Too Much Winning
Here's why you have not been hearing from us.
So sorry that you haven’t heard from us in some time. It’s not because we’ve had nothing to report—it’s because we’ve had too much to report. We are in the midst of 80‑hour weeks (don’t worry, the team all just got Christmas bonuses, thanks to you!) and a massive engagement wave with almost daily victories. We’ve had to choose between spending time on winning or spending time writing emails to you about the wins.
This is our most important corporate engagement update of the year—please read and share.
This is the year that, together with you, we took the lead. This is the year that the bubble of politicized corporate governance began to burst and after years of working for this, we get to see it before our eyes on a daily basis.
Summary
Bowyer Research is leading one of the most active shareholder advocacy campaigns in America. Current season metrics:
98 proposals in the pipeline
78 filed
72 meetings with company executives
22 proposals withdrawn or opted out in negotiations for withdrawal following constructive dialogue—and proxy voting season hasn’t even started yet, and we’ve only met with about two‑thirds of the companies. In practice, withdrawals typically mean the company has done what we asked
Companies Engaged (household names at global scale):
Microsoft, Oracle, Procter & Gamble, Cisco, Paychex, Nike, J.M. Smucker, McKesson, Dell, Snowflake, Nvidia, BJ’s Wholesale Club Holdings, Delta Air Lines, Best Buy, Caterpillar, Mastercard, Airbnb, Freeport‑McMoRan, Alphabet, Chipotle, Walmart, Salesforce, Western Alliance, General Motors, PayPal, Allstate, Netflix, Meta, DocuSign, Webster, East West Bancorp, Amazon, Chevron, Amgen, Merck, Exxon Mobil, Verizon, McDonald’s, Home Depot, Mondelēz, BlackRock, AT&T, Morgan Stanley, Halliburton, NextEra Energy, Cummins, ConocoPhillips, Capital One, Pepsi, Dominion Energy, General Dynamics, Tractor Supply, Gilead, Lockheed Martin, Marriott, Intel, Philip Morris, S&P Global, AbbVie, Zions, GE Aerospace, Citigroup, Truist, Goldman Sachs, American Express, Johnson & Johnson, Bank of America, IBM, RTX, Boeing, Texas Instruments, M&T Bank, Regions, HPE, Starbucks, Qualcomm, Disney, Apple, Deere, Visa.
These companies include some of the largest in the world by market capitalization, revenues, employment, and profit, which is why the engagement wins here move entire industries and even nations—not just single brands.
Topics You’re Engaging On
End politicized debanking: Banks shouldn’t close accounts for lawful clients based on viewpoint.
Politicized charitable partnerships (Southern Policy Law Center and Human Rights Campaign): SPLC’s “hate group” list has been linked to political violence, including the assassination of Charlie Kirk, and HRC pushes policies like puberty‑blocker coverage for minors, and branding strategies that damaged Disney, Bud Light, and Target.
Discrimination in gift matching: Ensure faith‑based nonprofits aren’t excluded from employee charitable programs.
Protect kids online: Platforms must address sexually explicit images of minors and deepfake child porn with real safeguards—not PR spin.
Fix DEI overreach: End quota‑driven hiring and ESG/DEI‑linked pay that creates legal risk.
Risks in health & pharma policies: Covering puberty blockers for minors and selling abortion drugs creates legal and reputational risk—and long‑term business risk by reducing future customers.
Wasteful Sustainability Virtue Signaling: Challenge commitments that limit energy production and agricultural output, packing and delivery, wasting shareholder money, reducing profits, and undermining human flourishing.
Political neutrality in vendor relations and advertising: Resist activist‑driven boycotts and keep operations focused on business, not ideology.
Lack of diligence in assessing business risks in China: Companies which have been less than prudent about the risks of IP theft and decoupling from the Chinese economy.
Recent Developments
Airbnb Litigation: ADF and Heritage Foundation sued Airbnb for excluding proposals—including one we filed—despite SEC compliance. The company claims that it never got two proposals from conservatives despite FedEx showing signatures of receipt which match the name of the man who runs the company’s mailroom. Somehow, though, a proposal from a liberal state pension plan was not lost in the mail and was included on the ballot. The lawsuit is important because it shows that our coalition is prepared to fight for our rights.
SEC Engagement: We met with SEC officials to advocate reforms restoring fiduciary focus in proxy voting amid heightened scrutiny of proxy advisors.
Executive Order on Proxy Advisors: On December 11, 2025, President Trump issued an order directing the SEC, FTC, and DOL to increase oversight of ISS and Glass Lewis and revisit rules enabling politicized voting. The executive order reflects themes that we have been talking about for years.
Scale, Partners, and Platform Availability (what’s new behind the scenes)
Going by past data and this season’s pipeline, we (you and us) may well be the largest single filer of proposals on these issues—placing more resolutions about environmental and social issues into the hands of voters than any other institution on either side of the aisle has. When we got started on this, proposals from our side were less than 10% of all filings.
Partners (faith‑based financial community and conservative movement): American Family Association (AFA), Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), The Heritage Foundation, Todd Russ (Treasurer of Oklahoma), and more—plus work alongside one of the largest conservative foundations in America and one of the largest donor advised trusts.
Five states are now using or actively implementing our Bowyer Research proxy voting guidelines for public funds and the Prospr Aligned company was launched with which we closely collaborate on alignment of public pensions and sovereign wealth funds.
All major proxy advisory platforms (ISS, Glass Lewis, Broadridge, Egan‑Jones) now offer Bowyer Research Guidelines for direct selection inside their voting systems.
Financial advisor and asset manager growth: One client greatly expanded its corporate engagement work with clients now becoming the proponents at high scale. In addition, we began work with two new wealth manager groups; as well as the largest provider of Christian ETFs.
Catholic Proxy Voting Guidelines: We have worked closely with the Catholic University of America in helping to code their voting policies into an extremely detailed set of proxy voting rules. The guidelines were announced on the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal and are now available on ISS, Glass Lewis and Broadridge platforms. They are already the gold standard in Catholic proxy voting.
Call to Action
Victories that would have been among the top stories of 2024 are now happening almost daily in 2025. The bubble of anti‑fiduciary politicization is popping before our eyes, and we are witnessing a reverse march through the institutions—a reversal of the decades‑long strategy whereby activists infiltrated cultural, financial, and corporate power centers to gain influence for ideas rejected in the electoral process.
This is a vibe shift—a cultural and institutional turning point where the dominant assumptions are changing. It’s a momentary opening, an opportunity that will close again if we don’t take full advantage of it. Now is the time to get off the sidelines.
You are influential people. Please talk to your elected officials, your financial advisors and planners, and the non‑profits you support. Make sure they know what’s happening—and feel free to connect them to us if they want details or guidance. Movements like this occur by word of mouth, not mainly by marketing campaigns. Yours is the voice that can accelerate the shift back to accountability and shareholder value.
Oh, and we hope you had a Merry Christmas. I almost forgot that part.
