About

OJ Oleka became chief executive officer of the State Financial Officers Foundation (SFOF) in October 2024, replacing the organization’s cofounder Derek Kriefels. From 2016–19, he served as communications director and assistant treasurer of the Commonwealth of Kentucky under then Treasurer Allison Ball, who is now the state auditor. During that time, he earned the SFOF State Staffer of the Year Award in 2018.

In 2021, Oleka was appointed to the SFOF board of directors. The following year he stepped down from his role as president of the Association of Independent Kentucky Colleges and Universities (AIKCU) to run for state treasurer. He lost to Mark Metcalf in the 2023 Republican primary despite an endorsement from Ball, the outgoing treasurer. 

Oleka serves on the board of directors for EdChoice Kentucky and the Wanda Joyce Robinson Foundation. He holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing from the University of Louisville, as well as an MBA and a PhD from Bellarmine University, also in Louisville. 

Actions

• Appeared on Jerry Bower’s Meeting of the Minds podcast to discuss “The Next Steps in the Red State Battle Against ESG & DEI” (10/25/24)
• Participated in the panel “ESG Investing: Unearthing the Evidence, Challenging the Narrative” moderated by Troy University Professor Allen Mendenhall and featuring Alabama State Auditor Andrew Sorrell and Florida Atlantic University Professor Siri Terjesen (10/10/24)
• Moderated the Economic Summit at SFOF’s 2023 national meeting that featured Ark Invest CEO Catherine Wood, Arthur Laffer, Stephen Moore, Andy Puzder, and Brian Wesbury (8/30/23)

About

Jerry Bowyer (pronounced BOY-er) is a writer and commentator focused on finance and economics who became a member of the national advisory committee of the State Financial Officers Foundation (SFOF) in April 2023. Among his many ventures, he founded the small, family-run business Bowyer Research, an “investment, macroeconomic forecasting, and corporate engagement and proxy consulting firm.” 

Bowyer  is the author of The Maker Versus the Takers: What Jesus Really Said About Social Justice and Economics (2020), The Free Market Capitalist’s Survival Guide: How to Invest and Thrive in an Era of Rampant Socialism (2011), and The Bush Boom: How a Misunderestimated President Fixed a Broken Economy (2003). As founder of Bowyer Media, he created the podcast Meeting of Minds in 2021 as a platform for elevating anti-ESG voices and conservative ideology.

On his podcast, Bowyer interviews financial officers who bad-mouth ESG investment practices as well as key anti-ESG operatives fomenting the manufactured crisis around “woke capitalism.” These guests have included SFOF CEO Derek Kreifels and SFOF member Marlo Oaks and former member John Murante, as well as anti-ESG operatives Justin Danhof, Paul Fitzpatrick, David Bahnsen, Stephen Moore, Stephen Soukup, and Will Hild. The podcast is a project of the Salem Podcast Network, which also hosts podcasts by other right-wing influencers such as Dinesh D’Souza, Sebastian Gorka, and Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA.

In 1995, Bowyer founded the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy, a conservative think tank funded by the Scaife Foundations. He has previously called for the creation of a “theocracy” in America, according to a 1999 Washington Post article.

Bowyer received SFOF’s 2024 State Economic Impact Award at its 2024 Investing in American Energy Summit.

Actions

• Hosted SFOF CEO OJ Oleka on his Meeting of the Minds podcast to discuss “The Next Steps in the Red State Battle Against ESG & DEI” (10/25/24)
• Signed anti-Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) letter to Fortune 1000 businesses (10/25/24)
• Requested Pennsylvania state treasurer’s office to “ask Glass Lewis to embrace the pro-shareholder voting profile” (2/13/24)
• Moderated a panel discussion titled “The Truth About ESG and Investing Your Values” at Liberty University’s 2022 CEO Summit, which also featured SFOF CEO Derek Kreifels and businessman turned 2024 presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy (10/6/22)
• Participated in a panel discussion at SFOF’s 2022 fall meeting titled “ESG Part 2: Shareholder Proposals and Voting Your Proxies” with Utah Treasurer Marlo Oaks, fellow anti-ESG operative Steve Milloy, and Free Enterprise Project Director Scott Shephard (11/15/22)

About

Catherine Gunsalus is the director of state advocacy at Heritage Action for America, the advocacy arm of the Heritage Foundation. A prominent opponent of ESG investing, she frequently writes opinion pieces, testifies against ESG and other socially-minded legislation, lobbies on behalf of Heritage Action, and coordinates PR strategy with other anti-ESG advocates. She is a registered lobbyist in 18 states, according to NPR, and regularly appears on conservative platforms such as Just the News to amplify anti-ESG talking points.

