Big corporations that claim to support voting rights are still funding right-wing state AGs

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Leaders of companies like General Motors, Coca-Cola and Home Depot denounced the Republican onslaught of voting restrictions in states like Georgia earlier this year. But these companies and others have kept on funding Republican attorneys general who urged congressional leaders to block the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita led 22 other Republican attorneys general last month in condemning the John Lewis Voting Rights bill, claiming it “would allow the United States Department of Justice to usurp the authority states rightly possess over their own elections, essentially federalizing the election system.”

Two of Rokita’s top corporate sponsors have publicly supported voting rights. Brewing giant Anheuser-Busch, which donated $5,000 to Rokita and $75,000 to Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, another signatory.

“With the freedom to vote under attack across the country and targeted at communities of color and people with disabilities, corporations — especially those claiming to value democracy — need to put their money where their mouths are,” Kyle Herrig, the group’s president, said in a statement. “Instead, many big companies with household names are trying to have it both ways, telling their customers, shareholders and employees that they embrace voting rights while they fund the campaigns of politicians trying to block this fundamental right from vulnerable Americans.”

Coca-Cola, which is headquartered in Atlanta and was one of the top companies criticizing Georgia’s voting law as “unacceptable” and vowing to advocate for voting protections, also donated more than $13,000 to Carr. Home Depot, which issued a statement opposing the Georgia law, also gave Carr more than $13,000. The retail giant also donated more than $16,000 to West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, another signatory.

AT&T responded to the backlash over the Georgia law by issuing a statement in support of voting rights. “We believe the right to vote is sacred and we support voting laws that make it easier for more Americans to vote in free, fair and secure elections,” said CEO John Stankey. But the company has been a top funder of right-wing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, donating more than $108,000 to his campaigns. Paxton was one of the signatories of the letter and led a doomed lawsuit last winter asking the Supreme Court to throw out the election results in four states Trump lost despite no evidence of significant or widespread fraud.

“Voting rights should never be a partisan issue, and for decades it wasn’t,” Karen Hobert Flynn, president of the nonpartisan good-government group Common Cause, said in a statement. “Many current GOP senators have backed strong voting rights protections in the past. In fact, 10 current Republican senators voted for the Voting Rights Act reauthorization when it passed the Senate 98-0 in 2006, only one week after it was passed by the House. If 10 Senate Republicans will not support this bill, then Senate Democrats must reform the filibuster.”

“Republicans are committed to using every tool to prevent Black and brown voters from accessing the ballot box, and the Jim Crow filibuster is the ultimate weapon to block progress,” Spaulding continued. “Sen. Manchin searched for 10 Republicans to support voting rights legislation, but Republican senators willing to break with Sen. [Mitch] McConnell and stand on the right side of history simply don’t exist. Senate Democrats can no longer divorce the filibuster from the promises and issues they ran on — they must act with urgency to get rid of the filibuster.”

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Article URL : https://www.salon.com/2021/10/19/big-corporations-that-claim-to-support-voting-rights-are-still-funding-right-wing-state-ags/

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