Another week means another big obstacle for Bud Light to win back its title as America's top-selling beer.
Florida Governor and presidential candidate Ron DeSantis is the latest politician to take aim at the struggling beer maker, promising to use the power of his office to potentially bring a derivative lawsuit against the company.
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"We believe that when you take your eye off of the ball like that you are not following your fiduciary duty to do the best you can for your shareholders," DeSantis told Fox News Thursday.
"So we're going to be launching an inquiry about Bud Light and InBev (Anheuser Busch InBev (BUD) -)) 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 has to be penalties for when you put business aside to focus on your social agenda at the expense of hard working people."
This all stems for an ill-fated decision by the company to hire transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney as a spokesperson.
On Friday, DeSantis boasted that "We've kneecapped ESG in Florida," before officially calling for the investigation in Bud Light and saying "all options are on the table for woke corporations that put ideology ahead of returns."
We’ve kneecapped ESG in Florida.
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) July 21, 2023
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
DeSantis has ridden a wave of anti-"woke" rhetoric to become the biggest challenger, on the Republican side, to former President Donald Trump's path to take back the White House.
Bud Light is a new target for the governor, however, as most of his attention up until now has been dedicated to battling media conglomerate Disney (DIS) -) after its former CEO spoke up about the state's so-called "Don't Say Gay" education bill.
Disney filed a lawsuit against DeSantis in April alleging a "targeted campaign of government retaliation" after DeSantis threatened to revoke the company's long-held self-governing status in the Sunshine State. In February, DeSantis signed a bill ending that special status.
Last week, current CEO Bob Iger said that the company wouldn't back down from DeSantis.
"We are concerned that he has decided to retaliate against the company for a position the company took on pending legislation in that state. And frankly the company was in its right -- even though I'm not sure it was handled very well -- to speak up on an issue," Iger told CNBC.
"To retaliate against the company in a way that would be harmful to the business was not something we could sit back and tolerate."
