Bay Area Businesses for Democracy (BABD) is a nonpartisan coalition of Bay Area businesspeople dedicated to safeguarding democracy, the rule of law, and the economic conditions in which businesses and communities can thrive.

CONTEXT

Why It Matters

  • ICE surges and militarization of cities destabilize businesses that depend on stable, rule-based governance.

  • Immigrants are our employees, customers, and neighbors. They are a critical part of the Bay Area economy.

  • Cronyism and corruption are anti-competitive and suppress economic growth.

  • Abuses of executive power* erode our country’s competitive advantages, create economic instability, increase costs and disrupt supply chains.

  • We have a moral and civic responsibility to protect constitutional rights and the rule of law.

PURPOSE

Our Goals

  1. Educate Bay Area businesses on the risks of democratic backsliding — and how to protect employees, customers, and economic stability.

  2. Engage businesspeople to push back against the militarization of our communities and inappropriate federal overreach.

  3. Support the regional business community to take actions to ensure free and fair elections.

PROGRAMS & ACTIVITIES

What We Do

Know Your Rights

Educate businesses and merchant associations on their legal rights and obligations related to federal enforcement activities.

Toolkits & Resources

Provide businesses with practical toolkits** on ICE enforcement, election integrity, and responding to threats to your business.

Outreach

Connect with individual businesspeople to explore how they and their firms can take meaningful action.

Timely Alerts

Inform businesses on emerging issues and opportunities to act.

Networking

Facilitate connections among like-minded businesspeople across the Bay Area.

*E.g., suing universities, cutting congressionally approved R&D funding, attacking the Fed, unlegislated tariffs, etc.

**See Defending Local Stability: The Business Response for a range of actions businesses can take. Also see the Horizons Project for a description of the Pillars of Support framework to better understand the threats to democracy.