At ALEC’s 50th annual meeting in July 2023, Gunsalus led a workshop with Will Hild and Richard Belzer to “educate [legislators] on how to identify and avoid politically motivated investing strategies to help keep the promises made to retirees and taxpayers.”

In its January 2022 press release announcing her appointment as state advocacy director, Heritage Action referred to Gunsalus as “a longtime political heavyweight in the state of Kansas,” where she has lived for the past decade-plus and served as assistant secretary of state and chief of staff for the former legislative speaker pro tem. She also readily speaks out against reproductive rights.

Actions

• Co-moderated the “Stopping ESG (aka Conscientious Capitalism)” workshop at ALEC’s 50th annual meeting with Will Hild and Richard Belzer (7/26/23)
• Wrote an op-ed for the Washington Examiner in which she argued that conservatives are winning the “war” against “woke capitalism” and ESG investing (6/16/23)

About

Steve Milloy is a former Fox News columnist and lobbyist for the tobacco and fossil fuel industries who generally aims to discredit science and any factual evidence scientists discover. He currently sits on the boards of the libertarian Heartland Institute, the pro-fossil fuel American Energy Institute and the Energy and Environment Legal Institute (a nonprofit law firm dedicated to opposing renewable energy projects and regulation of fossil fuels), where he’s also a senior policy fellow. He is also a member of the Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force of the American Legislative Exchange Council, and is an adjunct fellow at the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR). 

Milloy regularly refers to all proponents of using financial leverage to address the climate crisis as being part of an “ESG cartel.” He loudly and adamantly denies the reality of climate change and the health impacts of secondhand smoke. In the early 1990s, he headed the Advancement of Sound Science Center, a pseudo think tank established by the tobacco giant Philip Morris to counter legislation unfavorable to smoking and the industry. He also claims that the academic peer-review process is biased against corporate interests, and as a frequent commentator on Fox News, he denies the impact of climate change.

Milloy was formerly an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank where he hosted an offshoot website called junkscience.com dedicated to spreading skepticism about scientific consensus on a variety of subjects. While serving on the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency transition team, he was able to normalize many of the anti-science viewpoints he shares with his pro-corporate allies, according to journalist Amy Westervelt. 

As a shareholder activist, Milloy regularly files shareholder resolutions that attempt to undermine climate resolutions and emissions reductions proposed by large public companies. He holds a bachelor’s degree in natural science and a master’s in biostatistics, both from Johns Hopkins University, and a law degree from the University of Baltimore.

Actions

• Spoke on ESG at the Council for National Policy’s 2024 March meeting (3/2024)
• Wrote an opinion piece for the Washington Examiner in which he declared that ESG is a part of “America being sold out by the elites for the economic and geopolitical benefit of foreign competitors” (8/11/23)
• Spoke on a panel with Scott Shepard, director of NCPPR’s Free Enterprise Project, and Utah State Treasurer Marlo Oaks on “how shareholder proposals are being used to advance a social agenda and what states can do to stop it” at SFOF’s 2022 Fall National Meeting (11/15/22)
• In comments submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), called ESG “an illegal communist scheme for circumventing democratic processes to impose arbitrarily-determined standards on corporations in order to hijack the free enterprise system for political purposes” (8/15/22)

About

Richard Burton Belzer is an economist and policy analyst who works as an independent consultant focused on “regulation, risk, economics, and information quality,” according to his website. He has aired his longstanding anti-regulatory views and more recent criticisms of ESG everywhere from the pages of The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) to gatherings of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

The WSJ has published a number of Belzer’s letters to the editor claiming that ESG is a socialist plot to take over the U.S. economy. In response to a November 2022 opinion piece written by ESG proponents Al Gore and David Blood, he countered that the environmentally and socially conscious investment practice amounts to “an ideological crusade that succeeds by stealth,” and that the authors’ real goal is “replacing our market economy with a managed one that they and their ideological allies will direct.” In addition, he announced that after 30 years as a client of Vanguard, he was terminating his relationship with the investment management firm due to its commitment to using ESG metrics.

Belzer has worked for the federal government in a variety of capacities, including as staff economist for the Information and Regulatory Affairs arm of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) from 1988–98. Two decades later, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) tapped his expertise in uncertainty analysis in appointing him to its Chemical Assessment Advisory Committee.

