Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is asking the government to investigate whether Bud Light’s parent company violated its duty to shareholders, as the beer brand’s deal with transgender social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney continues to draw conservative backlash.
DeSantis, who is running for the Republican presidential nomination, directed Lamar Taylor, interim executive director of the National Executive Council, to immediately initiate a review into “how AB InBev’s conduct has affected and continues to affect the value of the SBA.” Anheuser-Busch InBev shareholding. “
“In my opinion, AB InBev may have violated its legal obligations to its shareholders, and shareholder action may have been appropriate and necessary,” DeSantis wrote in a tweet on Friday.
“All options are on the table,” he added.
Shares of AB InBev have fallen more than 2% this year, even as the broader market has rallied.
Bud Light sales have plummeted following conservative uproar and resistance to the Mulvaney partnership. The beer lost its top spot in the U.S. beer market last month, constellation brandModelo Especial accounted for 8.7 percent of total beer sales, while Bud Light accounted for 7 percent, according to data shared by consultancy Bump Williams.
The company also saw sales of Bud Light beer down about 25% from last year. The company’s shares fell from $66 to $58 a share amid the boycott. Florida owns $53 million worth of AB InBev stock, DeSantis said.
“Anheuser-Busch InBev takes our responsibilities to shareholders, employees, distributors and customers seriously,” a company spokesperson told CNBC in a statement Friday afternoon.
“We are committed to driving long-term, sustainable growth for consumers by optimizing our business and providing them with products for any occasion,” the spokesperson said.
DeSantis said the investigation could lead to a lawsuit on behalf of Florida pension fund shareholders. “At the end of the day, when you put business aside and focus on a social agenda at the expense of hard-working people, there is bound to be a penalty,” he told Fox News on Thursday night.
The Premier accused the company of being linked to a “radical social ideology” that ignored stakeholders and pensioners.
DeSantis oversees the state commission as a trustee alongside the state’s Republican attorney general and chief financial officer.
The move against Bud Light marks the latest example of DeSantis embroiled in controversy over a hot-button social issue and flexing his political power.
the governor got into a bitter feud with him disneyOne of the state’s largest employers comes more than a year after the company criticized Florida’s controversial bill limiting classroom discussions of gender identity. Disney filed a federal lawsuit accusing DeSantis and his allies of political retaliation over the classroom bill conflict.
DeSantis, who is seen as the top Republican primary rival to former President Donald Trump, has spent his campaign attacking Disney and other entities he believes are promoting an “awakened” progressive political ideology.
“We must carefully manage funding for Florida’s hard-working law enforcement officers, teachers, firefighters, and first responders, focusing on growing returns rather than funding ideological agendas by waking up to virtue signaling,” he wrote to Taylor.
DeSantis trails Trump by double digits in most national polls in the Republican primary. Less than two months after entering the race, the governor’s campaign is planning to restart, nbc news reported Thursday.
Mulvaney criticized Budweiser for not standing by her during the boycott. She said she was harassed and intimidated when she became the face of the controversy.
“I’ve been afraid to leave the house for months, I’ve been teased in public, I’ve been stalked, I’ve felt a kind of loneliness that I don’t want anyone to feel,” Mulvaney said. last month said.
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