McConnell says companies should stay out of politics
Senator says it’s OK if they make donations
After the Supreme Court ruled in 2010 that companies could finance election spending, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., celebrated the prospect that corporate America would enter — and influence — the political fray.
“For too long, some in this country have been deprived of full participation in the political process,” he said in a statement at the time.
He hailed the decision, Citizens United, as “an important step” in “restoring the First Amendment rights of these groups.”
But just over a decade later, McConnell has a different message for companies: Unless it involves money, they had better stay quiet.
“My warning to corporate America is to stay out of politics,” McConnell said at a news conference in Kentucky on Tuesday, before adding: “I’m not talking about political contributions.”
His comments come amid an escalating battle over Georgia’s sweeping new voting law, which has been publicly condemned by major companies based in the state, including Coca-Cola and Delta Air Lines.
Major League Baseball has moved its All-Star Game out of Atlanta in response to the legislation, saying it will restrict access to the ballot.
Similar showdowns appear to be brewing elsewhere, with American Airlines criticizing a Texas bill that would prohibit extended voting hours and outlaw drive-through voting across the state, among several other major changes.
McConnell has long supported companies’ political participation, but Tuesday he joined the Republican charge to attack corporations for speaking out on the voting laws by drawing a distinction between donations and corporate statements.
“Most of them contribute to both sides. They have political action committees. That’s fine. It’s legal. It’s appropriate. I support that,” he told reporters.
“I’m talking about taking a position on a highly incendiary issue like this and punishing a community or state because you don’t like a particular law they passed. I just think it’s stupid,” McConnell said.
In a statement earlier this week, he argued that the Georgia voting law would in fact make it easier to access the polls and issued a warning to companies condemning the changes: If they continue to oppose Republicans and engage in “economic blackmail,” McConnell said, they would face unspecified repercussions.
“From election law to environmentalism to radical social agendas to the Second Amendment, parts of the private sector keep dabbling in behaving like a woke parallel government,” McConnell said in a statement. “Corporations will invite serious consequences if they become a vehicle for far-left mobs to hijack our country from outside the constitutional order.”