Lowe's

Quick Take

In August 2024, Lowe's told employees it was ending participation in the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index, folding its identity based employee resource groups into a single umbrella group, and pulling out of Pride parades and similar community events. The move came days after conservative activist Robby Starbuck privately warned the company he planned to expose its "woke" policies, and Starbuck publicly claimed credit. Lowe's, for its part, pointed to the 2023 Supreme Court decision ending race conscious college admissions as the reason it had begun reviewing its programs. Here is the countersignal that complicates the easy read: in the very same 2023 to 2024 election cycle, Lowe's employee political action committee gave $246,500 to Democratic federal candidates and $204,500 to Republican ones, a slight Democratic tilt in raw dollars. The PAC funds the leadership of both parties. Its recipient pattern tracks committee gavels and home state relationships, the normal profile of a business interest corporate PAC.

The DEI Rollback That Put Lowe's on the Map

For most of its history, Lowe's carried no particular political identity. That changed on August 26, 2024, when an internal memo, quickly shared with multiple news organizations, laid out a series of changes to the company's diversity programs. According to reporting by NBC News, Lowe's said it would stop participating in surveys for the Human Rights Campaign, the country's largest LGBTQ advocacy group, combine its separate employee resource groups into one umbrella organization, and end sponsorship and participation in community events such as parades and festivals, a reference to Pride events.[2] As recently as 2019, Lowe's had sponsored the Pride parade in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The timing was the story. The Washington Post reported that the changes came after conservative podcast host and activist Robby Starbuck approached the company, telling it he planned to target Lowe's over policies such as its employee resource groups and donations to Pride events.[3] Starbuck posted on X that he had messaged Lowe's executives the previous week and woke up to an email in which the company preemptively made the changes.[4] He framed Lowe's as the latest in a string of wins that already included Tractor Supply, John Deere, Harley-Davidson, and Polaris.

Lowe's told a different version of why. In its memo, the company cited the U.S. Supreme Court's summer 2023 decision against race conscious college admissions at Harvard and the University of North Carolina as the catalyst that led it to begin reviewing its programs, according to ESG Dive.[5] The company said it would focus its community efforts going forward on safe and affordable housing, disaster relief, and skilled trades education, and that its commitment to its people would not change. Whether Starbuck's pressure or the company's own legal review drove the decision is contested. The two explanations are not mutually exclusive, and the public record establishes only that the announcement followed Starbuck's warning by days, not that one caused the other.

The Human Rights Campaign rejected the move sharply. An HRC official told Fox Business that companies should not cower to "a random guy with zero business experience," and warned that hasty decisions contrary to inclusive workplaces would carry long term consequences.[6] Lowe's joined a 2024 wave of large companies, including Ford, John Deere, Harley-Davidson, Tractor Supply, and Jack Daniel's maker Brown-Forman, that scaled back DEI commitments under similar pressure.

Where the PAC Money Actually Goes

Here is the fact that cuts against the headline. Lowe's runs an employee funded political action committee called LOWPAC. In the 2023 to 2024 election cycle, LOWPAC gave $463,500 directly to federal candidates. Of that, OpenSecrets records $246,500 (about 53 percent) going to Democrats and $204,500 (about 44 percent) going to Republicans.[7] In House races the split was roughly 53 percent Democratic to 47 percent Republican; in Senate races it tilted further, about 60 percent Democratic to 40 percent Republican.

The recipient list reads like a business interest PAC, not an ideological one. LOWPAC's largest checks went to a bipartisan mix: $10,000 each to Democrat Alma Adams and Republican Virginia Foxx, both of North Carolina, and $10,000 to House Republican leader Steve Scalise. It funded Republican Speaker Mike Johnson and Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries in the same cycle. Much of the giving concentrates in North Carolina, where Lowe's is headquartered, which is the normal pattern for a corporate PAC that spends to maintain access to the lawmakers who matter to its business.

