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Dozens of CEOs and other senior leaders gathered at Zoom this weekend to plan what several said big business should do next about new voting laws in Texas and other states.
Former American Express Co. CEO Kenneth Chenault and Merck & Co. CEO Kenneth Frazier, according to several people who attended, urged the leaders to jointly call for greater voting rights. Messrs. Chenault and Frazier have warned businesses to drop the issue and asked CEOs to sign a statement they see as discriminatory legislation on the vote.
The new statement may come early in the week, people said, and will build on one signed by 72 black executives last month following changes in Georgia’s voting laws. Mr. Chenault said on call to executives that several leaders had indicated they would sign up, including executives from PepsiCo Inc., PayPal Holdings Inc., T. Rowe Price Group Inc. and Hess Corp. PayPal has confirmed that it has signed the statement. PepsiCo, T. Rowe Price and Hess did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
More than 200 U.S. companies requiring election changes require employment ID
As more companies and their leaders have spoken out over the issue in recent weeks, their views have angered Republican and federal lawmakers who say companies are misrepresenting the issue and should not act as shadow lawmakers. Meanwhile, activists and others have said the actions taken by leaders are not strong enough. Many CEOs now feel a duty or pressure to make their views explicitly known to employees and others, executive advisers said.
Many companies remain cautious about venturing into politically charged areas. A manager of a Fortune 100 consumer products business said board members, employees and sales leaders are urging leaders to express their opinion, but it could put a big eye on the company.
| Ticker | Safety | Last | Alter | Alter% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AXP | AMERICAN EXPRESS CO. | 147.81 | +0.77 | + 0.52% |
| MRK | MERCK & CO., INC. | 76.29 | +0.77 | + 1.02% |
| PYPL | PAYPAL HOLDINGS, INC. | 266.77 | +2.27 | + 0.86% |
| SBUX | STARBUCKS CORP. | 113.18 | +0.14 | + 0.12% |
| PEP | PEPSICO, INC. | 142.57 | +0.03 | + 0.02% |
“It really is a win-win situation from a corporate point of view,” the executive said.
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Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank, who also owns the Atlanta United football team and the PGA Tour Superstore, said on the call that he believes a large portion of National Football League, Major League Soccer and Professional Golfers fans ‘Association wants the groups to make their case. positions known about voting rights, people said on the call.
Mr. Blank, a co-founder of Home Depot Inc., also said that some fans expect the NFL to say more, compared to five years ago, when Colin Kaepernick, the NFL player, first told him about racial expressed justice.
Mellody Hobson, chairman of Starbucks Corp., said on the call that political unrest is bad for businesses and executives should work together on voting issues as states consider legislation and while the trial over the murder of George Floyd continues, people said. Me. Hobson declined to comment from a spokesman.
Some leaders have spoken out in favor of signing the new statement, including Adam Aron, CEO of AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc., CEO of Inclusive Capital Partners and Lynn Forester de Rothschild, CEO of Estée Lauder, and Tina Kuhn, CEO of CyberCore Technologies, according to people familiar with the call. Others have not.
Mr. Aaron and an AMC spokesman did not respond to requests for comment. Me. Kuhn and Mrs. Forester de Rothschild said they are proud of the statement.
The issue is unlikely to go away any time soon. More than 350 different bills are being considered in dozens of states, according to a version of the Brennan Center for Justice, a public policy think tank. Some executives of the call described some bills as racist or restrictive, and several participants described their efforts as critical of democracy, rather than biased.
Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a professor at Yale School of Management, convened the chief executive and said many corporate leaders are concerned that legislation on votes could affect employees or other stakeholders. “They do not want wedge issues,” he said. “They just do not want angry constituencies. It is not in the interest of business.”
Brad Karp, chairman of the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, has organized the leaders of dozens of major law firms to issue a separate statement calling on government officials to ease the vote and challenge bills that create unnecessary barriers pose, according to people on the call and people familiar with the efforts.
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Ford, president of the Ford Foundation, Darren Walker, who plans to sign the new statement, said most in his talks with CEOs, including Republican CEOs, said they did not see the need for laws to to sharpen voter access, although many are afraid to speak out.
“There is no harder job in America today than running a public company,” he said. Walker said. “There are so many stakeholders who take a stand on what the priority of your business should be, and they have views that are sometimes diametrically opposed.”