Republican Sen. Steve Daines of Montana, who faces a tough re-election fight this year, received thousands of dollars from pharmaceutical companies while pushing Congress to fund a fast-tracked coronavirus treatment and vaccine development program that eventually awarded contracts to those companies, Federal Election Commission records show.

The $10 billion program, dubbed Operation Warp Speed, was Daines’ marquee contribution to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), which President Trump signed into law on March 27.

In the days and weeks that Daines worked on the bill, PACs affiliated with the pharmaceutical corporations Pfizer and Sanofi gave his campaign $2,500 and $2,000, respectively. Four days before Trump signed the act, a Merck corporate PAC gave Daines $4,000.

In total, from the end of March to the end of June, Daines took a combined $24,000 from the corporate PACs of pharmaceutical companies involved with Operation Warp Speed.

In addition to Merck, Sanofi and Pfizer — which made two donations — Daines saw contributions from Johnson & […]