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Trump’s top securities regulator is baiting companies to ignore their shareholders. SEC Chair Paul Atkins said this week that the agency will “not respond to… and express no views on” companies’ decisions to exclude shareholder proposals from their corporate ballots.
Companies have long complained about politically progressive shareholders pushing referendums on workforce diversity, political contributions, and climate policies. Historically, companies needed the SEC’s blessing to swat away requests for ballot access, but can now do so on their own. “The SEC seems to be not-so-subtly inviting Delaware corporations to force the issue,” all but promising to back them up in court, said Joel Fleming, a lawyer who represents shareholders in lawsuits against companies.
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Atkins isn’t a MAGA culture warrior, but the critics of corporate “wokism” now cheering him on might regret it: Progressive proposals are waning, while anti-ESG proposals are growing, data from 2025 corporate elections shows.
Who will step up? Close observers of the companies-vs.-shareholders fight will note that’s a tempting offer for Exxon, but it, alas, is incorporated in New Jersey. Meanwhile, many of the companies most likely to pick a fight with Delaware have already left the state.