Former CEOs of American Airlines, LinkedIn, Amex, Xerox, and 13 other companies make the pitch for Kamala Harris
Kimberly White/Getty Images for WIRED
- A group of former CEOs published an op-ed Tuesday endorsing Kamala Harris for president.
- They wrote that Donald Trump would be bad for business and bad for the US economy.
- It comes as Trump has touted the support of Elon Musk and leaders in finance and other industries.
A group of former CEOs who led major US companies — including American Airlines, LinkedIn, Xerox, and American Express — made the case for Kamala Harris in an op-ed one week before Election Day.
The 17 business leaders said they were voting for Harris because they thought she'd be better for the economy than former President Donald Trump. They made their case in Fortune on Tuesday.
The group included former LinkedIn CEO Reid Hoffman, former American Airlines CEO Doug Parker, former American Express CEO Ken Chenault, former Sony CEO and current Snap chairman Michael Lynton, and others who led large, publicly traded companies.
"Many Americans continue to believe that the CEOs of the nation's largest companies are largely Donald Trump supporters — but nothing could be further from the truth," they wrote.
The group said current CEOs may not be able to speak out publicly because of potential consequences to their businesses. Because of that, they said they felt obligated to speak up as former leaders who are in touch with active CEOs.
They said Trump has taken "extreme anti-business" positions, including proposing "draconian" tariffs on imports. They also criticized Trump's talk about eliminating the Fed's independence.
The group said they come from different political backgrounds but are supporting Harris in part because of the state of the US economy. They cited GDP growth, record stock market valuations, wage growth, and employment levels, among other measures.
The op-ed comes after Elon Musk has become increasingly involved in supporting Trump's presidential bid. "I haven't been politically active before; I'm politically active now because I think the future of America and the future of civilization is at stake," Musk said at a town hall he hosted last Saturday in Swatara Township, Pennsylvania.
Other business leaders have publicly supported Trump, including Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman, who said this week that Trump would be "efficient and effective."
Meanwhile, some business leaders have avoided taking a position publicly even if they support one candidate or another in private.
Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a professor at the Yale School of Management and founder of the Chief Executive Leadership Institute, who is listed as one of the two non-CEO authors of Tuesday's op-ed, previously told Business Insider that most chief executives don't publicly endorse candidates because they're "concerned about alienating customers and employees needlessly."