It’s big news now that President Trump has shut down DEI efforts nationwide. A $10 billion industry, much of it publicly financed, was basically eradicated in a week, leaving hundreds of thousands of mostly highly paid employees looking for work.
But when midterm elections roll around, what will it mean? Will the antipathy Americans felt toward these institutions have dissipated with them two years in the rearview mirror?
Nate Morris, one of four Republicans sizing up the race to replace Mitch McConnell as U.S. senator from Kentucky in 2026, provides an interesting test case given that as the CEO of a publicly traded company, he made some decisions that could allow his opponents to label him as pro-DEI.
Morris has the requisite background for a Senate candidate – a ninth-generation Kentuckian, educated at George Washington University, Princeton, and Oxford, grandson of the former president of the UAW at the Ford manufacturing plant in Louisville, who turned to politics at a young age after spinal injuries ended his football career.
He owns Rubicon Technologies, a waste removal company, has traveled with Rand Paul to Israel, and is married to the daughter of Robert Mosbacher Jr., who worked for President George W. Bush, and granddaughter of Robert Mosbacher Sr., who was secretary of commerce under President George H.W. Bush.
His X account is appropriately pro-Trump. “While I couldn’t be more thrilled to see @PeteHegseth confirmed, it’s a disgrace that Mitch McConnell sided with leftwing Democrats to try to tank his confirmation and put his petty hatred of @realDonaldTrump ahead of Kentucky,” he tweeted recently.
McConnell, 82 and in poor health, is not expected to seek another term. But there are some heavy hitters in this race – former state attorney general Daniel Cameron, U.S. Reps. Andy Barr and Thomas Massie, and former UN ambassador Kelly Craft also are said to be interested. And it won’t be surprising if one brings up Morris’s association with DEI.
One could argue that the climate on DEI in 2019 was different from the climate today. But some gave enough lip service to get by back then, and some went all in. Morris, perhaps guided by Obama aide David Plouffe, a member of Rubicon’s board of directors, went all in.
Morris signed the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion plan, wherein CEOs pledge to “cultivate, implement, share and engage” DEI policies and to seek “meaningful societal change,” which is achieved by implementing and expanding “unconscious bias education in the workplace” and otherwise addressing the “concerns and needs of our diverse employees and increase equity for all, including Blacks, Latinos, Asians, Native Americans, LGBTQ, disabled, veterans and women.”
For Pride Month, Morris’s company released a statement saying, “Here at Rubicon(R), we are firm believers in using our purchasing power to make conscious consumer decisions to help brands that are helping others. While Pride Month comes only once a year in June, there’s no time limit on supporting the LGBTQ+ community and the push toward sustainability.”
A company press release included quotes from Morris touting the release of its first ESG compliance report, saying ESG is “essential to the way businesses must operate” and a “core part” of his operations.
The record of this is fairly extensive. It won’t be hard for opponents to dig it up. Morris can claim that 2019 was a different time and that he has donated and raised money for Barr, Massie, and Rand Paul – all with solid conservative bona fides. But they can respond that he also donated to Nikki Haley months after Haley said Trump “has no future in the GOP and supported Haley over Trump in the primaries.”
Proving that you will aid and abet the Trump agenda may well be a significant issue in this election. Morris would have an edge on Massie in that department, perhaps, but he would face serious questions over the donations and his earlier commitment – and it was a commitment – to DEI. He probably would be wise to develop some good answers to those questions.
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