Old Navy is the biggest brand inside Gap Inc., and its politics come with a built-in split. The family that founded the company and still holds one of its largest ownership blocks, the Fishers, are among the country's more prominent Republican and conservative donors; son John Fisher worked for the Republican National Committee, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. Bush before becoming a major funder of the charter-school movement. The brand itself has spent years leaning the other way in tone, marketing belonging and inclusivity and, in 2020, paying its 50,000 store employees to work the polls.
Quick Take: Old Navy's politics are really two stories. The founding Fisher family, still one of the largest shareholder groups in parent Gap Inc., leans conservative in its personal giving: Don and Doris Fisher were longtime Republican donors, and son John Fisher, a lifelong Republican, has funded GOP candidates and poured money into charter schools. The brand and its parent, by contrast, market themselves as "purpose-driven," running nonpartisan voter and poll-worker programs in 2020 and selling inclusivity since 1994. Gap Inc. keeps a corporate PAC, but its PAC and employees together were tied to $288,144 in federal contributions in the 2024 cycle, about 75 percent of it to Democrats, alongside roughly $950,000 in lobbying.
- Old Navy is Gap Inc.'s largest brand, so its political profile is really the parent company's, shared with Gap, Banana Republic, and Athleta.
- The founding Fisher family leans Republican: Doris Fisher and her sons gave about $9 million to the anti-Obama group Americans for Job Security in 2012, and John Fisher is a lifelong Republican and major charter-school funder.
- Gap Inc.'s corporate PAC and employees were tied to about $288,000 in 2024, roughly 75 percent to Democrats, with Kamala Harris the top recipient; the company-linked total has leaned Democratic every cycle since 2012.
- Old Navy and Gap ran nonpartisan civic programs, paying store employees to work the 2020 polls, and Gap Inc.'s 2024 federal lobbying was entirely trade policy tied to its supply chain.
- Gap Inc. publicizes LGBTQ-inclusive policies as company practice, including transgender-inclusive benefits and healthcare and a Trans and Non-Binary Competency 101 training for employees covering terminology and pronouns.
The Fisher Family's Republican Roots
Don and Doris Fisher opened the first Gap store in San Francisco in 1969 and launched Old Navy in 1994, and the family has stayed close to the company and its politics ever since.[1] Don and Doris Fisher were well-known Republican donors, and their son John Fisher, who now owns the Athletics baseball franchise and chairs the Charter School Growth Fund, is described as a lifelong Republican who worked for the Republican National Committee, the Reagan White House, and Vice President George H.W. Bush before backing Republican candidates of his own.[1] The family's signature political cause is education reform: the Fishers gave more than $70 million to KIPP and helped build it into one of the country's largest charter-school networks, and John Fisher chaired the KIPP Foundation for years before moving to a board seat and now chairs the Charter School Growth Fund.[1][2] The family's biggest single move into national politics came in 2012, when Doris Fisher and her sons gave about $9 million to Americans for Job Security, a conservative nonprofit that spent heavily against Barack Obama's reelection and did not normally disclose its donors. The Fisher gifts, which made the family the group's largest donor, surfaced through a California state investigation and a later federal filing; John Fisher gave the most at roughly $5 million, with Doris and William Fisher giving about $2 million each.[12][14] Doris Fisher, who was an honorary lifetime director of Gap Inc. until her death in San Francisco on May 2, 2026 at age 94, ranked among California's largest individual political donors; reporting noted that while she was often labeled a Republican, she gave to candidates of both parties as long as they supported charter schools.[2][11] These are the family's personal politics, separate from the positions the brand takes in public.
The Brand's "Purpose-Driven" Image
Old Navy and its parent present themselves very differently from the founding family. Gap Inc. describes its brands as "purpose-driven," and Old Navy has marketed belonging, inclusivity, and "equality" since its 1994 launch.[3] The most visible example came in 2020, when Old Navy said it would pay its roughly 50,000 store employees eight hours of wages to serve as poll workers on Election Day, plus up to three hours of paid time off to vote, and its sister brands Gap, Banana Republic, and Athleta joined in.[3][4] The company framed the effort as nonpartisan, running it through the Civic Alliance and Power the Polls, two nonpartisan groups that recruit poll workers and encourage turnout, under a company-wide #GapIncVotes campaign.[4][5] Then chief executive Sonia Syngal said the company wanted to "be a force for good," and Old Navy's president argued in a CNN opinion piece that businesses should not make employees choose between a paycheck and staffing the polls.[4][5]
Gap Inc. has also taken and publicized LGBTQ positions as a matter of company policy. Its Equality and Belonging materials describe a nondiscrimination stance covering sexual orientation and gender identity and expression, and a partnership with the transgender-youth group GenderCool.[15] In December 2023, the company said it had begun standing up for LGBTQ rights decades ago and publicly detailed its LGBTQ-inclusive family and domestic-partnership benefits, transgender-inclusive policies and healthcare offerings, supplier nondiscrimination policy, and a Trans and Non-Binary Competency 101 training for employees covering terminology and pronouns.[16]
Where Gap Inc.'s Political Money Goes
