Mitch McConnell told CEOs to 'stay out of politics' over the Georgia voting law, despite being one of the biggest recipients of corporate cash in Congress
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- Mitch McConnell told CEOs to "stay out of politics" amid a corporate backlash to Georgia's sweeping new voting law.
- McConnell said that companies had been pressured by "far left mobs" to condemn the law.
- But the Senate Minority Leader is a major recipient of corporate funding himself.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell chastized companies speaking out about Georgia's new voting laws, saying they should "stay out of politics."
Despite this, McConnell is a regular recipient of corporate donations, and by some measures outstrips any other member of Congress.
During a news conference Monday, he warned CEOs to avoid getting embroiled in public debate over the sweeping measures signed into law in Georgia at the end of March.
Civil rights activists have slammed the Election Integrity Act of 2021 as suppressing voters, particularly Black voters. Many corporations have followed suit, including major Georgia-based companies like Coca-Cola, Delta, and Home Depot.
"My advice to the corporate CEOs of America is to stay out of politics. Don't pick sides in these big fights," the outlet reported McConnell as saying.
The stance against corporate power in politics appears at odds with McConnell's own funding record, however.
According to MarketWatch, he outranked all other candidates in 2020's election cycle for donations from CEOs of companies on the S&P Index.
McConnell received a total of $258,880 from 37 CEOs whose companies are on the commonly-watched index, and is one of only two candidates to have received more than $200,000 in corporate donations from those on the list, the outlet reported.
As the Republican Senate leader, McConnell maintains an iron grip over the GOP upper chamber's voting intentions.
The chamber is Democrat-controlled, by by a tiny margin whereby Vice President Kamala Harris casts tiebreaker votes in the 50-50 chamber.
The Republican Party has traditionally been favored by big business, but the relationship has soured since the January 6 Capitol riot, Reuters reported.
Soon after, donors from dozens of companies vowed to cut off the 147 lawmakers who voted to overturn the 2020 election result.
That immediate shortfall was more than recouped by a surge in individual donations, according to the outlet.
McConnell's office did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.