Despite Family's Conservative Leanings, Wal-Mart Heir Pumps $300K Into Liberal Super PAC

Samuel Rawlings Walton, grandson of Wal-Mart's notoriously conservative founder Sam Walton, is living proof that, much like Ronald Reagan Jr., conservatism isn’t genetic and that the apple can indeed fall far from the tree.

Case in point: the Wal-mart heir in September donated $300,000 to the liberal Priorities USA Action super PAC, according to recent financial disclosures.

And if that particular PAC name sounds familiar, it should. That’s the same group responsible for the infamous “Romney Killed my Wife” ad.

"The Sept. 10 gift stands in contrast to several other 2012 donations from Walton clan members, who have spent big in favor of conservative and Republican causes for years,” the Washington Post notes.

“An uncle and two aunts, for example, gave five- and six-figure donations to super PACs backing Republican nominee Mitt Romney and one of his GOP challengers, Jon Hunstman Jr.,” the report adds.

One of these aunts, Alice Walton, even donated $2.6 million in 2004 to a group that ran ads for then President George W. Bush.

So we’d definitely say $300K to Bill Burton’s group is a change of pace for the Walton family. But you know what? This shouldn’t come as that big of a surprise.

As the WaPo notes:

... 44-year-old Sam Walton ... has long leaned left compared to the rest of his family, sitting on the board of the Environmental Defense Fund and donating $30,000 to Obama’s campaign in 2008.

Still, as the report adds, the massive contribution to Priorities USA “marks a significant increase in his involvement and will help pay for anti-Romney ads that Priorities is airing in key swing states over the final days of the campaign.”

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Front page photo courtesy the AP.