Mitch McConnell recently told corporations to stay out of politics. Leaders of those corporations appear to be doing the opposite. More than 100 executives met via Zoom on Saturday to discuss new laws like the ones in Georgia that will make it more difficult to vote. The Washington Post writes:
Executives from major airlines, retailers and manufacturers — plus at least one NFL owner — talked about potential ways to show they opposed the controversial legislation, including by halting donations to politicians who support the bills and even delaying investments in states that pass the restrictive measures, according to four people who were on the call, including one of the organizers, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a Yale management professor.
The purpose of the meeting was to not let the momentum lag after the Delta Airlines and Coca-Cola announced their opposition to the Georgia bills. American Airlines and Dell Computer, based in Texas, said they were opposed to the legislation being drafted in Austin.
Republicans, led by Donald Trump, have called on Americans to boycott companies that have have come out strongly against the Georgia and Texas bills.
Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal has more details of the meeting:
Kenneth Chenault, the former chief executive of American Express Co. , and Kenneth Frazier, CEO of Merck & Co., urged the leaders to collectively call for greater voting access, according to several people who attended. Messrs. Chenault and Frazier cautioned businesses against dropping the issue and asked CEOs to sign a statement opposing what they view as discriminatory legislation on voting, the people said.
A statement could come early this week, the people said, and would build on one that 72 Black executives signed last month in the wake of changes to Georgia’s voting laws.
