Ron DeSantis threatens lawsuit over Bud Light and Dylan Mulvaney collab

Ron DeSantis is once again raging about Bud Light’s partnership with trans TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney, and this time he’s threatening legal action against the beer’s parent company. 

Earlier this year, right-wingers and conservatives alike experienced a full meltdown over a short Instagram video touting a partnership between Mulvaney, a trans social media influencer, and Bud Light. 

The collaboration resulted in conservatives calling for an all-out boycott of the beer and some Republicans – like DeSantis – using the partnership as a rallying cry in their ‘war on woke’. 

Now, the Florida governor has urged the agency that manages the state’s pension fund to launch an investigation into Anheuser-Busch (AB) InBev, Bud Light’s parent company, following the right-wing backlash against Bud Light for collaborating with Mulvaney. 

In a letter, DeSantis, who is also a Republican presidential candidate for the 2024 election, claimed AB InBev had “breached legal duties owed to its shareholders” because the company decided “to associate its Bud Light brand with radical social ideologies”.

“All options are on the table and woke corporations that put ideology ahead of returns should be on notice,” DeSantis wrote in a tweet, sharing a scanned copy of his letter to Florida’s State Board of Administration.

We’ve kneecapped ESG in Florida.
 
So I’m calling for an investigation into AB InBev’s actions regarding their Bud Light marketing campaign and falling stock prices.
 
All options are on the table and woke corporations that put ideology ahead of returns should be on notice. pic.twitter.com/B3frLY4f30

— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) July 21, 2023

DeSantis accused AB InBev of not following its “fiduciary duty” to shareholders and pensioners by collaborating with Mulvaney.

“When you start pursuing a political agenda at the expense of your shareholders, that’s not just impacting very wealthy people,” he told Fox News. “It impacts hardworking people who were police officers, firefighters and teachers in terms of the pension.”

“So we’re going to be launching an inquiry about Bud Light and InBev, and it could be something that leads to a derivative lawsuit filed on behalf of the shareholders of the Florida pension fund because, at the end of the day, there’s got to be penalties when you put business aside to focus on your social agenda at the expense of hardworking people.”

DeSantis claimed that Florida had over $50 million worth of InBev stock in Florida’s pension funds, and alleged that shareholders were affected by fluctuations in sales of Bud Light as a result of conservative backlash to the beer brand after it worked with Mulvaney. 

It’s worth noting that Ron DeSantis is taking issue with Bud Light’s financial fallout as a result of partnering with the trans social media influencer when the Republican himself encouraged consumers to boycott the brand. 

Ron DeSantis has a track record of attacking what he believes are ‘woke’ corporations. 

The Republican governor has been embroiled in a messy legal feud with Disney after the animation giant’s CEO expressed his opposition to the state’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ legislation, which bars discussions of LGBTQ+ identities in some Florida classrooms. 

The fallout has seen DeSantis work to strip Disney of its special tax status in the state while the corporation has taken the Florida governor to court for allegedly punishing it for exercising its first amendment rights by criticising the anti-LGBTQ+ law. 

DeSantis’ ongoing feud with the House of Mouse has rubbed some Republican lawmakers the wrong way, as they say the battle has made people question the Florida governor’s “judgement and his maturity”.