How Did You Vote on AI, Quotas, & “Gender-Affirming Care”?
From Kroger to NVIDIA — does your voting match your views?
Over the last two weeks, major businesses like Comcast, Kroger, and NVIDIA put dozens of proposals before their shareholders. If you own those companies through asset managers, you voted on them – but do you know how you voted? Clients using our proxy voting guidelines have peace of mind that their shares are being voted in a way consistent with their worldview. However, if you entrusted votes to an asset manager that isn’t aligned with your worldview, chances are you won’t be happy with the way they voted your shares.
The past two weeks saw a wide range of issues on the ballot — take a look at some of the highlights below.
Kroger
A proposal pushing the company to minimize the data it hands over to law enforcement regarding abortion drugs and “gender-affirming” treatment. You voted against this proposal. Kroger has an obligation to comply with federal & state laws regarding attempts to purchase illegal drugs — adding activist pressure to this process, especially in a way that implies Kroger should minimize such cooperation, does tremendous harm to brand reputation. Kroger isn’t “the resistance” – it’s a publicly traded company with a responsibility to comply with the law and not satiate activist hunger for rebellion and subterfuge. Pretending otherwise is insane, nonsensical, and anti-fiduciary.
A proposal pressuring the company to impose additional labor standards & practices on its suppliers. You voted against this proposal — the proposed standards don’t add meaningful scrutiny to Kroger’s existing due diligence, and the language of the proposal indicates that the requested standards could easily act as a Trojan horse for non-fiduciary policy pressure.
NVIDIA
A proposal pressuring the company to report on the racial makeup of its workplace. You voted against this proposal - quota-based policies that prioritize race & gender over merit aren’t good for business, and major companies like NVIDIA owe it to their shareholders to be focusing on far more important things than the skin color of their workforce. Anyone who’s been paying attention during the last couple years can see NVIDIA’s dominant market performance – why would a company with that level of success switch from a merit-based approach it on activist-prescribed DEI?
Mastercard
A proposal urging the company to report on the risks created by affirmative action policies. You voted for this proposal - quota-based policies that prioritize race & gender over talent & merit present real risk, and Mastercard should be honest & transparent about that risk to shareholders.
If your financial advisor or asset manager used our guidelines, you know how you voted for these proposals. If you outsourced your voting power to a manager like BlackRock, however, you likely voted against efforts to depoliticize company policy, including ditching quota-based policies at Mastercard. This is why the alignment that Bowyer Research guidelines create matters: the proxy advisors that control the vast majority of votes at companies like Kroger & NVIDIA are not interested in getting companies back to political neutrality.
We’ll keep at that — and until then, we’ll be keeping you updated on what’s on the ballot at America’s biggest companies. Thanks for allowing us to represent you in this arena.
Jerry Bowyer is President of Bowyer Research.
Isaac Willour is a Corporate Relations Analyst at Bowyer Research.