Lowe's own political contributions policy describes LOWPAC as supporting candidates "supportive of Lowe's business interests," funded by voluntary employee contributions and directed by a board of senior leaders.[8] The company states that the personal political views of any Lowe's director, officer, or associate are not considered when determining contributions. The PAC has also cut checks across the ideological spectrum over multiple cycles, including to the progressive aligned VoteVets PAC and, separately, a reported $25,000 to the Republican Governors Association.[9] Beyond the PAC, Lowe's spends on federal lobbying, reporting about $2.1 million in 2024, according to OpenSecrets, on issues including tax, tariffs, housing, and supply chain policy.[10]

The clearest way to see how unusual that slight Democratic tilt is comes from comparing Lowe's to its near twin. Home Depot, the larger of the two big box home improvement chains, runs a similar employee funded PAC, but in the 2024 cycle Home Depot's PAC split its candidate giving about 57 percent Republican to 43 percent Democratic, according to OpenSecrets, close to the mirror image of Lowe's.[11] Two companies selling the same lumber to the same customers, leaning opposite directions with their political money.

The Money and the Man at the Top

Lowe's is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker LOW. For fiscal 2024, which ended January 31, 2025, the company reported net sales of $83.67 billion, down about 3 percent from the prior year, as high mortgage rates and a slow housing market kept do it yourself customers on the sidelines, according to CNBC.[12] The company reported net earnings of $7.0 billion for the year, down about 10 percent, with diluted earnings per share of $12.23, per its annual 10-K filing with the SEC.[13]

Chairman, President, and CEO Marvin Ellison received total compensation of $20,164,912 for fiscal 2024, according to the company's proxy statement as compiled by the AFL-CIO, a package the labor federation calculated at 659 times the pay of Lowe's median employee.[14] Ellison has a resume unique in the industry: he ran Home Depot's U.S. stores as executive vice president from 2008 to 2014, part of 12 years at Lowe's chief rival, before a turnaround stint as CEO of JCPenney and then the top job at Lowe's, making him a leader who has run operations at both major home improvement competitors.[15] He is also, as Fortune and other outlets reported during the DEI episode, the only company in the 2024 rollback wave led by a Black CEO; Fortune describes Ellison as the first Black executive to lead two different Fortune 500 companies, Lowe's and JCPenney.[1]

The Skilled Trades Bet

Alongside the culture war headlines, Lowe's has poured money into one cause it returns to again and again: closing the skilled trades labor gap. Through the Lowe's Foundation, the company runs the Gable Grants program, which funds community colleges and nonprofits that train carpenters, electricians, plumbers, and other tradespeople. In April 2026 the foundation announced it was expanding that commitment fivefold to $250 million through 2035, with a goal of training 250,000 new tradespeople, after hitting its original $50 million goal roughly a year ahead of schedule, according to the company's own announcement.[16] The push aligns with a federal policy emphasis on the trades that has bipartisan support, and it dovetails with Lowe's core business of selling to the professional contractors who depend on a trained workforce.

Products and Customers

Lowe's sells building materials, appliances, tools, hardware, paint, lawn and garden supplies, and home decor through more than 1,700 large format stores across the United States, plus a growing online business and a network of distribution centers and pro focused branches. Its customers fall into two broad camps: do it yourself homeowners and professional contractors, the latter a segment Lowe's has worked aggressively to win. The company serves roughly 16 million customer transactions a week. It sold its Canadian retail business in 2022 and now operates almost entirely in the U.S. market.

From a North Wilkesboro Hardware Store

Lowe's traces to 1921, when Lucius Smith Lowe opened a small hardware and general store in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, according to the North Carolina History project.[17] After Lowe died in 1940, the store passed through family hands to his son James Lowe and, critically, to son in law H. Carl Buchan, a World War II veteran who took a partnership stake in the 1940s and full ownership in 1952. Buchan bet that the postwar construction boom would reward a store focused narrowly on hardware and building materials sold at low margins, and he steered Lowe's away from general merchandise to do exactly that. That focus drove rapid expansion, and Lowe's joined the New York Stock Exchange in 1979. The company is headquartered in Mooresville, North Carolina.