Belzer has also been involved with a number of free market organizations. He has been a member of the Federalist Society since 2017, and currently serves on its Regulatory Transparency Project Energy & Environment Working Group. He was formerly an associate fellow at the R Street Institute, another right-wing think tank. In 2012, hee wrote a report on the regulation of carcinogens for the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a fiercely anti-regulatory think tank. He has signed group letters alongside far-right figures such as ALEC CEO Lisa Nelson and John Eastman, one of the 2020 election subversion co-conspirators recently indicted with Trump in Georgia.

Belzer holds a doctorate in public policy from Harvard, where his dissertation focused on the “economic incentives for hazardous waste management.” He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in agricultural economics from the University of California at Davis. 

Actions

• Led a workshop called “Stopping ESG (aka Conscientious Capitalism)” with Will Hild and Catherine Gunsalus at ALEC’s 50th annual meeting (7/26/23)
• Published a letter to the editor in the WSJ calling on Vanguard to stop “forcing non-ESG customers to participate in the ESG racket” (3/8/23)
• Published a rebuttal in the WSJ claiming that ESG is a “hostile takeover of capitalism” and “an ideological crusade that succeeds by stealth” (11/17/22)

About 

Kelly Mitchell served as treasurer of Indiana from 2014–22, leaving office due to a two-term limit in the state. She previously worked as director of Trust Indiana (2007–2014), an investment pool for local governments, and as a Cass County commissioner (1997–2004) responsible for the county budget and departmental oversight, along with planning and zoning issues. 

In 2020, Mitchell served as president of the State Financial Officers Foundation (SFOF), and since 2015 she has routinely moderated and participated in SFOF panel discussions. She also co-founded the National Association of State Treasurers’ first diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) committee.

Mitchell holds a bachelor’s degree from Valparaiso University and master’s degrees from Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis and the U.S. Army War College.

Actions

• Signed a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) opposing the proposed rule known as the  Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors (6/17/22)
• Signed an SFOF letter urging the Biden White House to spearhead “a call to invest in American energy instead of pursuing ESG initiatives that divide American energy businesses and discourage investment in these reliable energy industries” (4/5/22)
• Signed an SFOF letter urging President Biden to withdraw his nomination of Sarah Bloom Raskin as vice chair for supervision at the Federal Reserve for her “radical banking and economic views” that would “disrupt the private banking sector, reliable energy supplies, and the U.S. economy” (1/31/21)

About

Lucinda Mahoney is a former commissioner of revenue (2020–22) in Alaska who had been appointed by Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy but stepped down in late 2022 citing her desire to refocus more on her family and own health. She previously worked as a management consultant and as the CFO for the city of Anchorage (2009–14). 

As head of Alaska’s Revenue Department, Mahoney had a slightly more nuanced position on ESG than other members of the State Financial Officers Foundation (SFOF). In submitted testimony opposing the FDIC’s proposed principles on climate-related risk management, she wrote that they “favor and elevate social and political issues to the detriment of Alaska, our businesses, our indigenous people, and all our Alaskan residents.” However, at a panel discussion on ESG at the 2022 Alaska Oil & Gas Association (AOGA) conference, the commissioner noted that Alaska’s natural resource development was being handled sustainability and with social factors—including its impact on indigenous people—in mind. She would often highlight how Alaska’s oil and gas revenue was beneficial to Native Alaskans, and tout that “Alaska is a longtime leader in all categories measured under ESG metrics.”

Mahoney holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Texas–El Paso and an MBA from the University of Alaska–Anchorage. Much earlier in her career—before earning her MBA—she worked for an oil company.  

Actions

• Signed a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) opposing the proposed rule known as the Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors (6/17/22) 
• Signed an SFOF letter and submitted testimony opposing the FDIC proposed principles on climate-related financial risk management for large financial institutions (6/3/22)
• Signed a comment letter to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board regarding ESG practices in the municipal securities market (3/8/22)
• Signed a letter to the Department of Labor opposing possible agency actions to protect life savings and pensions from threats of climate-related financial risks (5/16/22)

About

Andrea Lea served as state auditor of Arkansas from 2015–23 but faced term limits and was replaced by Dennis Mulligan in January 2023. As auditor she was elected president of the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators and was a member of the State Financial Officers Foundation (SFOF).

Lea was also a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) when she served in the Arkansas State House of Representatives from 2009–13.  She co-chaired the Environmental Health and Regulation Subcommittee of ALEC’s Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force and was a member of its Public Safety and Elections Task Force. As a representative, she was often quoted by The Heartland Institute on matters related to local energy policy, including fracking.

