- A group of former CEOs published an opinion piece on Tuesday endorsing this Kamala Harris for chairman.
- They wrote that Donald Trump would be bad for business and bad for the American economy.
- It comes as Trump has touted support from Elon Musk and leaders in the financial and other sectors.
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A group of former CEOs who led major U.S. companies — including American Airlines, LinkedIn, Xerox and American Express — advocated for Kamala Harris in an op-ed a week earlier. Election Day.
The 17 business leaders said they voted for Harris because they thought she would be better for the economy than the previous one President Donald Trump. They have argued their case Fortune on Tuesday.
The group also included the former CEO of LinkedIn Reid Hoffmanformer American Airlines CEO Doug Parker, former American Express CEO Ken Chenault, former Sony CEO and current Snap chairman Michael Lynton, and others who led major publicly traded companies.
“Many Americans continue to believe that the CEOs of the nation’s largest companies are largely supporters of Donald Trump — 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 the potential impact on their companies. That’s why they said they felt obligated to speak out as former leaders who interact with active CEOs.
They said Trump has taken “extremely anti-business” positions, including proposing “draconian” tariffs on imports. They also had criticism Trump’s speech on eliminating Fed independence.
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The group said they come from different political backgrounds but support Harris in part because of the state of the U.S. economy. They quoted GDP growthincluding record stock market valuations, wage growth and employment levels.
The op-ed comes next Elon Musk has become increasingly involved in supporting Trump’s presidential bid. ‘I have not been politically active before; I am now politically active because I believe the future of America and the future of civilization are at stake.” Musk said at a town hall he hosted last Saturday in Swatara Township, Pennsylvania.
Other Business leaders have publicly supported Trumpincluding 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 as they support one candidate or the other 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 two non-CEO authors of Tuesday’s op-ed, previously told Business Insider that most CEOs don’t publicly endorse candidates because they are “concerned about unnecessarily alienating customers and employees.”
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