DeSantis asks Florida officials to review AB InBev assets following Bud Light scandal

by Tara Suter - 07/20/23 11:10 PM ET

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican presidential candidate, speaks during a town hall event in Hollis, N.H., Tuesday, June 27, 2023. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) sent a letter Thursday to the head of Florida’s State Board of Administration (SBA) asking to “initiate a review” into its holdings with Bud Light’s parent company, AB InBev.

In the letter, DeSantis told Lamar Taylor, the interim executive director of the SBA, that it appeared to him AB InBev “may have breached legal duties owed to its shareholders” by associating the brand with “radical social ideologies.” DeSantis cited statistics showing a drop in sales of Bud Light after its controversial partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney and warned of “financial harm” to the SBA and “other shareholders.”

“Our legal commitments and obligations, however, remain perfectly clear: 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.

The Florida SBA “provides a variety of investment services to state and local government entities in” the state, including the Florida Retirement System Pension Plan, which the SBA calls “one of the largest public retirement plans in the U.S.”

An Anheuser-Busch spokesperson addressed the request in a statement to The Hill, writing, “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.“

In April, DeSantis released a spoof advertisement for Bud Light following the brand’s collaboration with Mulvaney, targeting the “real men of women’s sports.”

“Today we recognize the men who’ve hacked the system (Hacked the system),” the ad said. “Once mediocre in the men’s division, now cream of the crop in the women’s (From mediocre to champion).”

This story was updated on July 21, 2023 at 4:30 p.m.