Before entering state politics, Lea was a member of the Russellville City Council (2002–08) and the justice of the peace at Pope County Quorum Court (1998–2002). She holds a bachelor’s degree in Emergency Administration and Management from Arkansas Technical University.

Actions

• Invited to participate in a virtual SFOF “issues meeting” (9/14/22)
• Attended the 2021 SFOF national meeting in Orlando, FL (11/21)

About

Christopher Lee is a director of government relations–state affairs at the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) who lobbies extensively in favor of state-level anti-ESG bills. He has previously worked for the GOP in local Indiana politics, most recently as district director and field director for the U.S. House of Representatives, and in 2015 serving as campaign coordinator and finance director for the late Rep. Jackie Walorski’s reelection campaign. In 2012, he also worked for a brief stint as a political intern at the Koch brother’s Americans for Prosperity (AFP).

In reference to NSSF’s anti-ESG lobbying in Iowa, Lee has claimed that ESG policies “hurt the Second Amendment rights, energy security, and food security of Iowans.” 

Lee holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis and a master’s in business from Notre Dame.

Actions

Lee has lobbied for anti-ESG legislation in the following states:

• Indiana
  • Proponent of HB 1008 (2023 law)

• Iowa
  • Proponent of HF 2 (2023 proposed bill)
  • Proponent of HSB 180 (2023 proposed bill)
  • Proponent of SSB 1094 (2023 proposed bill)
  • Proponent of SF 507 (2023 proposed bill)

About

Bette Grande is the state government relations manager at the Heartland Institute, an organization known for its persistent denial of climate science. She is also the CEO and president of the Roughrider Policy Institute (RPI), a State Policy Network (SPN) affiliate established to “defend liberty and free enterprise in North Dakota.” 

For the last two of Grande’s 18 years as a North Dakota state representative (1996–2014), she chaired the American Legislative Exchange Council’s (ALEC) Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force (2012–14). She previously worked as the policy director for WallBuilders’ Pro-Family Legislative Network, a Christian anti-choice organization that promotes “traditional family values.” 

Both as a state representative and in her subsequent career moves, Grande has been a strong advocate for the oil and gas industry and a fierce opponent of regulation. “At a time when our national economy needs jobs and stable domestic energy, the biggest challenge we face is Washington, D.C.,” she wrote in a 2013 ALEC publication. After leaving the North Dakota House in 2014, she started posting her “articles and observations about energy and environmental issues” on a blog she calls “Frac Baby Frac.

In her role at  Heartland, Grande conducts extensive state-level anti-ESG lobbying. Likening ESG investment practices to  social credit scoring and discrimination against fossil fuel interests, she has participated in various public forums and Heartland’s podcast to discuss how ESG measures are actually attacks on “companies in politically disfavored industries.”

Grande earned a bachelor’s degree in education from the University of North Dakota. Her family operates a business in the Williston Basin, which is in the heart of North Dakota’s oil-rich Bakken formation.

Actions

• Signed a letter from Advancing American Freedom (AAF) to U.S. House leaders demanding that President Biden’s “woke 401(k)” rule be repealed (3/28/23)
• Signed a letter from the Independent Women’s Forum (IWF) warning Congress about the “ESG scam” (11/14/22)

Grande has lobbied in favor of anti-ESG legislation in the following states:

• Arizona
  • Proponent of HB 2656 (2022 proposed bill)
• Kentucky
  • Proponent of SB 205 (2022 law)
• Missouri
  • Proponent of SB 1171 (2022 proposed bill)
• Nebraska
  • Proponent of LB 730 (2023 proposed bill)
  • Proponent LB 743 (2023 proposed bill)
• North Dakota
  • Proponent of HB 1283 (2023 proposed bill)
  • Proponent of HB 1429 (2023 law)
  • Proponent of SB 2291 (2021 law)
• Wyoming
  • Proponent of SF 0108 (2022 proposed bill)

About

Eric Bledsoe is a visiting fellow at the Opportunity Solutions Project (OSP), the 501(c)(4) political action arm of the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA), where he is a senior fellow. In both capacities, he provides significant state-level anti-ESG lobbying. 

Bledsoe has lobbied in support of a number of anti-ESG bills in Arizona, Indiana, Kansas, and Montana. “Pension funds are not meant to be slush funds for activists, and using ESG to funnel money towards far-Left causes is underhanded and irresponsible,” he stated in an OSP press release. Keeping with OSP/FGA’s “anti-woke” posturing, he co-wrote an op-ed in support of a Missouri “education reform” bill that opposes “infusing lessons with politically trendy ideologies or shutting out parents.” 

