Chili's Grill & Bar is the flagship of Brinker International, Inc. (NYSE: EAT), the Dallas company that also runs Maggiano's Little Italy and the delivery-only brand It's Just Wings. For fiscal 2026 Brinker reported $5.81 billion in total revenue and $487.0 million in net income, and it owns, operates or franchises more than 1,600 restaurants in the United States, 28 other countries and two U.S. territories.[1] For a chain that size, the striking thing about its political record is how little of it there is. Because the political evidence belongs to the parent, the record examined here is Brinker's, not that of any single restaurant.
- The PAC's biggest 2023-24 check, $7,500, went to an Independent, not a Republican.
- Individual Brinker employees donated to both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump in 2024.
- A $5.8 billion restaurant company reported zero federal lobbying spending in 2023 and 2024.
- Its political action committee is funded entirely by employees, nothing from the corporation.
- Chili's gives free Veterans Day meals and has backed the Wounded Warrior Project.
Quick Take
Chili's parent, Brinker International, keeps a strikingly small political footprint for its size. Its corporate PAC, active since 1990, is funded entirely by employees, sent $16,500 to candidates and committees in the 2025 to 2026 cycle, and took nothing from the company or from party committees. In the last completed cycle the PAC gave more to Republicans than to Democrats, yet its single largest check went to an Independent, and individual employee donations ran to both parties. Brinker reported no federal lobbying in 2023 or 2024, and its Code of Conduct says the company does not endorse candidates while reserving the right to weigh in on issues that affect its business.
A $5.8 Billion Chain That Barely Shows Up in Washington
Brinker has run a corporate political action committee since February 1990, but it is a small, employee-funded operation. Federal Election Commission filings for the 2025 to 2026 cycle, covering January 1, 2025 through July 31, 2026, show the Brinker International Inc. Political Action Committee raised $23,148, every dollar of it from individual contributions by people connected to the company, and nothing from the corporation itself or from party committees. Over the same stretch it sent $16,500 to candidates and other committees, made no independent expenditures, and finished with about $103,932 on hand.[2]
The last completed cycle shows the same modest scale and a revealing spread. In 2023 to 2024 the PAC raised $51,084 and disbursed $34,900, including $33,000 in contributions to other committees.[2] Of the $20,500 that went directly to federal candidates, $10,500 went to Republicans and $2,500 to Democrats, while the largest single amount, $7,500, went to Senator Angus King, the Maine Independent who caucuses with Democrats.[3] The candidate checks went to members of both parties, among them Republicans Don Bacon, Bryan Steil, Mike Carey, Lori Chavez-Deremer and John Barrasso alongside Democrat Katherine Clark, the House Democratic whip.[3]
Individual giving by people connected to the company ran in both directions. OpenSecrets, which groups the employee PAC together with personal donations from employees and their families, puts the company-connected total at about $41,483 for the 2024 cycle, roughly 61 percent from the PAC and 39 percent from individuals.[4] Those individual dollars reached Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump, along with the Democratic platform ActBlue and Republican recipients, choices that belong to the donors rather than to the company.[4]
The federal lobbying side is nearly empty. OpenSecrets reports that Brinker registered no federal lobbying spending in 2023 or 2024 and no outside spending.[4] That is not a lifelong posture: as recently as 2011 the company retained the law firm Miller & Chevalier to lobby on tax issues affecting the food and beverage industry.[5] By the recent federal record, though, a company that serves tens of millions of guests a year keeps almost no paid presence in federal policymaking.
Federal lobbying is not the whole picture. In March 2025 Brinker's director of investor and government relations registered in support of a bill before the Texas Senate Business and Commerce Committee, alongside the Texas Restaurant Association and other food-service companies.[6] State-level engagement of that kind does not appear in the federal totals.
The Rulebook on Its Own Politics
That restraint is written down. Brinker's current Code of Conduct, dated 2025, tells employees the company does not endorse specific candidates but reserves the right, within the law, to make its position known on relevant issues and to influence government leaders when appropriate.[7] It bars the use of company funds, assets or facilities to support any candidate or party unless the law allows it and the General Counsel approves, and it tells employees to make clear that their own political views are their own and not the company's.[7] An earlier version filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2005 set out similar limits and routed any company lobbying through the General Counsel.[8] The throughline across both is a company that keeps its institutional distance from partisan giving while leaving itself room to weigh in on issues that affect its business.
Where the Brand Plants Its Flag
Where Chili's does take a visible public stance, it points at the military. Every year the chain offers veterans and active-duty service members a free Veterans Day meal at participating restaurants, an offer it promotes on its own website.[9] The program has long roots. In 2013 Brinker paired the free meals with a nationwide Give Back Event that raised money for the Wounded Warrior Project, which the company described at the time as a nonpartisan organization, across more than 1,200 Chili's locations.[10] Military appreciation is the clearest values-coded cause the brand attaches its name to in public.
Products and the Parent
Chili's helped build the casual-dining category on fajitas, burgers, ribs and the bottomless chips-and-salsa formula, and in recent years it leaned hard on value messaging to drive a turnaround, posting five consecutive years of same-store sales growth through fiscal 2026.[1] Brinker International is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker EAT and is led by president and chief executive Kevin Hochman.[1] Chili's began in Dallas in 1975 and later grew under restaurateur Norman Brinker, whose name the parent company still carries.
Where to Find Them
Chili's runs company-owned and franchised locations across all 50 states and in dozens of countries, with dine-in, takeout and delivery. Its home online is chilis.com.
Footnotes
[1] Brinker International, "Brinker International Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year Fiscal 2026 Results and Provides Fiscal 2027 Guidance," August 12, 2026. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/brinker-international-reports-fourth-quarter-and-full-year-fiscal-2026-results-and-provides-fiscal-2027-guidance-302849034.html
[2] Federal Election Commission, "Brinker International Inc. Political Action Committee (C00241851), financial summary," accessed August 15, 2026. https://www.fec.gov/data/committee/C00241851/
[3] OpenSecrets, "Brinker International PAC Contributions to Federal Candidates, 2023 to 2024 cycle," accessed August 15, 2026. https://www.opensecrets.org/political-action-committees-pacs/brinker-international/C00241851/candidate-recipients/2024
[4] OpenSecrets, "Brinker International Profile: Summary, 2024 cycle," accessed August 15, 2026. https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/brinker-international/summary?id=D000000478
[5] Miller & Chevalier, Chartered, "Lobbying Registration (LD-1), client Brinker International, Inc.," effective April 14, 2011, filed May 18, 2011. https://lda.senate.gov/filings/public/filing/e84b6d5e-7e58-4269-8784-d5423b688b75/print/
[6] Texas Legislature, "Witness List, SB 1008, Senate Committee on Business and Commerce," March 18, 2025. https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/89R/witlistbill/pdf/SB01008S.pdf
[7] Brinker International, "Code of Conduct," political activity section, 2025. https://s21.q4cdn.com/420141687/files/doc_downloads/policies/BRINKER_COC_F25-03102025.pdf
[8] Brinker International, "Code of Conduct and Ethical Business Policy," Securities and Exchange Commission Form 8-K, Exhibit 14, filed June 2, 2005. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/703351/000070335105000040/ex148k20051.htm
[9] Chili's Grill & Bar, "Chili's Free Veterans Day Meal," accessed August 15, 2026. https://www.chilis.com/restaurant-events/veterans-day
[10] Brinker International, "This Veterans Day, Chili's has Service Members' Backs In More Ways Than One," November 5, 2013. https://investors.brinker.com/news-releases/news-release-details/veterans-day-chilis-has-service-members-backs-more-ways-one
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