July 21 (UPI) — Florida Gov. and GOP presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis on Friday ordered a government review of how Bud Light’s promotional partnership with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney may have affected state pension investments.
DeSantis ordered the agency overseeing Florida’s pension investments to look into whether AB InBev breached shareholder duties by using an ad featuring Mulvaney, something DeSantis said was part of the global brewing company’s “radical social ideologies.”
“It appears to me that AB InBev may have breached legal duties owed to its shareholders, and that a shareholder action may be both appropriate and necessary,” DeSantis said Friday on Twitter.
He told Lamar Taylor, the interim executive director of the State Board of Administration, to look into “how InBev’s conduct” has affected its stock value.
DeSantis said in a letter to the State Board of Administration, Florida’s pension fund manager, that Anheuser-Busch InBev violated its legal duties by deciding to associate with “radical social ideologies.”
The DeSantis action comes in the wake of conservative backlash to Bud Light for merely associating with a transgender influencer. Sales of Bud Light dropped as a result of that limited and brief campaign, thanks in large part to conservative social-media influencers who criticized the brewer and promoted boycotting its products.
DeSantis said all options were on the table and Florida may consider suing Anheuser-Busch InBev.
The company said in a statement Friday, “Anheuser-Busch InBev takes our responsibility to our shareholders, employees, distributors and customers seriously. We are focused on driving long-term, sustainable growth for them by optimizing our business and providing consumers products to enjoy for any occasion.”
DeSantis admitted during a right-wing podcast that he never drank Bud Light, but said he and his wife prefer Guinness, a company with a long history of marketing to the LGBTQ+ community in its advertising.
It’s not the first time DeSantis has used the power of government to try to influence culture-war issues affecting businesses in the state. The Walt Disney Co. has accused the governor of a campaign to “weaponize government power” in its ongoing fight against the entertainment giant’s control of its Central Florida theme parks. That political battle sprang from Disney’s corporate pushback over the state’s strident anti-LGBTQ push.
