Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is leading the fight against woke corporations.
He is beginning to see the results of his agenda.
And a woke Wall Street titan made this stunning confession about its fight with Ron DeSantis.
Wall Street investment firm BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, is the leader in promoting environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing.
ESG uses political criteria for investing decisions, which leads to politically favored companies by the Left, like green energy, getting money while politically disfavored companies, like in the fossil fuel industry, are choked off from capital.
BlackRock has $10 trillion under its control, which it can use to flex its muscles.
The company’s CEO, Larry Fink, is one of the leaders in promoting ESG to eliminate carbon emissions to curb climate change.
BlackRock admits CEO’s ESG is hurting the company
Republican-controlled states have been pushing back against ESG by cutting off woke companies like BlackRock from doing business with them.
The company quietly admitted in its legally required financial disclosures that Larry Fink’s political activism was hurting the company’s bottom line.
In BlackRock’s annual 10-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), it listed “risk factors” to its stock price.
“BlackRock’s business, scale, and investments subject it to significant media coverage and increasing attention from a broad range of stakeholders,” the disclosure stated.
The disclosure said that “ESG” was becoming a problem for the company.
“Matters subject to scrutiny, such as ESG, may be viewed differently by various stakeholders and adversely impact BlackRock’s reputation and business, including through redemptions or terminations by clients, and legal and governmental action and scrutiny,” the disclosure added.
BlackRock’s ESG investment holdings are valued at over $700 billion.
The company’s goal is to have 75% of its investments by 2030 be in companies that are committed to reducing their carbon emissions.
The blowback against ESG caused Fink to admit that he stopped using the word because it had become politically toxic last year.
“I don’t use the word ESG anymore, because it’s been entirely weaponized … by the far Left and weaponized by the far Right,” Fink said.
Fink added that not using the term would not change BlackRock’s financial agenda.
DeSantis spokesman takes victory lap
“BREAKING: @BlackRock has admitted that their core business could be ‘materially adversely affected’ by CEO Larry Fink’s continued ESG activism, citing it as a key risk factor in their annual filing with the SEC,” Consumers’ Research Executive Director Will Hild wrote on social media.
DeSantis Communications Director Bryan Griffin reacted to Hild’s post by saying, “Glad we could do our part.”
Glad we could play our part. https://t.co/SBhmG7Qe4k pic.twitter.com/bS1Z7arrkd
— Bryan Griffin (@BryanDGriffin) March 2, 2024
Griffin included a picture of a USA Today article announcing that Florida and Governor Ron DeSantis had pulled billions in investments out of “woke” BlackRock over ESG.
Florida pulled $2 billion worth of state assets out of BlackRock because of its support of ESG.
Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis said at the time the state would not support “social engineering” by BlackRock’s financial decisions.
The tide could be turning in the fight against ESG.
DeSantis Daily will keep you up-to-date on any developments to this ongoing story.
