What ‘Business Leaders for Kamala’ reveals about the anti-woke
Most people have no idea who Alissa Heinerscheid is, but conservatives should send her a big fat thank-you note. The former marketing VP did more to change the fortunes of consumer activism in this country than anyone ever dreamed. The moment she plastered Dylan Mulvaney’s face on Bud Light’s blue cans, the entire script from the last 20 years flipped. Suddenly, it wasn’t the cocky CEOs of major brands holding all the power — but an army of Americans who, thanks to that six-pack, have brought the entire landscape of corporate America to its knees. And this election is proof.
When Democrats pushed out a list of “88 Business Leaders for Harris” endorsements last week, it was meant to give the vice president some credibility on economic issues. And maybe it was an impressive stat if all people read was the headline. After all, Hillary Clinton had less than 60 of these same corporate backers in 2016. But what’s extremely revealing about these names, especially the ones attached to popular U.S. brands, is that almost all of Harris’s support comes from former CEOs and chairmen of companies who no longer represent the business. In other words, these past-tense executives, who make up half of the 88 names, are listed even though they don’t qualify as actual leaders of anything.
They include the has-beens of places like Time Warner, Sam’s Club, Starbucks, Walgreens, Xerox, American Express, American Airlines, Paramount Pictures and Fox, Bank of America, Lyft, LinkedIn, GoDaddy, Sony Entertainment, Yahoo!, Ford, 21st Century Fox, PepsiCo, Visa, Zillow, and a collection of other unknown businessmen, firms, and sports groups. The only recognizable brand that had the nerve to put a current CEO on the Harris bandwagon was Chobani, whose yogurt will almost certainly be next in line for the consumer firing squad.
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Here’s what this should say to every American who’s taken a stand on the extremism of major companies: You’re winning. In a matter of 17 months, the average shopper has gone from being mocked in high-rise board rooms to being flat-out feared. There’s a reason these companies didn’t want their current bosses to endorse Kamala Harris, and that’s because they’re terrified of being punished by a powerful and motivated market — the same market that’s humbled Anheuser-Busch, Target, John Deere, Tractor Supply Co., Ford, Coors Light, Jack Daniels, and Harley Davidson into silence or surrender on all of their woke, pro-transgender, pro-DEI policies.
After a year and a half of torching woke businesses’ profit lines, it’s time for everyone to admit what the mainstream media already has: This was no one-off. What happened in April 2023 awakened a sleeping giant that finally realized its might. The years of frustration over Big Business’s leftist politics that had been simmering below the surface with every rainbow ad, every drag commercial, finally boiled over — and the movement it inspired has an intensity and fervor that show no signs of slowing down. Thanks to influencers like Robby Starbuck and the long-suffering consumer activists who fought this fight alone for so long, this country seems to have entered a refreshing age of corporate neutrality.
That’s bad news for Donald Trump’s opponent who, according to a 2017 statement, believes everybody should be woke. “We have to stay woke,” then-Senator Harris told Laurene Powell Jobs at Recode’s annual conference. “Like, everybody needs to be woke,” she insisted. “And you can talk about if you’re the wokest or woker, but just stay more woke than less woke.” Incredibly, she reiterated those sentiments in a Twitter post the next day.
Well, unfortunately for Harris and the entire Democratic Party, “Your favorite brand no longer cares about being woke,” Vox has declared. And any CEOs who deep down might care can’t afford to. But the reality is, it isn’t just conservative buyers who are forcing this change. There are plenty of reasonable people on both sides who are just plain sick of having politics injected into their breakfast cereal and hair shampoo. According to a July report from Weber Shandwick, three in four Americans say they want businesses to maintain political neutrality in the workplace. Who can blame them? We shouldn’t have to have an immigration debate over which chewing gum to buy.
As Starbuck said, “Our movement is creating change on a massive scale. Sanity is making a comeback.” And every time you open your wallet or your mouth and demand better from these radical executives, you make the American buyer an even bigger force to be reckoned with.
Originally published at The Washington Stand.
Suzanne Bowdey serves as editorial director and senior writer for The Washington Stand. In her role, she drafts commentary on topics such as life, consumer activism, media and entertainment, sexuality, education, religious freedom, and other issues that affect the institutions of marriage and family. Over the past 20 years at FRC, her op-eds have been featured in publications ranging from the Washington Times to The Christian Post. Suzanne is a graduate of Taylor University in Upland, Ind., with majors in both English Writing and Political Science.
