Dozens of chief executives and other senior leaders gathered on Zoom this weekend to plot what several said big businesses should do next about new voting laws under way in Texas and other states.

Kenneth Chenault, the former chief executive of American Express Co. , and Kenneth Frazier, CEO of Merck & Co., urged the leaders to collectively call for greater voting access, according to several people who attended. Messrs. Chenault and Frazier cautioned businesses against dropping the issue and asked CEOs to sign a statement opposing what they view as discriminatory legislation on voting, the people said.

A statement could come early this week, the people said, and would build on one that 72 Black executives signed last month in the wake of changes to Georgia’s voting laws. Mr. Chenault told executives on the call that several leaders had signaled they would sign on, including executives at PepsiCo Inc.,PayPal Holdings Inc., T. Rowe Price Group Inc. and Hess Corp. , among others, according to the people. PayPal confirmed it has signed the statement. PepsiCo, T. Rowe Price and Hess didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

As more companies and their leaders have spoken out on the issue in recent weeks, their stands have drawn the ire of Republican state and federal legislators who say companies are miscasting the matter and shouldn’t act as shadow lawmakers. Meanwhile, progressive activists and others who oppose the laws have said that the actions leaders are taking aren’t strong enough. Many CEOs now feel a duty, or pressure, to make their views explicitly known to employees and others, executive advisers said.

{snip}

Mellody Hobson, the chairwoman of Starbucks Corp.’s board, said on the call that political unrest is bad for business and executives should work together on voting issues as states consider legislation and as the trial over George Floyd’s killing continues, the people said. {snip}

{snip}

{snip} More than 350 different voting bills are under consideration in dozens of states, according to a tally from the Brennan Center for Justice, a public-policy think tank. Some executives on the call described some bills as either racist or restrictive, and several participants described their efforts as critical to democracy, rather than partisan.

Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a Yale School of Management professor, helped convene the gathering; more than 100 CEOs and other senior business leaders were on the call. Other groups involved were the Coalition for Inclusive Capitalism and the Leadership Now Project, a group started by Harvard Business School alumni whose principles include that democracy must be renewed, diversity is an asset and the economy must work for all. {snip}

{snip}