Ron DeSantis is joining the conservative backlash against Bud Light as he seeks to regain momentum for his presidential campaign.

In a letter to his state’s main asset management organization, the Florida governor called for an investigation into how Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD) handled a recent Bud Light marketing campaign and the resulting drop in the company’s stock. The state's pension fund owns some of those shares.

DeSantis also hinted at potential legal action.

“It appears to me that AB InBev may have breached legal duties owed to its shareholders, and that a shareholder action may be both appropriate and necessary,” he wrote to Interim Board of Administration Executive Director Lamar Taylor.

Anheuser-Busch has been under scrutiny from conservative Republicans since April after a partnership with transgender social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney. Bud Light ran an advertising campaign featuring a specially commissioned beer can containing Mulvaney’s image. The ads also promoted the NCAA’s annual March Madness basketball championship.

The company has long since backed away from the influencer in light of the controversy but has seen its stock price suffer. Mulvaney claimed in a recent Instagram post that the beer maker hadn’t been in touch amid the ongoing hostility.

In an interview with Fox News, DeSantis questioned whether the company had pursued a political agenda "at the expense of their shareholders" and reiterated his threat of a lawsuit by the state pension fund if the probe shows that the company failed to adhere to its fiduciary duties.

Bud Light is not the only company that has attracted the governor's scrutiny. DeSantis is also embroiled in two lawsuits with Florida’s largest employer, Disney (DIS), over what the entertainment giant can do with land surrounding the Walt Disney World theme park.

That dispute started more than a year ago when Disney, like Bud Light, expressed a viewpoint on gender identity by opposing a parental rights bill in Florida that prohibited educators from leading classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity. Opponents labeled the bill “Don’t Say Gay.”

'Radical social ideologies'

DeSantis's stance on Bud Light takes issue with what he says are state investments in InBev stock worth about $50 million. That is a small fraction of Florida’s overall pension fund holdings, currently valued at $180 billion.

The State Board of Administration (SBA) is Florida’s main asset management organization, overseeing over $250 billion. That includes the $180 billion Florida Retirement System Pension Plan Fund.

The case from DeSantis is that Anheuser-Busch might be legally liable for hurting Florida’s financial position because the SBA is invested in BUD.

The company hurt its stock price, he said, by associating with “radical social ideologies.”

DeSantis and other 2024 candidates like Vivek Ramaswamy are making attacks on “woke investing” and environment, social, and corporate governance (ESG) principles a key part of their 2024 message as they try to find any avenue to challenge front-runner Donald Trump.

Currently, the former president has a 30-point lead over DeSantis, according to recent polling. It's a margin the Florida governor has been unable to lessen after almost two months on the campaign trail.

DeSantis often touts his anti-ESG bill signed into law in May that tries to eliminate any focus on issues like climate change in his state’s investing decisions. He likes to say in his stump speech he “kneecapped” ESG.

Studies have shown that anti-ESG laws in Republican-run states like Texas and Florida can come with an array of hidden costs.

There is already a fear in Florida that DeSantis’s efforts there could cost taxpayers millions in the years ahead by cutting the state pension off from investment managers who continue to consider ESG principles.

Alexis Keenan is a legal reporter for Yahoo Finance.

Ben Werschkul is a Washington correspondent for Yahoo Finance.

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