Voters delivered a resounding verdict in November: The culture of dominant progressivism, discriminatory diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, and cultural extremism is not what they want. The inauguration of President Donald Trump and the shake-up of our government in Washington represent a fresh start for the United States, an ability to roll back the policies and reject the ideas that are holding back business and dividing consumers.
As treasurer of the great state of Oklahoma, I am familiar with the adverse consequences of activism in the corporate space. Oklahoma constituents have seen the results of such corporate activism negatively affect the many industries on which thousands of lives and futures depend. As we saw in November, the leftism of the Democratic Party’s last four years in the White House has its life cycle. So, too, does anti-fiduciary corporate activism.
But as the era of environmental, social, and governance, DEI, and divisive corporate partisanship is coming to an end, the responsibility now rests on the country to offer a better way. It is time for pro-business, pro-fiduciary actors to bring their influence to bear in the corporate arena. And now, I am proud to say Oklahoma is about to bring its influence to bear against corporate bias and ESG in a way no other red state has ever done.
As a state treasurer, I oversee substantial public funds invested in this country’s most prominent corporations. I see how anti-business, pro-ESG activist groups use and abuse the policymaking processes of many such companies. Many companies refer to divisive and partisan groups such as the Human Rights Campaign, which pressures businesses to pay for puberty blockers for children in their healthcare plans as part of its “Corporate Equality Index.” This is not fiduciary duty; it is radical activism masquerading as business concern.
Moreover, political organizations such as Planned Parenthood work in concert with corporate activists to place ballot items before shareholders at major tech companies such as Google, urging them to censor pro-life pregnancy centers for the “crime” of supporting life. The radical activist push to politicize Big Business is happening all around us, even from government entities in blue states.
When blue state pension funds such as California’s CalPERS use their tremendous financial leverage to fuel a pressure campaign against board members of Exxon Mobil for refusing to shrink their oil exploration business model in the face of activist demands, something has gone incredibly wrong. In fact, two things have gone incredibly wrong: the activists pushing ESG and DEI into American corporations have been hard at work, and those tasked with defending fiduciary duty, rejecting radical activism, and championing corporate political neutrality have been blind to it.
The era of such blindness is over in Oklahoma. It is my pleasure to announce that Oklahoma is bringing its corporate influence to an area no red state ever has before: the corporate ballot. I am currently placing ballot resolutions, also known as shareholder proposals, on the agendas of several major companies to push for political neutrality in those companies’ policies, partnerships, and practices and giving them notice that what they’re doing is wrong.
We are calling out Lululemon and shining a light on its political giving, including donations to radical pro-defund-the-police organizations such as Reclaim the Block. We are urging Alphabet, the parent company of Google, and Amazon to recommit themselves to political neutrality in media-buying and advertising practices and to make up for their choice to join the partisan Global Alliance for Responsible Media, which functioned as a cartel to censor right-of-center media outlets.
We are pushing Netflix to evaluate the risks of its charitable partnerships with organizations such as the Human Rights Campaign and the way in which its charity-matching policies make use of information from the biased Southern Poverty Law Center slamming all conservative perspectives. And we are urging Yum! Brands and GoDaddy to formalize their commitments to equal treatment when it comes to their religious employees’ ability to access resources and support in the workplace similar to what they do for their extreme liberal employees.
These proposals from Oklahoma’s Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust filed in partnership with corporate engagement firm Bowyer Research are about depoliticizing Oklahoma dollars. We are also partnering with Bowyer Research to ensure our fund’s proxy voting policies reflect our commitments to fiduciary duty and business growth — because standing against ESG and for growth is meaningless without the record of financial stewardship that accompanies that stance.
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You will never see a proposal under my care pressuring a company to be nonfiduciary with state dollars. We believe that’s the wrong way forward, and looking at November’s electoral outcome, most people believe that too. In this moment, when too many corporate actors are using their influence to advance ESG, promote DEI, and muddy the waters on real fiduciary obligations, we are proud to be stepping into this arena to get companies out of politics and back into a focus on shareholder return. We hope other Oklahoma funds, and indeed financial entities from all organizations who would see businesses recommit to depoliticized performance and greatness, will follow our example for Oklahoma.
In Oklahoma, we believe work conquers all; it has been on our great seal for more than a century. As such, we also believe companies are best served by not capitulating to the demands of activists pushing radical propositions such as puberty blockers for children. We believe that business success trumps activist goals. And we believe that championing political neutrality, fiduciary duty, and the undiluted power of the free enterprise system is the best way to live out those ideas.
Todd Russ is the treasurer of Oklahoma.
