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CEOs Plan New Push on Voting Legislation
Companies from PayPal to AMC have signaled they will support joining effort for voter access, people say
Dozens of chief executives and other senior leaders gathered on Zoom this weekend to plot what several said big businesses should do next about new voting laws under way in Texas and other states.
Kenneth Chenault, the former chief executive of American Express Co. , and Kenneth Frazier, CEO ofMerck & Co., urged the leaders to collectively call for greater voting access, according to several people who attended. Messrs. Chenault and Frazier warned businesses against dropping the issue and asked CEOs to sign a statement opposing what they view as discriminatory legislation on voting, the people said.
The new 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. Mr. Chenault told executives on the call that several leaders had signaled they would sign on, including executives atPepsiCoInc.,PayPalHoldings Inc.,T. Rowe PriceGroup Inc. andHessCorp. , among others, according to the people. PayPal confirmed it has signed the statement. PepsiCo, T. Rowe Price and Hess didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
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Some leaders spoke out in favor of signing on to the new statement, includingAMC EntertainmentHoldings Inc. CEO Adam Aron, Inclusive Capital Partners head andEstée Lauder Cos. director Lynn Forester de RothschildandCyberCore Technologies CEO Tina Kuhn, according to people familiar with the call. Others didn’t.
Mr. Aron and an AMC spokesman didn’t respond to requests for comment. Ms. Kuhn and Ms. Forester de Rothschild said they were proud to support the statement.
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Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, aYaleSchool of Management professor, convened the CEO gathering and said many corporate leaders are concerned that voting legislation could affect employees or other stakeholders. “They don’t want wedge issues,” he said. “They just don’t want angry constituencies. It’s not in the interest of business.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/ceos-plan-new-push-on-voting-legislation-11618161134?mod=djemalertNEWS