United States, where he made his fortune.

Andreas grew up mostly in Iowa and attended Wheaton College in Illinois, but dropped out in his sophomore year after getting married, and went to work for a modest, family-owned food-processing firm in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. When Cargill bought the Cedar Rapids facility in 1945, Andreas joined the commodity firm, eventually becoming a vice president. Andreas resigned from Cargill in 1952, and continued in the vegetable oil business, eventually as an executive of the Grain Terminal Association.

In 1971 Andreas became Chief Executive Officer of ADM, and is credited with transforming the firm into an industrial powerhouse — so powerful that by 1996, ADM had been investigated for price-fixing and was assessed the largest antitrust fine in U.S. history: 100 million dollars. Andreas remained CEO until 1997, by which time he drew a salary of $3.6 million. He was succeeded by his nephew, G. Allen Andreas. Andreas became Chairman Emeritus of ADM's Board of Directors in 1999, but stepped down from this role in November 2001, while the size of the Board was reduced from fourteen to ten members and his daughter, Sandra Andreas McMurtrie was installed. Critics of ADM assert that Andreas continues to control the company via his family.

While not well known to the public, Andreas commands much respect among Washington politicians for his largesse. As part of the investigations surrounding illegal campaign fundraising linked to the Watergate scandal, Andreas was charged with (but acquitted of) illegally contributing $100,000 to Hubert Humphrey's 1968 presidential campaign. In 1972 Andreas unlawfully contributed $25,000 to President Nixon's re-election campaign via Watergate burglar Bernard Barker. Other recipients of Andreas's "tithing" — as he puts it — have included George H. W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Bob Dole, Michael Dukakis, Jesse Jackson, and Jack Kemp.

According to Mother Jones magazine:

During the 1992 election, Andreas gave more than $1.4 million in soft money and $345,000 to individual candidates, using multiple donors in his company and family members (including wife Inez) to circumvent contribution limits.

Not all of Andreas's charity goes directly to politicians: in the 1990s he contributed $2.5 million to Florida public broadcasting network WXEL.

Andreas was one of several signatories to a May 20, 2004 open letter exhorting President George W. Bush to lift travel and humanitarian aid restrictions on Cuba.

Andreas is on the Board of Trustees of The Forum for International Policy.