DeSantis' Bud Light brawl marks his latest move in anti-corporate gambit
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[July 28, 2023]
By James Oliphant
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As Republican Ron DeSantis attempts to reset his
flagging presidential campaign, one fundamental feature of the Florida
governor's candidacy remains constant: his willingness to antagonize
corporate America over cultural and political issues.
DeSantis last week ordered Florida officials to open a probe into the
company that owns Bud Light beer over concerns that it violated its
duties to shareholders by engaging in a marketing deal with a
transgender social media star that triggered a boycott by conservatives
and a drop in sales.
The move signaled DeSantis is not about to abandon his crusade against
so-called woke corporations, even at the risk of turning off the
no-drama, moderate voters he may need either to win the Republican
nomination or next year’s general election.
DeSantis trails Republican front-runner Donald Trump by more than 20
points nationally in the 2024 primary race. The governor's inclination
to pick fights with some of America's biggest companies has rattled some
wealthy donors and Republicans who worry the party is straying from its
traditional "hands-off" approach to the economy.
But it is in keeping in what has become a dramatic reorientation of the
base of the Republican Party in recent years away from moneyed elites to
working-class and rural voters who view multi-national corporations with
suspicion.
DeSantis' most high-profile battle has been against Disney over the
company’s resistance to a Florida law that restricts the teaching of
gender identity and sexuality concepts to school children. He has also
gone after financial firms, tech giants and the pharmaceutical industry
over a host of issues.
Alex Conant, a Republican consultant in Washington who has a roster of
corporate clients, said focus groups with voters have shown that some
Republicans are wary of government interfering with the internal
management of companies.
“Republicans have to be careful not to turn into Democrats,” Conant
said. “Just because voters don’t like big business doesn’t mean they
want Republicans running big business.”
A Reuters/Ipsos poll taken in April at the height of the Disney fight
showed that 62% of Americans, including 55% of Republicans, were less
likely to back a candidate who punished companies for their political
views.
But a Republican lobbyist in Washington who represents several Fortune
500 companies said DeSantis’ approach is sound for winning the
Republican primary.
“DeSantis is doing what he’s doing because it's good politics,” said the
lobbyist, who asked to remain unidentified so as to not take sides in
the presidential race. “Our voters have turned on the business
community. That shift has occurred.”
'NOT YOUR FRIEND'
The party's turn away from corporate America has been a decade in the
making and is grounded in several socioeconomic factors, including the
defection of college-educated voters to the Democratic Party, the
off-shoring of manufacturing jobs and growing economic inequality
between affluent coastal sectors and the country's interior.
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Florida Governor Ron Desantis speaks as
he is interviewed by Former Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson (not
pictured) during the Family Leadership Summit at the Iowa Events
Center, in Des Moines, Iowa, U.S., July 14, 2023. REUTERS/Scott
Morgan/File Photo
DeSantis and his campaign have pushed back against the claim by
Disney CEO Bob Iger and other critics that he is anti-business,
pointing to how he has fostered economic growth and job creation in
Florida.
As of June, the state had experienced a private-sector job growth
rate that has exceeded the nation’s rate for 26 consecutive months,
according to state officials.
Asked about DeSantis’ philosophy, his campaign pointed to an
interview the candidate gave in May to a conservative magazine in
which he said, “corporate America is not your friend on a lot of
things.”
If corporations gain too much power, DeSantis said, “you're going to
end up seeing the economy and society go in ways that may not be
advantageous for the majority of the people.”
In a speech on Wednesday to a conservative public policy group,
DeSantis said corporations that follow environmental, social, and
corporate governance principles "are effectively doing the bidding
of lot of ruling elites in government, and they're doing through the
economy what they could never achieve at the ballot box."
Trump has ripped DeSantis for the Disney fight while also
criticizing the company for being “woke.”
After conservatives launched a boycott of Bud Light in the wake of
an endorsement deal with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney,
Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., urged it to stop, noting that Bud
Light’s parent company, Anheuser-Busch InBev, has long donated to
Republican candidates.
A company spokesman told Reuters that "Anheuser-Busch InBev takes
our responsibility to our shareholders, employees, distributors and
customers seriously."
Last week, DeSantis said he had launched an investigation of the
financial ratings firm Morningstar for utilizing ratings that he
said discriminate against Israel in violation of Florida law.
Morningstar in a statement said it has undertaken internal reviews
to ensure its ratings are free from bias.
On the trail, DeSantis has accused the Food and Drug Administration
of being “captured” by the pharmaceutical industry. He also has
blasted tech companies for what he calls social-media political
bias.
At the same time, DeSantis’ campaign and the top super PAC
supporting him, Never Back Down, have benefited from corporate
interests as they have relied on large donations from a network of
deep-pocketed donors. Never Back Down, in particular, has raised
more than $70 million since launching in March.
(Reporting by James Oliphant; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and
Alistair Bell)
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