A new national survey finds a majority of senior business executives — across the political spectrum — say diversity initiatives are important for positive business performance. The findings of this survey, conducted by Morning Consult for the Public Private Strategies Institute, run counter to the many recent headlines criticizing diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, work.

Ying McGuire is president and CEO of the National Minority Supplier Development Council, which is one of the business organizations that sent a letter to Fortune 500 CEOs citing the survey as evidence of the business case for supplier and business diversity. McGuire spoke with “Marketplace Morning Report” host David Brancaccio, and the following is an edited transcript of their conversation.

David Brancaccio: Some high-profile people, including activist investor Bill Ackman to Tesla and X boss Elon Musk, have been saying aloud that diversity campaigns are — they think — bad for society and business. Now, you have a survey of a wider array of businesses. What are these executives telling you?

Ying McGuire: What we’re hearing is 82% of the senior executives that participate in the survey consider diversity initiatives — they’re essential to their business strategies. So the survey finding, which I talk about the facts, are indeed encouraging and not what we expected based on what we read in the headlines.

Brancaccio: So, I mean, businesses working to reduce chances that their culture or their systems are discriminatory. That may be driven by the moral imperative — it’s the right thing to do. But you’re hearing about also the business case, that it can actually help the bottom line.

McGuire: It is absolutely business-driven. In my case, we focus on incorporating diverse businesses in the corporate supply chain, tend to have better business outcomes.

Brancaccio: And just so people fully understand supply diversity: It’s a choice companies have when deciding with whom they’ll do business.

McGuire: It is absolutely true. It’s: Give everybody, every entrepreneur, an equal opportunity to compete. It’s not handout. And so they are really great reasons to purchase from a diverse sets of suppliers so that you can drive the competitiveness and also resilience of your supply chain.

Brancaccio: I want to to ask, does it still break along traditionally partisan lines? CEO A is a conservative, not into diversity, equity and inclusion. CEO B: liberal, all for it? Or is that not what you found?

McGuire: The survey did find intense support across ideological and political persuasions. In fact, 75% of executives who described themselves as politically conservative said diversity initiatives are essential to their business strategy. And it’s in direct contradiction to the assertion by some saying diversity is inherently a partisan topic. And McKinsey did a study; they found that ethnically and culturally diverse firms outperform their competitors by 36% in terms of profitability. This just goes to show it’s not really about politics. Diversity is simply good business.

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