Political proxies: conservative activists file record shareholder proposals

Conservative activists have lodged a record number of shareholder proposals at US annual meetings this year, setting up a highly politicised proxy season as they take advantage of new regulatory guidelines and borrow topics and tactics from their liberal foes.

“The right has never been this engaged” in shareholder activism, said Justin Danhof of the National Center for Public Policy Research’s Free Enterprise Project, a conservative group that succeeded in placing motions at this year’s Disney, Costco and Walgreens Boots Alliance meetings.