Across the country, corporations are organized into groups created to increase and wield corporate power, both in the realm of government – via lobbying and coordinated spending on elections – and in the broader public, through public relations on behalf of the corporate community.
Some of these organizations, which are usually structured as non-profit corporations under section 501(c)(6) of the tax code and called trade groups or trade associations, act on behalf of specific industries, such as real estate, finance, or fossil fuels, while others represent the corporate community as a whole. These organizations are most often called chambers of commerce.
Chambers of commerce and trade groups exist at every level of political power in the United States, from the United States Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable at the national level to state-level chambers of commerce to local chambers of commerce for business interests in individual cities or towns. While trade groups and chambers of commerce hold themselves out as community advocates, working to advance broad-based prosperity and the interests of small businesses, in reality they are dominated by big business and billionaire oligarchs seeking to implement an agenda that favors the profits of a narrow slice of the population already sitting at the top of the U.S. economy. Chambers of commerce and corporate trade groups are powerful opponents of policies to protect consumers, workers, and the environment. Instead, they advocate keeping taxes on corporations and the wealthy as low as possible, while fighting against regulations against polluting the environment, and demanding that public money be spent on subsidies to the already-rich instead of investing in public goods like housing, healthcare, and education.
This report examines the networks behind three influential corporate trade groups operating in Michigan: the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce, the Michigan State Chamber of Commerce, and Business Leaders for Michigan.
These three groups, though distinct organizations operating with a degree of independence, are highly networked together with 38 major corporations – including gas and electric utility monopolies, major manufacturers and regional employers, and billionaire-owned corporate conglomerates – occupying governing roles on the boards of two or more of these groups. Together these three groups have spent millions of dollars on political influence in Michigan through a network of political action committees, super PACs, and teams of lobbyists on top of the millions spent by all of their members individually.
This funnel of money into politics through tightly-networked organizations of corporate elites adds up to a massive political machine aimed at shaping, and if necessary subverting, the public will and democratic government in order to create an environment of maximal exploitation of Michigan families, workers, and the environment for the private gain of a wealthy few.
Key Findings
- Big business and billionaire interests in Michigan are organized into advocacy groups with interlocking governing boards that raise and spend millions of dollars to influence Michigan politics.
- Corporations and billionaires represented on the boards of all three groups include CMS Energy, billionaire Dan Gilbert’s Rock Holdings, Comerica Bank, and energy transmission company ITC Holdings.
- Other key members of these groups include major manufacturers like Ford and GM, the two largest healthcare systems in Michigan Corewell Health and Henry Ford Health, and public and private universities like Michigan State University and Wayne State.
- Billionaires with a combined net worth of more than $73 billion are represented on the boards of the three organizations examined in this report. Dan Gilbert, the richest man in Michigan owns corporations represented on the boards of all three groups, the Meijer family are represented on the boards of Business Leaders for Michigan and the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, Roger Penske is represented on the boards of Business Leaders of Michigan and the Detroit Regional Chamber, and the Ilitch family and Rhonda Stryker are both represented on the board of Business Leaders for Michigan.
- Political action committees associated with the Detroit Regional Chamber, Business Leaders for Michigan, and the Michigan Chamber of Commerce spent at least $1.6 million on electoral influence from 2023 through 2025.
- Top beneficiaries of spending by these groups’ PACs include the Michigan Republican and Democratic Parties, candidates for Michigan Supreme Court, and members of the Michigan House of Representatives Bill Schuette, Mark Tisdel, Matt Hall, and Joe Tate.
- The group Business Leaders for Michigan’s Super PAC appears to have made several direct donations to non-profits designated as candidates’ administrative accounts, which could be a violation of the prohibition on coordination between Super PACs and candidates.