The American Conservative Union on Tuesday started a pressure campaign to get companies and business leaders to stop siding with the left on political and cultural issues.
The ACU, which bills itself as “America’s original conservative grassroots organization,” announced the creation of a Center to Protect Voters and Their Voices as a response to a series of moves by businesses to punish Republican-run states.
“This is a fight we never expected to have to wage against entities that usually have been allies in economic battles, but we will wage it with all of our resources and talents,” the ACU said in a statement.
The group’s public battle with corporate America is a dramatic departure from the once cozy relationship between ideological conservatives and business leaders. That relationship cooled quickly when Major League Baseball moved the summer All-Star Game out of Atlanta amid liberal outrage over Georgia’s new election law.
The CEO of Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines also strongly criticized the law.
More than 100 chief executives and corporate leaders held a teleconference last week to discuss ways to retaliate against Georgia and other Republican-run states that are trying to tighten election laws, which Democrats decry as “voter suppression” efforts.
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The ACU, which has partnered with corporations and center-right groups since 1964 on policy matters, said the times have changed.
The first demand of the Center to Protect Voters and Their Voices is for meetings with CEOs and board members from what it describes as “egregious corporations and other woke enterprises.” If the demand for meetings is rebuffed, the ACU said it would ensure the companies lose the political support of millions advocating for policies that enable their profitability.
“If these companies continue down this dangerous road of separating themselves from their advocates, we will take additional steps to highlight their support of woke politics,” the statement said.
ACU stressed that it did not have a problem with corporations and business leaders expressing political beliefs but said their actions against customers and employees stemming from those beliefs as spurring conservatives to act now.
“We have moved into dangerous territory where highly profitable companies can join forces to inject themselves into whatever social issue of the day is politically expedient, regardless of the impact on everyday Americans,” said the ACU statement.
“Corporations have taken shortcuts and disingenuously accused election reformers of voter suppression and racism. But not only have they attacked voting rights and spread misinformation on the voting laws, they are also complicit in an unscientific and harmful assault on gender, unborn life, immigration, and energy policy, to name a few.”
The group said its goal is to be a voice for those who feel powerless or fear the consequences of speaking out against the corporations seeking to force them to bow to liberal political beliefs.
• Ryan Lovelace can be reached at rlovelace@washingtontimes.com.
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