Happy Thursday,
As Georgia lawmakers debated significant new voting restrictions over the last month, many of the most powerful companies in the state stayed neutral. Now, nearly a week after governor Brian Kemp signed the measure, companies are pivoting and speaking out more forcefully on the measure.
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Several of the country’s leading Black executives penned a letter Wednesday urging the business community to protest more forcefully. “There is no middle ground here,” Kenneth Chenault, the former CEO of American Express, who led the effort, told the New York Times. Kenneth Frazier, the CEO of pharmaceutical company Merck, told the Times he only really started paying attention to the Georgia measure once it passed. “There seems to be no one speaking out,” he told the Times. “We thought if we spoke up, it might lead to a situation where others felt the responsibility to speak up.”
Sure enough, other companies have started to criticize the measure.
The first was Delta Airlines, one of several Georgia-based companies that has issued muted statements over the last few weeks as activists pressured them to take a stand. Ed Bastian, the company’s CEO, finally issued a clear rebuke of the measure on Wednesday. The law, Bastian wrote, was “unacceptable”.
“After having time to now fully understand all that is in the bill, coupled with discussions with leaders and employees in the Black community, it’s evident that the bill includes provisions that will make it harder for many underrepresented voters, particularly Black voters, to exercise their constitutional right to elect their representatives. That is wrong,” he wrote.
“The entire rationale for this bill was based on a lie: that there was widespread voter fraud in Georgia in the 2020 elections. This is simply not true,” he said.
The comments reportedly infuriated Republicans in the Georgia legislature, who were considering punishing the airline, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Kemp said he was caught off guard by the statements.
Republicans in the Georgia legislature made a last minute effort Wednesday to punish Delta for its opposition, advancing a measure that would strip a tax break for the airline. The measure ultimately failed, but Republicans made it clear they were sending a warning.
“They like our public policy when we’re doing things that benefit them,” David Ralston, the speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives, told the Atlanta Journal Constitution.“You don’t feed a dog that bites your hand. You got to keep that in mind sometimes.”
James Quincey, the CEO of Coca-Cola, which like Delta had declined to publicly take a stance on the bill, also condemned it on Wednesday. “This legislation is unacceptable. It is a step backwards,” he told CNBC. “This legislation is wrong and needs to be remedied and we will continue to advocate for it both in private and now even more clearly in public.”
Activists welcomed the statements from companies, but warned that words would not be enough. “We’re just getting started!” tweeted Cliff Albright, a co-founder of Black Voters Matter, one of the groups that has been pressuring businesses to take a stand. Now that the statements are (belatedly) more forceful, we need the words joined by more forceful actions. We have a few ideas for them….”
Nse Ufot, CEO of the New Georgia Project, told the Guardian earlier this month that the companies have some of the most powerful lobbyists and believed powerful public statements during the legislative process could have killed the legislation. On Wednesday, Ufot urged the companies to speak up against voting restrictions pending in other states.
“This is where the problem lies,” she said in a statement.” Conversations with Black and Brown leaders must happen at all stages and all areas of decision-making, not after the damage is done. Here’s the lesson: listen to Black and Brown people. Listen to young voters. Listen to new voters. We are the future, and our voices matter.”
“Its too little, too late,” said Deborah Scott, the executive director of Georgia Stand-Up, a civic action group that on Wednesday called for a boycott of Georgia over the law. “We’re glad they’re making these statements. We wish they would have made them 20 days ago, 10 days ago, before it was passed. I think the pressure activist groups are putting on them are making them say that. But they could have stopped it a long time ago had they made a statement.”
Also worth watching…
Crystal Mason, the Texas woman sentenced to five years in prison for mistakenly voting while ineligible in 2016, will get another chance to appeal her conviction, Texas’s highest criminal court announced Wednesday. Mason’s case attracted national outcry because of the severity of her conviction and because Mason was never told she couldn’t vote.
Rita Hart, an Iowa Democrat, announced Wednesday that she was withdrawing her contest to a US House race she lost by just six votes to Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks. Her campaign claimed it had identified 22 ballots that went uncounted and was asking the US House to investigate and overturn the election. Republicans had rallied around Miller-Meeks, pointing to the fact that Hart declined to pursue her case in state court before asking Congress to step in.
Source: US Politics - theguardian.com
