Salon: Big corporate donors claim to support racial justice — but fund Republicans pushing voting limits

Corporate America is taking a stand against new voting restrictions around the country, boycotting states that imposed harsh new laws and speaking out against proposed limits in others. But many top corporate political donors who have touted their commitments to racial equity and diversity have also funded the Republican lawmakers who are pushing bills aimed at making it more difficult to vote.

Three of the top five corporate donors to state lawmakers in Texas promoted their commitments to racial justice — but have also donated $493,000 to state senators who sponsored Senate Bill 7. That legislation would limit early voting and absentee voting while empowering partisan poll watchers and clearly targets Houston, the state’s densest population center, where a majority of voters are people of color, according to a new report from the left-leaning government watchdog Accountable.US.

“These corporations tout commitments to diversity and racial equity, then they turn around and donate thousands to lawmakers responsible for stripping voting rights away from Black and brown Americans,” Accountable.US President Kyle Herrig said in a statement to Salon. “As these states actively attempt to suppress voter participation, corporations need to live up to their values and disavow racist attacks on our democracy.”

Utility firms Exelon Corp. and Oncor and the tax firm Ryan LLC, the three biggest corporate donors in Texas behind Blackridge and AT&T, all expressed commitment to equality and diversity in the wake of the 2020 racial justice protests. Exelon even features a Black Lives Matter page on its website to highlight its “fierce commitment to diversity, inclusion and equity.” But the companies have given nearly a half-million to sponsors of SB 7, including some that have “troubling prior histories of racism, discrimination, or voter suppression,” according to the Accountable report.