President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris speak about constitutional voting rights in Atlanta on January, 11.
Photo by Peter Zay/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
One day after President Joe Biden delivered a speech calling for the passage of voting-rights legislation, a group of business leaders are backing the idea.
A group of 40 corporate leaders, including six billionaires, addressed a letter to Biden, Senator Mitch McConnell and Senator Chuck Schumer on Wednesday, calling for the “immediate passage” of two bills—the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act. The letter argued that the bills are “critical to the long-term stability of our democratic system and American rule of law.”
The Freedom To Vote Alliance, which claims to be a nonpartisan advocacy group of civic and business leaders, organized the letter. “We cannot overstate the peril we see to America’s long-term economic health and the profitability of U.S. businesses if our rule of law erodes,” the letter says. “The stability afforded by our democratic system of government and our open economy are the cornerstones of American innovation and our economic dominance around the world.”
Many of the signees are known for supporting Democrats. Among them: Etsy CEO Josh Silverman, Patagonia CEO Ryan Gellert, Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian and five billionaires and one spouse of a billionaire who donated to Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign, including LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman, Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson, Ripple cofounder Chris Larsen, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, former eBay president Jeff Skoll and Connie Ballmer, who is married to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson also wrote his own separate letter directed at other business leaders and published on LinkedIn Wednesday. “I believe voting rights is the issue of our time,” his letter states. He also claims that “several business leaders have confided in me that they’ve been explicitly told by partisan officials to keep out of this issue.” Lawson calls on other business leaders, particularly those who operate in Arizona and West Virginia, to instead contact Senators Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia to show support for changing the filibuster rules, something that both senators have previously opposed.
Both letters call voting-rights a non-partisan issue. But the only Republican lawmaker who has so far showed support for either bill is Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.
