A small tariff provision of the “One Big Beautiful Bill” spurred an expensive lobbying battle between special interests in the tobacco industry, including a full-court press from North Carolina’s export-dependent farming sector, where tobacco is a key cash crop.
Fairness for America, a recently established nonprofit, reportedly spent at least $1.3 million on a failed digital advertising blitz to keep the tobacco-related tariff provision in the Senate’s version of OBBB.
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The now-nixed provision, proposed as Section 112032 of H.R. 1, would have repealed “duty drawback,” a centuries-old rebate policy that allowed for refunding certain tariffs paid on imported materials so long as they were later exported or destroyed.
Proponents of the policy say it has helped, for example, North Carolina’s tobacco farming industry, which is heavily reliant on exports, to thrive in international markets and remain competitive across global supply chains. Meanwhile, opponents seek to close what they see as a loophole in federal trade law that lets foreign tobacco companies “game the system” by selling cigarettes in the U.S. essentially tax-free due to the refund mechanism.
As the Senate debated OBBB, Fairness for America widely pushed a 30-second political ad urging viewers to call Congress and “Fix the Double Drawback Loophole.”
“This unfair loophole costs American taxpayers $12 billion over 10 years,” Fairness for America claimed, positioning the repeal effort as a Republican-led push in line with President Donald Trump’s crackdown on government waste, fraud, and abuse of American tax dollars.
Since June 3, Fairness for America spent more than $1.3 million on ad buys concerning the tobacco tariff issue, including over $310,00 in North Carolina alone, according to AdImpact analytics. North Carolina is notably home to 800-plus tobacco farms and the headquarters for three major U.S. cigarette manufacturers.
Google’s advertisement tracker shows Fairness for America ran the 30-second video as sponsored content on YouTube throughout June and again in early July. In June, the monthlong ad campaign was shown more than 3 million times and targeted the Washington, D.C market.
According to domain data, Fairness for America’s website was registered on May 29 as part of the pop-up operation, and a bare-bones Facebook page for the group was set up on June 3.
Politicom Law co-founder Darrin Lim, a lobbyist and Democratic donor, is listed as the incorporator of Fairness for America, which was formed on May 8, incorporation records show.
According to Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings, Lim has donated to numerous left-wing causes, including considerable contributions to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ respective presidential runs.
Lim’s compliance consulting firm, Politicom Law, is a California-based “woman and minority owned boutique” helping Fortune 500 companies, trade associations, nonprofit organizations, and executives navigate lobbying regulations, campaign finance laws, and ethics rules.
Despite the massive amount of cash spent on pushing this initiative, the repeal was ultimately removed from the final bill, thanks largely to counter-lobbying from OurAgFuture, a coalition of the North Carolina Chamber of Commerce.
OurAgFuture aired multiple ads and video testimonies from North Carolina farmers and factory workers who would be affected by the repeal over the course of a six-figure media campaign to preserve the export incentive. “Exports are not only our future; they’re my current reality as a tobacco farmer,” said Brandon Batten, a sixth-generation farmer from North Carolina.
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Both of North Carolina’s senators publicly backed the repeal’s removal after the Tar Heel State’s agricultural sector pressured them to oppose the provision. OurAgFuture, particularly, had called on Sens. Thom Tillis and Ted Budd (R-NC) to support safeguarding duty drawback.
Within days, on social media, Tillis took issue with the “hidden” tax hike “tucked away” in the mammoth budget reconciliation bill, noting its implications for farmers in North Carolina, the nation’s largest tobacco producer. In a separate X post, Budd said protecting duty drawback will keep North Carolina tobacco growers competitive with China.
In a statement shared with the Washington Examiner, OurAgFuture general counsel Ray Starling, formerly chief of staff to Tillis, thanked Congress “for standing up for North Carolina farmers and agricultural workers by preserving duty drawback.”
“This vital trade tool helps our producers stay competitive in global markets while supporting jobs here at home,” Starling said. “OurAgFuture will always fight to uphold this key provision as we continue to support President Trump’s pro-farmer and pro-worker agenda.”
Last month, those wishing to withdraw duty drawback on tobacco goods got caught publishing a deceptive op-ed wrongly attributed to North Carolina corn farmer John Pickler, who afterward disavowed the since-deleted opinion piece. Appearing on NC Political News, a local politics website, the article in question championed the repeal.
Pickler, president of the state’s Corn Growers Association, then penned a letter to the North Carolina agricultural community explaining he had nothing to do with the op-ed.
“I was so disappointed by the confusion created by NC Political News publishing an editorial under my name espousing opinions that neither I, nor the Corn Growers Association of North Carolina, endorse,” Pickler wrote. “The op-ed ‘Double Drawback Loophole Harms North Carolina Farmers, Time to Close It,’ in no way reflects my views or the views of the Corner Growers Association of North Carolina.”
Following the failed ad push, still not much is known about Fairness for America or who exactly financed its multimillion-dollar endeavor.
Some observers suspect that Fairness for America is funded by the American tobacco corporation Altria, which primarily manufactures and sells within the United States, so it does not benefit from duty drawback as much as its competitors.
As the Washington Post recently reported, “Altria, the parent company of Philip Morris USA and the firm pushing to end the tobacco tax treatment, has spent nearly $5 million lobbying Congress on this legislation and other issues through the first two quarters of 2025, according to federal disclosures.”
“This dark money group spent $1 million attacking President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill and undercutting our farmers and workers, and they still lost,” a GOP strategist, speaking of Fairness for America, told the Washington Examiner. “They were warned by American farmers that this was the wrong position, but Altria kept lighting money on fire, fighting against American agriculture and President Trump.”
The strategist added that it will be “incredibly difficult for Altria to convince others to partner with them on another campaign to repeal duty drawback after the pure incompetence they displayed this time around.”
“Trump is for the farmers and Altria spent millions to tank the OBBB and bankrupt farmers,” the Republican strategist said.
Altria was contacted for comment on whether it is linked to Fairness for America.