Prior to joining FGA/OSP, Bledsoe worked as the senior director of civics at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation and as a program officer at the Charles Koch Foundation.

Bledsoe holds two degrees in English: a bachelor’s from the Catholic University of America and a master’s from Florida State University.

Actions

• Testified against the consideration of ESG factors in investing at the Texas Senate Committee on State Affairs (10/17/24)
• Spoke at a February 23, 2024 Alliance Defending Freedom press conference in Tennessee promoting “Tennessee House Bill 2100, which protects consumers from de-banking because of their religious and political views” alongside Tennessee Representative Jason Zachary (R); Tennessee Senator Jack Johnson (R); ADF Senior Counsel Matt Sharp; National Committee for Religious Freedom Senior Advisor Matt Goddard; and a representative from Association of Mature American Citizens (2/23/24)
• Bledsoe has lobbied for anti-ESG legislation in the following states:
  • Arizona
    • Proponent of HB 2471 (2023 bill proposed)
    • Proponent of SB 1500 (2023 bill proposed)
  • Indiana
    • Proponent of HB 1008 (2023 law)
  • Kansas
    • Proponent of SB 224 (2023 bill proposed)
  • Montana
    • Proponent of HB 228 (2023 law)
  • Tennessee
    • Proponent of HB 2100 (2024) [testified at 3/12/24 hearing at 00:55:20]

About

Nephi Cole has worked as a director of government relations—state affairs at the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) since 2018, and is responsible for conducting extensive state-level anti-ESG lobbying in order to “protect the firearms industry from ESG policies.” 

Cole previously worked as a senior policy advisor for Wyoming’s then-Governor Matthew Mead (R) and as a soil scientist and natural resource policy advisor (2001–12). He and his family participate in shooting competitions and he co-hosts the outdoors podcast Your Mountain. 

In April 2023, Cole was present when Montana Governor Greg Gianforte (R) signed an anti-ESG bill into law, saying, “In the last few years, woke, corporate activists have sought to unfairly deny basic access to critical business infrastructure all because they support an industry they don’t agree with.”

Cole holds a master’s degree in soil science and a bachelor’s in environmental science from Utah State University.

Actions

Cole has lobbied for anti-ESG legislation in the following states:

• Nebraska
  • Proponent of LB 730 (2023 bill considered)
  • Proponent of LB 743 (2023 bill considered)

• North Dakota
  • Proponent of HB 1429 (2023 law)

• South Dakota
  • Proponent of HB 1208 (2023 bill considered)

• Utah
  • Proponent of SB 97 (2023 bill considered)

• Wyoming
  • Proponent of SF 159 (2023 bill considered)

About

Brent Bennett is the policy director for Life:Powered, an initiative of the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) intended “to raise America’s energy IQ.” In that capacity, he conducts extensive state-level lobbying for anti-ESG bills across the country and produces anti-ESG research reports such as Keeping Politics Out of Texas Pensions: Proxy Voting Reform (2023). 

Prior to joining TPPF in 2018, Bennett worked at a startup that sold carbon nanotubes to battery manufacturers and as a technology consultant for energy storage companies. He holds a doctorate in materials science and engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and a bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Tulsa.

Actions

Bennett has lobbied in favor of specific anti-ESG legislation in the following states:

• North Dakota
  • Proponent of SB 2291 (2021 law)
  • Proponent of HB 1429 (2023 law)
  • Proponent of HB 1469 (2023 bill proposed)
  • Proponent of HB 1429 (2023 law)
• Texas
  • Proponent of SB 13 / HB 2189 (2021 law)
  • Proponent of SB 1060 (2023 bill proposed)
  • Proponent of SB 1446 (2023 bill proposed)
• Wyoming
  • Proponent of SF 159 (2023 bill proposed)

About 

Randy McDaniel served as state treasurer in Oklahoma from 2019–23 but chose not to run for reelection in 2022. During his term in office, he was a member of the State Financial Officers Foundation (SFOF). 

Prior to his years as treasurer, McDaniel was an Oklahoma state representative (2006–18) who chaired the House Banking, Financial Services and Pensions Committee. After six terms in the House, he was unable to run for reelection due to term limits. 

As a state representative, McDaniel spearheaded “pension reform” that resulted in moving state pensions to a defined contribution plan. In a 2014 interview with the Reason Foundation, he said that during the final debate, he had “quoted Reason Foundation’s work to rebut the opposition’s claims.” That same year, he wrote the book Pensions and Prosperity: The History of Key Pension Decisions and the Solutions for a Secure Future.

