FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Timothy K. Rusch

tim@fitzgibbonmedia.com

New York, NY – The following is a statement from ColorOfChange.org Executive Director Rashad Robinson:

“Dell’s announcement today that it will cut ties with ALEC is further proof that everyday people working together to hold corporations accountable can achieve tremendous change. The ColorOfChange community applauds Dell’s willingness to end its relationship with this right-wing policy group that has worked to suppress the Black vote.

“We began communications with Dell after launching our effort to educate corporations about ALEC’s role pushing voter suppression laws nationwide. After conversations with the company, we know that its leadership heard us loud and clear. Today marks a victory for all who believe in transparency in government and all who are concerned about corporations funding ALEC’s backroom efforts to craft the laws that govern our communities.”

Today, a Dell representative confirmed that the company would no longer fund ALEC in an email obtained by ColorOfChange. Deborah Albers, Principal Social Strategist at Dell, wrote the following:

…Dell makes it a practice to review our memberships each year. We reviewed the value of our participation in the Education committee and decided that we will not be renewing our membership with ALEC next month. We provided our feedback to ALEC a few weeks ago when we told them we were not renewing.

ColorOfChange began its communication with Dell in April and spoke with Albers and Lisa Mink, Dell’s Director of Global Diversity and Inclusion, soon after, making the case that the company should cut ties with ALEC given the concerns of ColorOfChange members and allied organizations.

Dell Inc. is the world’s third largest maker of PCs and the 20th to announce it has dropped ALEC. The company joins Johnson & Johnson, Wal-Mart, Amazon, Procter & Gamble, Yum! Brands, McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Mars Inc., Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Kraft Foods, Intuit, Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, Reed Elsevier (owner of LexisNexis and publisher of science and health information), Kaplan, Scantron, Medtronic, American Traffic Solutions and Arizona Public Service.

“We want to thank these companies for making the right decision, and we continue to call on all major corporations to stop funding ALEC given its involvement in voter suppression and its work pushing policies designed to benefit rich and powerful corporations at the expense of people of color, workers, and the environment.”

ColorOfChange members signed a petition targeting ALEC’s corporate partners for their role in suppressing Black votes. The petition can be found here: https://colorofchange.org/campaign/alec/

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With more than 800,000 members, ColorOfChange.org is the nation’s largest Black online civil rights organization.