DeSantis cracks down on Biden’s ‘woke’ ESG agenda with 18 other GOP states

Ron DeSantis joins 18 other red states in battling corporate virtue signaling and “woke-ness,” which has come to be known as environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG).

ESG, denounced by DeSantis and other right-wing politicians, has become a recent Republican buzzword for berating companies and organizations for using their power in the business and finance worlds to push forward a – usually progressive – agenda.

The 19 governors signed a joint statement declaring, “Again, President Biden placed his political agenda above the well-being and individual freedoms of hard-working Americans.”

The governors, who call themselves “freedom-loving states,” pledge to use pension funds in their respective states to force companies to maximize shareholder value rather than enforce “woke ideology.”

The governors released a joint statement on the effort on Thursday after Biden said he would oppose Congressional efforts to keep politics out of pension funds

In addition to Florida are Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

Many who signed up with DeSantis are longtime Trump stalwarts, including Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who served as the former president’s press secretary at the White House but, according to reports, declined to publicly endorse his 2024 bid when he that was requested.

In an op-ed, DeSantis explained that ESG is usually only used for a few reasons: when those who work at the top of companies want to push their agenda or one that would benefit them, or give in to the will of employees representing their employer to reflect their values.

In his new book The Courage to Be Free: Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Revival, the would-be 2024 presidential candidate called for “crippling the ESG movement.”

Desantis is seen as one of the biggest fighters against ESG given his ‘war with Disney’.

The governor said he was warned not to take on the powerful Florida company but went headlong to war with Walt Disney World after the then-CEO released a statement opposing his laws that gave parents more parenting power of their children.

“The proliferation of ESG across America poses a direct threat to the U.S. economy, individual economic freedom and our way of life, placing investment decisions in the hands of the waking crowd to evade the ballot box and inject political ideology into investment decisions,” corporate governance and the day-to-day economy,” notes the joint statement from DeSantis and the 18 other governors.

Among those who supported the initiative are former Trump White House press secretary and current Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders (left) and Georgia governor Brian Kemp (right).

DeSantis’ press release on the effort notes that ESG was “destabilizing the U.S. economy and the global financial system.”

Congress passed legislation to try to keep politics out of Americans’ pension funds, which Biden has openly opposed.

President Biden threatened to veto this measure, which puts the pensions of thousands of hard-working Americans at risk for the radical environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) movement, instead of prioritizing investment decisions on basis of the highest return,” the joint statement said. statement notes.

They added: “Retirees, already suffering from the reckless fiscal policies of the Biden administration, will continue to experience diminished returns on the investment of their hard-earned money, while the business elite continues to use its economic power to impose policies. to the country they couldn’t reach at the ballot box.’