McDaniel holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Oklahoma, and a master’s degree from Cambridge University. He also attended the Institute on Business and Government Affairs at Georgetown University and worked for two decades as a financial advisor.

Actions

• Signed a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) opposing the proposed rule known as the Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors (6/17/22)
• Signed an SFOF letter opposing the FDIC proposed principles on climate-related financial risk management for large financial institutions (6/3/22)
• Signed a letter to Department of Labor opposing possible agency actions to protect life savings and pensions from threats of climate-related financial risk (5/16/22)
• Signed a comment letter to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board regarding ESG practices in the municipal securities market (3/8/22)
• Signed a letter opposing the proposed Department of Labor rule change entitled Prudence and Loyalty in Selecting Plan Investments and Exercising Shareholder Rights (12/13/21)
• Attended the 2021 national SFOF meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah (7/21)
• Signed a letter to U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry expressing concern that he and other members of the Biden administration were “privately pressuring U.S. banks and financial institutions to refuse to lend to or invest in coal, oil, and natural gas companies” (5/25/21)
• Signed an SFOF letter urging President Biden to withdraw his nomination of Sarah Bloom Raskin as vice chair for supervision at the Federal Reserve for her “radical banking and economic views” that would “disrupt the private banking sector, reliable energy supplies, and the U.S. economy” (1/31/21)

About

Ron DeSantis has been the Republican governor of Florida since 2019, when he first won with Trump’s endorsement. An outspoken critic of what the Right derides as “wokeness,” he began his second term in 2023 vowing to make Florida the state “where woke goes to die.” He also continued to double-down on pronouncing his MAGA credentials in advance of his long-anticipated announcement in May 2023 (with Elon Musk on Twitter) about his 2024 presidential bid.

As governor, DeSantis has targeted Covid-19 mask mandates, LGBTQ people, asylum seekers, public sector unions, peaceful protest (though this law was later blocked by a federal judge), teaching the factual history of racism in K–12 public schools, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs at state colleges, and academic freedom (another law that is still being challenged in the courts). In his 2023 memoir The Courage to Be Free (subtitled Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Revival), the governor describes himself as a “blue-collar boy who grew up to take on Disney and Dr. Fauci.”

DeSantis has emerged as a national leader in the anti-ESG movement, in part by spearheading the formation of an “alliance” of 18 other GOP governors who are “committed to lead state-level efforts to protect individuals from the ESG movement.” In a public letter, these governors call ESG a “woke ideology” that poses “a direct threat to the American economy, individual economic freedom, and our way of life.” 

In May 2023, DeSantis signed legislation that prohibits Florida state officials from weighing ESG considerations when making investments and outlaws the sale of ESG bonds. Journalist Jason Garcia found that legislation the governor proposed in February 2023 would directly benefit GEO Group, the Florida-based operator of for-profit prisons and detention centers that is a big donor to both his own campaigns and the Florida GOP more broadly.

Prior to becoming governor, DeSantis served as a member of Congress (2013–18), during which time he was a founding member of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Yale and a law degree from Harvard.

Actions

• Signed legislation “designed to protect conservative groups, gun sellers and private prisons from being dropped by financial institutions” (5/2/24)
• Signed far-reaching legislation that bans state officials from considering ESG factors when making investments and prohibits the sale of ESG bonds (5/2/23)
• Proposed legislation that would “protect Floridians from the woke ESG financial scam” by prohibiting state and local governments from using ESG considerations in any investment decisions, and prohibiting governments from considering ESG when contracting or procuring government contracts or issuing bonds (2/13/23)
• As a trustee member of Florida’s State Board of Administration, passed a resolution to divest state pension funds from ESG-linked investments (8/23/22)

About

Ryan Chavers is the communications manager for the State Financial Officers Foundation (SFOF) and previously worked at the Singularis Group, a conservative, Kansas-based marketing firm that, as of September 2022, was a silver-level sponsor of SFOF. From 2019–23, Chavers served as the group’s creative director after working as one of its in-house graphic designers from 2012–19. 

In his roles with the Singularis Group, he worked with a variety of clients, including SFOF and its short-lived Smart Women Smart Money magazine, the Kansas Chamber of Commerce, the Kansas Policy Institute, and a number of conservative members of Congress.

Actions

None

About

Eugene Scalia is a longtime partner at the law firm Gibson Dunn in Washington, D.C., where he specializes in employment law. He is the son of the late Antonin Scalia, the conservative Supreme Court associate justice who sat on the bench from 1986 until his death in 2016. 