Where to Find Them

Lowe's operates more than 1,700 stores nationwide, with a store locator and full online catalog at Lowes.com. Products are available both in store and through the company's e-commerce site, with delivery and in store pickup options. The Lowe's Foundation and its skilled trades work are documented at lowesfoundation.org.

Footnotes

[1] Beatrice Nolan, Fortune, "The highest-ranking Black CEO in the Fortune 500 started out making $4 an hour," June 2, 2025. https://fortune.com/2025/06/02/black-ceo-fortune-500-lowes-marvin-ellison/

[2] Daniel Arkin and Rob Wile, NBC News, "Lowe's becomes latest company to dial back DEI efforts aimed at LGBTQ groups," August 27, 2024. https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/lowes-becomes-later-paring-back-dei-efforts-rcna168380

[3] Julian Mark and Jaclyn Peiser, Washington Post, "Lowe's changes DEI policies amid activist pressure," August 26, 2024. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/08/26/lowes-dei-policies/

[4] Yahoo Finance, "Lowe's becomes latest company to scrap DEI policies amid 'woke' backlash," August 27, 2024. https://www.aol.com/finance/lowes-becomes-latest-company-scrap-180943672.html

[5] Kathryn Moody, ESG Dive, "Lowe's demolishes its DEI programming," August 27, 2024. https://www.esgdive.com/news/lowes-dei-cuts-robby-starbuck/725790/

[6] Fox Business, "Lowe's announces end to several DEI policies in internal memo: report," August 27, 2024. https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/lowes-drops-some-dei-policies-latest-american-company-do-so-memo

[7] OpenSecrets.org, "Lowe's Companies PAC Contributions to Federal Candidates, 2024 cycle," accessed June 13, 2026. https://www.opensecrets.org/political-action-committees-pacs/lowe-s-companies/C00251751/candidate-recipients/2024

[8] Lowe's Companies, "Lowe's Political Engagement and Contributions Policy," accessed June 13, 2026. https://corporate.lowes.com/our-responsibilities/corporate-responsibility-reports-policies/lowes-political-engagement-and-contributions-policy

[9] ProPublica, "Lowe's Companies, Inc. Political Action Committee contributions," accessed June 13, 2026. https://projects.propublica.org/itemizer/committee/C00418897/pac-donations/C00251751

[10] OpenSecrets.org, "Lowe's Companies Profile: Summary, 2024 cycle," accessed June 13, 2026. https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/lowe-s-companies/summary?id=D000027296

[11] OpenSecrets.org, "Home Depot PAC Contributions to Federal Candidates, 2024 cycle," accessed June 13, 2026. https://www.opensecrets.org/political-action-committees-pacs/home-depot/C00284885/candidate-recipients/2024

[12] Melissa Repko, CNBC, "Lowe's (LOW) Q4 2024 earnings," February 26, 2025. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/26/lowes-low-q4-2024-earnings.html

[13] Lowe's Companies, SEC Form 10-K for the Fiscal Year Ended January 31, 2025, filed March 24, 2025. https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0000060667&type=10-K

[14] AFL-CIO Executive Paywatch, "Marvin Ellison, Lowe's Cos Inc," accessed June 13, 2026. https://aflcio.org/paywatch/LOW

[15] HBS Dealer, "Former Home Depot exec to lead Lowe's," May 22, 2018. https://hbsdealer.com/breaking-news/former-home-depot-exec-to-lead-lowes

[16] Lowe's Companies, "Lowe's Foundation Plans Expanded $250 Million Investment to Help Train and Develop 250,000 Tradespeople," April 7, 2026. https://corporate.lowes.com/newsroom/press-releases/lowes-foundation-plans-expanded-250-million-investment-help-train-and-develop-250000-tradespeople-over-next-decade-increasing-skilled-trades-workforce

[17] North Carolina History Project, "Lowe's Companies," accessed June 13, 2026. https://northcarolinahistory.org/encyclopedia/lowes-companies/