At Law 360:

While most shareholder activists are hitting a brick wall with environmental,
social and governance measures at 2025 annual meetings, a proposal asking
for increased transparency around corporate political spending has passed at
five companies, surprising some experts.
This proxy season, 13 companies have seen basically the same disclosure
resolution on their ballots, according to figures from the non-partisan Center
for Political Accountability, with the final one facing a vote last Friday.
Of those 13 votes, which are advisory and not binding, the resolution has
averaged nearly 42% support this year. That compares to the 2024 proxy
season when the average shareholder support for the proposal was just
26.2%.
And five majority votes in one season is almost unheard of. The resolution
won one majority vote last year. In fact, Bruce Freed, CPA’s president and cofounder,
told Law360 Pulse that the five wins were “a positive shocker.”
Freed said he thinks the victories stem from “political disclosure and
accountability being seen as risk management. It’s a governance issue, and it
doesn’t carry the political baggage that environmental or social issues have.”