1792 Insights
The 1792 Exchange is committed to delivering sharp, data-driven analysis of corporate America’s political entanglements. Discover what investors, executives, and concerned citizens should know regarding why businesses should return to neutral, mission-focused operations.
Mount Sinai Backs Down. Will Corporate America?
The writing is on the wall for gender ideology and corporate America should respond. Its authorities are discredited, its sciences unfounded, and its public support dwindling — not to mention the very providers who push sex-denying procedures on minors are now being held accountable for the experiment they’ve been running. Mount Sinai Health System is the latest example of this as they reach an agreement with the Department of Justice to stop providing sex-denying procedures on minors and provide free health care to those experiencing adverse side-effects of their experimentation. DOJ began its investigation on the premise that the nonprofit hospital may have violated federal law regarding its sex-denying procedures on children. The nationwide probe follows the landmark HHS report that exposed WPATH perverse influences on providers, along with an insurance scheme that let hospitals to charge insurance, private and federally subsidized, for sex-denying procedures on minors that would typically not be covered. Additionally, Mount Sinai agreed to dedicate $2 million to treating the adverse effects of sex-denying interventions, free of charge, to those who received them as minors. Keep in mind, sex-denying interventions are largely irreversible and carry side effects into adulthood, even for those who detransition. Detranstitioner Chloe …
Shareholders Challenge Nike over support for transgender surgeries on minors
At Nike’s annual shareholder meeting this month, Christian and conservative investors put the company’s relationship with the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) directly on the record. The HRC’s Corporate Equality Index is a voluntary survey that companies can participate in to have their gender-ideology workplace policies scored. To earn the CEI 100 designation, companies must cover sex-denying procedures for minor dependents under their employee health plans. Nike has scored 100 three years running. Inspire says Walmart told the group its plan doesn’t cover transgender surgeries for children. Walmart’s 2026 benefits book says gender reassignment surgery “is not considered medically necessary for individuals under the age of 18.” Inspire also says Charles Schwab told the group that it no longer covers such surgeries for children. Another conservative group, 1792 Exchange, wrote to 568 companies in June asking them to exclude transgender drugs and surgeries for children from employee health plans. Some companies have also decoupled from HRC. The full article can be found in Heartlander News.
Faith-based investors should act like owners
Earlier this summer, the rating service Morningstar released its second-ever report on faith-based investing, a market that has grown to roughly $169 billion in assets. The report analyzes hundreds of faith-based funds, comparing their screening methodologies and how those screens affect portfolio construction and performance. The report offers valuable insight into a complex and rapidly growing segment of the investment industry, but it overlooks several important aspects of the broader faith-based investing landscape. For starters, the universe of investors making decisions based on values is much broader than the funds formally labeled “faith-based” because no investment strategy is truly values-neutral. Every fund makes choices about which companies and industries to include, which to exclude, and how heavily to weight them. Even a broad-market index reflects a set of rules determining what qualifies for inclusion and how much representation each company receives within the portfolio. Every investor has some worldview or set of values that informs how he or she lives. Faith-based investing simply makes the connection between those values and investment decisions more explicit and, hopefully, more consistent. Investors who fall outside the Islamic, Catholic, and Christian categories examined by Morningstar may still make investment decisions based on deeply held beliefs about …
Allen Mendenhall raises an important question this week: Whose interest is the RSA voting?
Mendenhall argues that the Retirement Systems of Alabama should commission an independent audit of its proxy votes to confirm they serve beneficiaries’ financial interests. He notes that public pensions often delegate voting to asset managers and proxy advisers such as ISS and Glass Lewis with little public verification of how shares are actually cast. The question is especially timely in Alabama, home to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which was recently indicted by a federal grand jury in the state. Mendenhall asks whether RSA opposed shareholder proposals urging companies to stop using the SPLC’s discredited “hate map” in charitable-matching programs that discriminates against mainstream advocacy organizations, including Focus on the Family and Moms for Liberty. Alabamians have a right to know how their retirement funds voted on those and similar resolutions. RSA is uniquely opaque. It does not publish proxy records, does not use outside investment managers to vote its shares, and, in response to a public-records request, said it does not possess proxy voting data, past or present. 1792 Exchange has identified Alabama as the only state that discloses none of this information. This is not the first time RSA’s voting has drawn scrutiny. In 2023, a 1792 Exchange review of 2022 shareholder resolutions raised questions about how Alabama pension capital was being voted …
Tale of Two Rebrands: Cracker Barrel Listened. Jaguar Did Not. The Results Speak Loudly
It was the best of times for customer loyalty. It was the worst of times for corporate rebranding. In a span of two years, two iconic brands ventured into the same storm and shipwrecked their reputations and their stock prices all in the name of “reinvention.” One heard the roar from loyal customers and adjusted course. The other remained willfully deaf. The results tell the story, even for those who still don’t want to hear it. In the dog days of August 2025, Cracker Barrel unveiled a stripped-down new logo and began remodeling its restaurants, scrubbing out the nostalgia-rich clutter for a more antiseptic, sure-to-be-dated-in-a-year look. Unsurprisingly, faithful customers noticed and responded immediately. The familiar barrel with Uncle Herschel seated nearby vanished. The warm, unpretentious and inviting character that had defined the chair for decades seemed to evaporate in a moment. Sales, which had already been slowing due to declining food quality complaints, suffered more. The stock price plummeted, wiping out tens of millions in market value in days. Investors following the company closely raised concerns, including investor Sardar Biglari who specifically outlined the downsides of the rebrand, calling the $700 million transformation plan “obvious folly” well before the company poured capital into the doomed project. High profile voices across media and online platforms joined in to amplify the disconnect. Even President Trump joined the conversation posting on Truth Social “Cracker Barrel should go back to the old logo, admit a …
As You Sow Misleads Readers about Anti-DEI Proposals
Earlier this summer, as the 2025-2026 proxy season came to a close, leading progressive shareholder group As You Sow intentionally misled readers about the success of anti-DEI proposals. As You Sow suggested that voting results on anti-DEI shareholder proposals at 43 companies this season, including Disney, Costco, Visa, and Apple, proved that 99% of investors are opposed to anti-DEI measures. As You Sow claimed that the universal failure of these proposals sends an “unmistakable message” to corporate boards that DEI is a “financial asset” that directors need to prioritize for the needs of the company, labelling anti-DEI efforts as a “political threat.” A 0-43 record for anti-DEI proposals does appear striking at first. However, no ESG proposals won majority support in the 2025-2026 proxy season, which includes pro-DEI proposals at 0-10 with an average support around 13%. According to Broadridge’s 2025 ProxyPulse report, voting by retail investors “declined to 28% of their shares owned in 2025,” which is the lowest level of participation in 9 years. Low retail investor participation is the historical norm, as proxy votes are disproportionately cast by large institutions on their behalf, not by individual investors. As You Sow knows this. Furthermore, for As You Sow to suggest that “[d]iversity is not a liability to be managed, it is a dividend to be captured” when companies like IBM and Nike have recently faced intense scrutiny for their DEI practices is absurd. To learn more about the Myth of Shareholder Democracy, consider reading Stefan Padfield’s piece titled: Proxy Voting and the Myth About Shareholder Democracy.