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Under Pressure From Color Of Change, Coca-Cola Drops Support of ALEC. Pepsi’s Out, Too.

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alec The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)–“a front group for powerful corporate interests that is behind and actually writes some of the most extreme right-wing bills in state legislatures across the country”–has been in the news a lot lately. As we’ve reported, a lot of activists, including some of our allies in immigration advocacy, have been trying to expose ALEC and its shady dealings for awhile.

Last night, we learned from Color of Change that Coca-Cola is no longer supporting ALEC:

We welcome Coca-Cola’s decision to stop supporting the American Legislative Exchange Council, an organization which has worked to disenfranchise African Americans, Latinos, students, the elderly, the disabled, and the poor. We confirmed with Coca-Cola that they are no longer a member of ALEC and no longer fund the group in any capacity.

We reached out to Coca-Cola last year and have been in dialogue with them since then to convey the concerns of more than 85,000 ColorOfChange members who called on major corporations to stop supporting ALEC. Hundreds of ColorOfChange members began making phone calls to Coca-Cola this morning, and the company listened to their voices.

We continue to call on all major corporations to stop supporting voter suppression through ALEC. Our members are prepared to hold accountable companies that continue to participate in ALEC’s attack on voting rights.

Today, we learned that Pepsi has dropped ALEC, too:

Two of America’s best-known companies, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, have dropped their memberships in the American Legislative Exchange Council, a low-profile conservative organization behind the national proliferation of “stand your ground” gun laws.

ALEC promotes business-friendly legislation in state capitols and drafts model bills for state legislatures to adopt. They range from little-noticed pro-business bills to more controversial measures, including voter-identification laws and stand your ground laws based on the Florida statute. About two-dozen states now have such laws.

These corporate sponsors can’t keep marketing to our communities while they’re sponsoring ALEC, which undermines so much of our work.