Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is urging the state’s pension fund manager to consider legal action against Bud Light’s parent company amid conservative backlash to the beermaker’s recent marketing efforts, the latest attempt by the Republican presidential candidate to inject himself and the state he runs into the country’s culture wars.
In a Thursday letter obtained by CNN, DeSantis suggests AB InBev “breached legal duties owed to its shareholders” when it decided to associate with “radical social ideologies.” Sales of Bud Light have plummeted in the months since it entered into a minor partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney that precipitated a boycott from conservatives.
“All options are on the table,” DeSantis wrote, as the state reviews the impact of AB InBev’s recent financial downturn, though it’s unclear what legal recourse the state might have to challenge a multinational corporation’s business decisions.
“We must prudently manage the funds of Florida’s hardworking law enforcement officers, teachers, firefighters, and first responders in a manner that focuses on growing returns, not subsidizing an ideological agenda through woke virtue signaling,” DeSantis wrote in the letter to Lamar Taylor, the interim director of the State Board of Administration, the state agency that manages Florida’s retirement funds for public workers. DeSantis oversees the board as a trustee along with the state’s attorney general and chief financial officer, both also Republicans.
Speaking to Fox News on Thursday night about the letter, DeSantis said the state may consider a “derivative lawsuit” against AB InBev. Derivative lawsuits are filed by shareholders on behalf of a company against a corporation’s directors or officers alleging breach of duties.
CNN has reached out to AB InBev for comment.
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