Southwest Airlines, Chevron, 1-800 Contacts And Other Corporations Amongst Sponsors of ALEC Annual Meeting

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is holding its Annual Meeting in Austin, Texas this week from August 14-16. A list of sponsors for the event was provided to Documented, and is listed below. It features some companies, including Southwest Airlines, and the giant insurance company Chubb, not previously known to have funded ALEC.

With increased scrutiny of ALEC in recent years, with better understanding about the way that it operates, and the agenda it promotes, corporations that fund ALEC have faced a backlash from consumers. Action from consumers has been fueled by ALEC's role in promoting climate change denial and obstruction, opposition to collective bargaining and labor unions, promotion of restrictive Voter ID legislation, and extreme gun laws. As a result, many companies have publicly disassociated themselves from ALEC.

When Google quit ALEC in 2014, its Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt told NPR that: “I think the consensus within the company was that that was some sort of mistake and so we’re trying to not do that in the future.”

“Everyone understands climate change is occurring and the people who oppose it are really hurting our children and our grandchildren and making the world a much worse place. And so we should not be aligned with such people — they’re just, they’re just literally lying,” Schmidt told Diane Rehm.

Other high profile companies to quit ALEC have included Facebook, Microsoft, Exxon Mobil, Walmart, Coca Cola, and McDonalds. A list of these companies - there are now at least 114 of them - is kept by The Center for Media and Democracy.

When ALEC gave a platform at its 2018 annual meeting to David Horowitz, a notorious anti-muslim activist, he gave a speech that attacked marriage equality. Civil rights and good government groups challenged ALEC corporate donors to take action. Many did, including Verizon, AT&T, and Comcast, which all quit ALEC as a result.

The agenda for the ALEC meeting includes discussion of proposed model legislation opposing the Green New Deal, and presentations on redistricting by Cleta Mitchell and Hans von Spakovsky. The Trump 2020 campaign Director of Strategic Communications, Marc Lotter was an attendee, and according to a tweet from a participant, appeared to be a speaker.