During the Trump administration, Scalia served a short stint as Secretary of Labor (from September 2019–January 2021). Much earlier in his career, he had briefly served as the Labor Department’s solicitor (2002–2003). As secretary he was widely criticized for overseeing the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s relatively meek response to workplace safety during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

At the Labor Department, Scalia promoted rulemaking that would discourage pension-plan managers from considering ESG criteria when making investments. “Private employer-sponsored retirement plans are not vehicles for furthering social goals or policy objectives that are not in the financial interest of the plan,” he noted in a 2020 press release. As of May 2023, Scalia is serving as counsel on a high-profile anti-ESG lawsuit, representing plaintiffs who are suing three New York City pension funds over their pledge to fully divest from fossil fuels by 2040.

A strong proponent of financial deregulation, Scalia has been referred to as the “one-man financial stability wrecking ball“ by the nonprofit group Better Markets.

Early in his career at Gibson Dunn, he argued that OSHA had overreached its authority in issuing citations against SeaWorld after a whale killed one of its trainers. He also fiercely opposed a new OSHA ergonomics standard to address musculoskeletal disorders.

Scalia holds a law degree from the University of Chicago Law School and a bachelor’s from the University of Virginia.

Actions

• Spoke on a panel titled “Should the Market or Regulators or Neither Mandate ESG Disclosures?” at the Federalist Society‘s Second Annual In-House Counsel Network Conference with Paredes Strategies Founder Troy Paredes, Strive Asset Management Head of Corporate Governance Justin Danhof, and United States Securities and Exchange Commissioner Hester Peirce (5/19/23)
• Delivered the keynote address and participated in a roundtable discussion at the 2021 Fall National Meeting of the State Financial Officers Foundation (11/3/21)

About

Chris Sununu has served as the Republican governor of New Hampshire since 2017, and won his fourth term in 2022 with 57% of the vote.

Since the governor had not taken a public position on ESG investing prior to 2023, his recent moves to do so may be related to positioning for his possible bid for president. 

In January 2023, Sununu criticized Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R)—who is also jockeying for a possible presidential bid in 2024—for his attacks on so-called “woke” companies, telling Fox News that while he agrees with the “need to push back on woke policy,” he does not think it makes sense to “punish private businesses because they don’t agree with a policy or whatever it might be. Those types of culture wars pushing their way into the private sector, that’s definitely not… where we want to be as Americans.”

In March 2023, Sununu joined 17 other Republican governors in signing a letter denouncing ESG as “woke ideology” and vowing to prevent state pension fund managers from making ESG investments. In April, the governor issued a relatively toothless executive order in which he discouraged New Hampshire’s executive agencies from making investments based solely on ESG criteria and instead encouraged that they hew more closely to “fiduciary duty.”

Prior to being elected governor in 2016, Sununu served on the New Hampshire Executive Council (2011–17) and worked as the chief executive at a ski resort. He holds a bachelor’s degree in environmental engineering from MIT, and previously worked in environmental remediation.

Actions

• Delivered the keynote at the State Financial Officers Foundation 2023 Spring National Meeting (4/25/23)
• Issued an executive order discouraging the New Hampshire’s executive agencies from making investments that are based solely on ESG criteria (4/10/23)
• Signed a letter with other GOP governors denouncing ESG as “woke ideology” and vowing to prevent state pension fund managers from making ESG investments (3/16/23)

About

In April 2023, Noah Wall assumed the position of  executive vice president for Policy and Government Affairs at the State Financial Officers Foundation (SFOF), and in April 2024 became the executive director for SFOF Action. Prior to joining SFOF, he served as executive vice president at FreedomWorks, an organization he first joined in 2014 as its national director of campaigns. In that capacity, he claims to have played a key role in the growth and development of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus, a group of congressional Republicans that morphed from its Tea Party roots to champion the MAGA mentality.

Wall spoke out against ESG while at FreedomWorks, calling it “backdoor communism.” In January 2023, he said that any member of Congress “who advances ESG priorities” would be held accountable by the organization. 

Earlier in his career, Wall served as Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s political director and ran his 2013 gubernatorial campaign. He holds a bachelor’s degree in international affairs from George Washington University.

Actions

• Signed an SFOF-organized letter in support of the Texas Board of Education’s decision to divest $8.5 billion from Blackrock (4/9/24)
• Invited SFOF members to “Support Israel Bonds During Its War Effort” Virtual Briefing. Israel Bonds is a bronze-level sponsor of SFOF (12/1/23)

About

Jeremy Tedesco is an attorney who works as the senior counsel and senior vice president of corporate engagement at Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF)—an anti-LGBTQ hate group—where he leads the organization’s efforts to “combat corporate cancel culture.” In his role at ADF, he oversaw the recent launch of the Viewpoint Diversity Business Index, a tool developed by ADF and Inspire Investing, a Christian right-wing, anti-ESG investment firm, to push back against “woke capitalism.” In 2022, The Heritage Foundation presented ADF with a $100,000 Innovation Prize for developing the tool.

