CEO Political Leaning and Disclosure Language Following a Federal Policy Shift: An NLP-Assisted Textual Analysis of 10-K Filings

This study examines whether CEO political leaning, as a managerial attribute, is associated with diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) disclosure in mandatory corporate filings and whether DEI-related language changed during the first filing period following a conservative-leaning federal policy shift. Using 188 firm-year observations from 48 highly reputable U.S. public firms over the 2022–2025 period, this study measures DEI disclosure intensity using natural language processing (NLP)-assisted dictionary-based textual analysis of Form 10-K filings. CEO political leaning is measured using the Campaign Finance score from the Database on Ideology, Money in Politics, and Elections (DIME). The results show that firms led by liberal CEOs disclose more DEI-related language than those led by conservative CEOs. DEI disclosure also declines in 2025, consistent with a broad response to the changing political and legal environment. However, the interaction between CEO political leaning and the post-policy indicator is not statistically significant, providing no evidence that conservative-led firms reduced DEI disclosure more sharply than liberal-led firms. Overall, the findings suggest that both managerial characteristics and the external policy environment are associated with corporate disclosure choices: CEO political leaning is associated with baseline differences in DEI disclosure; however, the 2025 decline is observed in both CEO groups, without statistically significant evidence that its magnitude varies with CEO political leaning.