More than 100 business leaders join call to weigh activism on voting legislation

More than 100 corporate leaders held a Zoom meeting over the weekend to discuss how they could push back against various voting bills and may release a statement on the matter this week. 

During the Saturday meeting, which lasted a little over an hour, former American Express CEO Kenneth Chenault and Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier urged the others in attendance to unite and call for increased voting access and collectively sign a statement challengingnew voting legislation they consider discriminatory, according to the Wall Street Journal.
 
Last month, dozens of black executives, led by Chenault and Frazier, signed a letter calling on companies to fight voting legislation like the law recently passed in Georgia, arguing that they disproportionately affect black voters. The new declaration, which might come early this week, is an extension of that effort. 

“The meeting builds on a growing chorus from business leaders to fight more than 350 voting laws being introduced in 47 states that are discriminatory and designed to limit Americans’ ability to vote,” the Chief Executive Leadership Institute at Yale School of Management, the Coalition for Inclusive Capitalism, and the Leadership Now Project said in a joint statement about the meeting, which was obtained by the Washington Examiner.

“CEOs indicated readiness to act individually and collectively to shore up American democracy and ensure Americans have access to a world class voting system,” the statement continued. 

The statement said that the executives present during the meeting indicated that they would reevaluate political donations to candidates who support the bills in question and “would reconsider investments in states which act upon such proposals.”