Companies gave more than $50 million to state lawmakers who backed voting overhaul bills

When executives from Coca-Cola and Delta Air Lines spoke out against Georgia's new voting law as "a step backwards" and "wrong" last week, it seemed to signal a new activism springing from corporate America.

But if leaders of the nation's most prominent companies are going to reject lawmakers who support voting measures deemed restrictive by many, including prominent Black business leaders, they will have to abruptly reverse course from previous donation spending. State legislators across the country who have pushed for controversial voting changes have reaped more than $50 million in corporate donations in recent years, according to a new report by Public Citizen, a Washington-based government watchdog group.