Last year, publicly traded Eaton signed an open statement championing “American democracy” and acknowledging the country’s history of political disenfranchisement. “We all should feel a responsibility to defend the right to vote and to oppose any discriminatory legislation or measures that restrict or prevent any eligible voter from having an equal and fair opportunity to cast a ballot,” read the statement, which ran in newspapers including The New York Times and The Washington Post.
But just one month prior, the power company handed $1.6 billion to a trust controlled by a man whose work has allegedly run counter to those values. That individual, Leonard Leo, is perhaps best known for his efforts to pack courts with conservative judges. He has also been linked to groups like the Honest Elections Project, which has been accused of pushing for controversial new voting restrictions, supposedly in the name of electoral security.