- September 2, 2024
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Design by Luis Trujillo
Politics used to be a third rail of sorts for businesses.
Sure, business owners made contributions, joined political parties and supported issues and candidates. But for the most part, other than maybe a sign in the window or a bumper sticker on a cash register, political beliefs were something that largely stayed outside the shop or office.
The reason was simple: taking too vocal of a stand meant the likelihood that you’d alienate a huge chunk of your customer base.
That wasn’t just a theory taught in business school, and it’s not something relegated to the past. Ask Chick-fil-A and Bud Light.
Yet there are some businesses that take big political stands every day, stands ingrained in the business model and taken with the understanding that a substantial percentage of the population may avoid them.
In Clearwater, there is MAGA Realty, a real estate firm that says it ensures “that no money earned from any real estate transaction will ever support organizations that opposes a conservative America.”
And in Tampa, prominent attorney Ralph Fernandez once posted a sign in his office reading, “If you voted for Donald Trump this firm does not want your business.”
Milton Friedman, the famed Nobel Prize-winning economist once wrote that “There is only one social responsibility of business — to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud.”
Basketball icon Michael Jordan, who was pushed in 1991 to back the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in his home state of North Carolina, put it more succinctly. “Republicans buy shoes, too.”
So why, knowing the risk that half population may decide to take their dollars elsewhere, do business owners still chose to espouse their political beliefs in a forthright way? Why don’t they quietly and privately push their agendas?
And, more importantly, is it worth the risk?
Two business owners, on opposite sides of the political divide, say the answer is yes.
“Just be true to yourself,” says Alfie Oakes. “If your belief is based on a foundation of truth and what you believe, then be happy to express yourself and stand by it and know that you're going to get a few rocks thrown at you.”
Oakes is the owner of Oakes Farms in Naples, a company that owns several businesses and a farming operation with more than 3,500 acres of farmland growing over 70 types of fruits and vegetables.
He is also a conservative politician.
But he’s probably best known as the owner of Seed-to-Table, a farm market on Immokalee Road in Naples that openly embraces the MAGA movement.
There’s a video on the store’s Facebook page titled: “Seed-to-Table is on fire! Only grab the important thing.” The June 22 video features employees running out of the store with what are deemed irreplaceable— melons, the executive chef, the company credit card.
The first employee, though, dashes out of the store with a cardboard cutout of Donald Trump.
And if that wasn’t enough to show where his loyalty stands, Oakes says he’s fitted the store’s urinals with pictures of President Joe Biden to, he says, give people something to aim for.
“I'm not suggesting every business feel strong enough to be that bold,” he says. “But I think to promote America First values, or candidates, or things that politically, you think, are important to the country, I don’t know why more businesses aren’t using it as a platform.”
Oakes wasn’t always this politically vocal as far as the business was concerned. He would share opinions on his personal Facebook page and did put up a couple of signs in support of Rick Scott’s first Florida gubernatorial run.
But during the pandemic, when lockdowns were in place and there was civil unrest after the death of George Floyd and the rise of Black Lives Matter, he began pushing an initiative called Bold Business for Liberty.
Among the group’s, and Oakes,’ aim was to fight the lockdown and masks mandates. He would later urge his employees to avoid getting the Covid vaccine when it became available.
Oakes knows his political stands don’t endear him to everyone and that they turn some shoppers away. But, he says, “the parking lot is still packed every day.” (A recent Saturday morning visit backs that up: the parking lot was full at 11:30 a.m; inside several stopped to take selfies with a Trump cardboard cutout by the wine section.)
That’s because most people are able to get past the politics, especially if you provide products and service they are looking for. He says customers approach him all the time to say they love the store but are not aligned with its politics.
That’s just fine with Oakes and, in fact, backs up why he believes more businesses should be upfront with their beliefs.
“I go to a lot of these liberal cities and you see the rainbow flags and you see a lot of political things in there. That's America, right?” Oakes says.
“I'm not offended by it. I mean, if there's a coffee shop and I need coffee, I'm going to go in there and get it. I'm not like, ‘Oh, I'm not going to support that person because they have different views.’”
Further north in St. Petersburg, a considerably less conservative part of the state than Naples, real estate developer and travel company owner Jared Meyers shares a lot of Oakes' beliefs.
Not his political beliefs — it’s hard to imagine two people more diametrically opposed politically and in how they present themselves. But like Oakes, Meyers believes in incorporating his political and social philosophies into the day-to-day operations of his companies.
He is the founder and chairman of St. Petersburg-based Salt Palm Development and Legacy Vacation Resorts. The companies are Public Benefit Corporations — B Corps — that are committed to meeting standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency and legal accountability.
As Meyers sees it, business leaders have a responsibility to the general public and as such need to consider how their decisions affect their customers, their employees and society in general.
For him that means instituting policies that guarantee where materials are sourced and hiring practices that focus on diversity and inclusivity.
Meyers believes businesses were initially created to find solutions that help society and continue to serve that purpose. Profit, yes, is important, but “I'm a believer that business exists to solve problems for people, to give us better lives, to improve conditions.”
A big part of accomplishing that is using the platform a business owner is given to publicly speak out about what he believes. For Meyers that means touting clean energy, the need for environmental stewardship, the benefits of B Corps and companies like Climate First Bank.
Without, say, the flair of Oakes, Meyers is a vocal advocate for his beliefs.
In a LinkedIn post following the settlement of a lawsuit between Walt Disney World and the state of Florida earlier this year, Meyers wrote about Gov. Ron DeSantis and Republican legislators saying “one cannot legislate illegal hate and get away with it forever. Eventually the courts, or fear of another loss in the courts, will kick in.”
He began the post by writing that many people in the state were ignoring Florida’s “all-out war” on people’s freedoms, instead focusing on “beaches, theme parks, and warmer weather this winter.”
That shot — veiled or unveiled — unlikely sat well with potential clients or lawmakers that have to be dealt with. But Meyers, like Oakes, defends his right to be heard.
“I'm aware that when I say things within the state of Florida, and I operate in the state of Florida, there’s risk in doing that,” he says.
“I'd like not to have those risks, but if I if I'm not willing to speak up, then what do I stand for? And do I care enough about it? I think that risk is necessary in times like this. And if we can actually have the people who are affected most by these changes in policies speak up through voting, and how they spend their money, and who they work for, it's going to be a worthwhile risk.”
In the end, both Meyers and Oakes are alike in a lot of ways.
Both men believe as business leaders it is incumbent on them to speak out at a time they each see, for different reasons, as deeply troubled. They both say there is a place in their companies for employees who disagree and encourage the employees to speak out.
And, even though they are on the opposite ends of the political spectrum, they both believe that business and politics can — should — coexist. That’s contrary to the conventional wisdom that beliefs must be put aside in favor of commerce, that you can be vocal and critical and sound the warning signs while running a company.
And they fly in the face of Friedman’s “social responsibility of businesses” and Jordan’s shoe buyer theory.
But not only do they believe it, each in his own way encourages other businesspeople to embrace the approach.
“So much of our life is about trying to achieve happiness or fulfillment. Living in any state that is counter to that is kind of a miserable existence,” says Meyers.
“And so, even for people who have different viewpoints than me, I think that if they really believe those, they are a lot more fulfilled in their lives when they're speaking what feels true to them.”