Old Navy has no PAC or corporate giving of its own; the reportable federal activity runs through parent Gap Inc., and OpenSecrets folds Old Navy and Banana Republic into the parent's totals.[6] Gap Inc. keeps a corporate political action committee, funded by voluntary contributions from employees, directors, and stockholders, which the company says supports "candidates and committees that best support our business interests."[7] That money arrives in two streams. In the 2024 cycle, OpenSecrets recorded $288,144 tied to Gap Inc., about $137,500 of it from the corporate PAC and about $151,700 from individual employees, executives, and their families. Together the two streams ran 75 percent to Democrats and 25 percent to Republicans, and the single largest recipient was Kamala Harris at $80,636, all of it individual giving rather than PAC money. The PAC gives to candidates in both parties, but the company-linked total has leaned Democratic in every cycle since 2012, at 75 percent in 2024, 85 percent in 2020, and 77 percent in 2016. Gap Inc. spent roughly $950,000 on federal lobbying in 2024 and reported no outside election spending.[6] The bills it lobbied on in 2024 were all trade policy: tariff and Generalized System of Preferences measures, Haiti apparel trade preferences, the Americas Act, and duty rules on low-value imports, all tied to its global supply chain rather than to social or partisan causes.[6] In its own disclosures, Gap Inc. says its political spending is governed by board oversight and that it makes no contributions to "527" political organizations.[7]
What Old Navy Is, and Who Owns It
Old Navy sells affordable, family-focused basics and is Gap Inc.'s largest brand, one of the biggest apparel brands in the United States, with more than 1,200 stores.[3][9] Its parent, Gap Inc., trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker GAP (formerly GPS), was founded in 1969, and is based in San Francisco; the brand family also includes Gap, Banana Republic, and Athleta, and Gap Inc. reported about $15.1 billion in net sales for fiscal 2024 with about 82,000 employees.[10] Richard Dickson, who previously led the revival of Barbie at Mattel, has been president and chief executive since August 2023.[8][9] Gap Inc. has a single class of common stock, one vote per share, but the founding family's large combined holding gives it outsized influence. In the company's 2025 proxy, the three Fisher brothers each beneficially owned roughly 15 to 16 percent of the stock, held largely through family trusts and partnerships; the filing notes these stakes overlap through shared voting and cannot simply be added, but together they leave the Fishers by far the largest ownership bloc.[13] Robert Fisher sits on the board and chairs its Governance and Sustainability Committee, and the family's holdings were reallocated among trusts after Doris Fisher's death in May 2026.[11]
Where to Find Them
Old Navy sells directly to shoppers through its website, oldnavy.com, and more than 1,200 stores, along with its parent's other retail and online channels. Gap Inc. is headquartered in San Francisco.[3]
Footnotes
[1] Inside Philanthropy, "Fisher Philanthropy: The Three Gap Heirs Are Giving Away a Fortune," accessed August 2026. https://www.insidephilanthropy.com/home/2014-9-17-fisher-philanthropy-the-three-gap-heirs-are-giving-away-a-fo-html
[2] Capital & Main, "Gap Co-Founder Doris Fisher Is Bankrolling the Charter School Agenda," October 11, 2016. https://capitalandmain.com/gap-co-founder-doris-fisher-is-bankrolling-the-charter-school-agenda-and-pouring-dark-money-into-ca-politics
[3] Old Navy (Gap Inc.), "Old Navy to Pay Store Employees Who Serve As Poll Workers on Election Day," company statement, September 1, 2020. https://www.gapinc.com/en-us/articles/2020/09/old-navy-to-pay-store-employees-who-serve-as-poll-
[4] Gap Inc., "Gap Inc. Steps Up Civic Engagement Efforts Ahead of Election," company statement, September 2020. https://www.gapinc.com/en-us/articles/2020/09/gap-inc-steps-up-civic-engagement-efforts-ahead-of
[5] CNN Business, "Why CEOs should pay their employees to work the polls this year," September 16, 2020. https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/16/perspectives/old-navy-vote-polls-election
[6] OpenSecrets, "Gap Inc: Summary," accessed August 2026. https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/gap-inc/summary?id=D000000547
[7] Gap Inc., "Gap Inc. Political Engagement Policy," accessed August 2026. https://www.gapinc.com
[8] Wikipedia, "Gap Inc.," accessed August 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gap_Inc.
[9] Gap Inc., "Executive Leadership Team," accessed August 2026. https://www.gapinc.com/en-us/about/leadership/executive-leadership-team
[10] The Gap, Inc., Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended February 1, 2025 (net sales $15.086 billion; approximately 82,000 employees as of February 1, 2025; listed on the NYSE under GAP). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/39911/000003991125000029/gap-20250201.htm
[11] Retail Dive, "Gap co-founder Doris Fisher dies at 94," May 2026. https://www.retaildive.com/news/gap-co-founder-doris-fisher-dies-94/819321/
[12] OpenSecrets, "GOP heavy hitters, Trump cabinet members revealed as donors to anti-Obama dark money group," October 2019. https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2019/10/donors-to-anti-obama-dark-money-grp/
[13] The Gap, Inc., 2025 Definitive Proxy Statement (Schedule 14A), filed April 8, 2025 (Fisher family beneficial ownership). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/39911/000003991125000063/gps-20250408.htm
[14] Issue One, "Dark Money Illuminated," profiles of top dark money groups, identifying Fisher family contributions to Americans for Job Security. https://issueone.org/donors-key-findings-and-profiles-of-the-top-15-dark-money-groups/
[15] Gap Inc., "Equality and Belonging," gap.com, accessed August 2026 (nondiscrimination stance and GenderCool partnership). https://www.gap.com/page/gap-equality-belonging?cid=1179886
[16] Gap Inc., "Gap Inc. Ranks High on HRC Corporate Equality Index," December 7, 2023 (LGBTQ-inclusive benefits, transgender-inclusive policies and healthcare, supplier nondiscrimination, and pronoun and terminology training). https://www.gapinc.com/en-us/articles/culture-blog/2023/december/gap-inc-ranks-high-on-hrc-corporate-equality-index
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