The May Day Strong coalition, which organized more than 5,000 events on May 1, is focusing on companies that benefit from the administration’s policies and that it believes have the influence to prevent additional election interference from the White House. The letters ask the companies to publicly stand up for free and democratic elections and sign the Businesses for Democracy Pledge.

The pledge asks companies to commit to:

1. Giving employees information about their voting rights
2. To publicly oppose efforts that keep eligible voters from casting ballots
3. And to oppose attempts to stop votes from being counted or winners from being seated.

“This morning, May Day Strong sent out letters to demand that the corporations that make billions off our work and our communities finally take a stand against attempts to keep us from voting,” said Lauren Jacobs, Executive Director at PowerSwitch Action. “Corporations will continue to choose to stay silent while our democracy is dismantled around them, unless we take action that makes cowardice a bigger problem for them than speaking up would be.”

Some affiliates, including in Chicago, will also call on billionaire owners like Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to respect their workers' right to unionize and pay their fair share in taxes to fund critical public services, education and healthcare.

The effort comes as the administration pushes for more federal control over how Americans vote. The Justice Department has sued 30 states and Washington, D.C., for refusing to hand over sensitive voter data, and this month directed election officials in 29 states and D.C. to preserve their 2024 election records as part of the effort. On Sept. 14, the Supreme Court blocked Trump's plan to let the Postal Service refuse to deliver mail ballots to voters who were not on a list states had to submit in advance. On Friday, the Supreme Court let DHS resume using an overhauled federal citizenship database, the same tool behind a Texas voter purge that incorrectly flagged hundreds of citizens as potential noncitizens. In June, FBI agents raided the Cleveland offices of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, a progressive voter engagement group. And after DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said immigration agents could enter polling places to serve warrants or respond to threats, advocacy groups, civil rights organizations and unions filed two lawsuits this month to keep ICE and other armed federal agents away from the polls.

Organizers say it wouldn’t be the first time companies have used their influence to push back on elected officials. In Minnesota, the heads of 60 companies sent the President a letter calling for de-escalation during the federal occupation of Minneapolis, helping push for the head of Border Patrol to be pulled from the city. In Arizona, CEOs helped kill a state push to end birthright citizenship after a year-long boycott in 2011.

The coalition maintains that corporations like Amazon and JPMorgan Chase have just as much, if not more power and ability to influence government action. As such, May Day Strong will continue to push and publicly pressure corporations that do not respond to the letter to commit to defend voting rights as we move closer to November.

### 

The May Day Strong coalition is a constellation of over 600 labor and community organizations and hundreds of thousands of working people coming together with a common purpose: standing together against the billionaires waging a war on working people. For more information about May Day Strong’s work, please visit https://maydaystrong.org.