Tedesco worked on the legal team that successfully argued the anti-LGBTQ case Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission before the Supreme Court, which in 2018 ruled in favor of the bakery that had refused to sell a wedding cake to a same-sex couple. He serves on the board of the Evangelical Christian group Ratio Christi and holds a law degree from Regent University, the private Christian college founded by televangelist Pat Robertson in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Actions

• Testified in Florida’s “House ‘weaponization’ subcommittee that probes the feds’ woke behavior targeting conservative groups” where he “gave several examples of major banks debanking groups they didn’t like at the behest of left-wing political causes or the Biden administration” (3/11/24)
• Co-authored an anti-ESG essay titled “The Moral Duties of Business” for the conservative blog Law & Liberty (2/8/23)
• Spoke on a panel titled “Fostering True Diversity in Non-Profit Organizations and Corporate America” hosted by South Carolina Treasurer Curtis Loftis with Stephanie Holmes and Patrice Onwuka of the Independent Women’s Forum at the 2022 Fall National Meeting of the State Financial Officers Foundation (11/14/22)

About

Stephen Soukup is a prominent critic of ”woke capitalism” and author of The Dictatorship of Woke Capital: How Political Correctness Captured Big Business (2021). He cofounded the Political Forum Institute (wokecapital.org), a project housed at the right-wing National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR). He and former fast-food chain CEO Andy Puzder also co-authored Other People’s Money: How Progressives Hijacked Your Investments to Achieve Their Aims (2023). Soukup is also a senior fellow at Consumers’ Research.

Since early 2023, Soukup has been publishing a digital newsletter that highlights ongoing battles in the “woke capitalism” wars and is promoted on NCPPR’s website. He also claims to be the senior commentator, vice president, and publisher of the Political Forum—what he calls an “independent research provider”—but it’s unclear to what extent this organization (with a name registered in Lincoln, Nebraska) actually exists. 

Soukup met his long-time collaborator Mark Melcher (with whom he cofounded the Political Forum) when they were both at Lehman Brothers in the early 2000s. Both are associated with the Culture of Life Foundation, an anti-abortion advocacy group. 

Soukup studied political science, and holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Kansas and a master’s from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.

Actions

• Spoke on the “The Power of the Anti-Woke Right: How Americans Put Radical Companies on the Run” panel at the 2024 Pray Vote Stand Summit alongside National Center for Public Policy Research General Counsel Scott Shepard and Strive Asset Management Executive Vice President Justin Danhof (10/4/24)
• Delivered a “straight talk” at the 2022 Fall National Meeting of the State Financial Officers Foundation (11/14/22)
• Participated in a panel discussion titled “Wokeism in America’s Boardrooms” facilitated by William L. Walton with Justin Danhof, then executive vice president at the National Center for Public Policy Research, at the 2021 Fall National Meeting of the Council for National Policy  (9/24/21)
• Signed an open letter to BlackRock CEO Larry Fink demanding that the asset management firm not take ESG factors into consideration when making investments (4/15/20)

About

Bridgett Wagner is the executive director of the Edwin J. Feulner Institute at The Heritage Foundation, which she first joined in 1981. She is also vice chair of the board of directors at the State Financial Officers Foundation (SFOF), and serves on the board of the State Policy Network (SPN). In addition, Wagner is affiliated with a number of other right-wing organizations, including the Steamboat Institute, the Mont Pelerin Society, and the Foundation for Government Accountability, which has lobbied against anti-poverty programs and in support of anti-ESG legislation.

Wagner earned a BA in Economics from the University of Dallas, where she now serves as secretary of the board of trustees.

Actions

• Presented SFOF CEO Derek Kreifels with The Heritage Foundation’s Innovation Prize at its 2022 Resource Bank meeting for “educating the public about the pressing dangers of ESG” through their Our Money Our Values campaign (6/1/22)
• Invited Nebraska Treasurer John Murante to speak at The Heritage Foundation’s 2022 Resource Bank meeting (3/14/22)
• Invited Utah Treasurer Marlo Oaks to speak at The Heritage Foundation’s 2022 Resource Bank meeting (3/14/22)

About

Seth Metcalf is president of the board of directors of the State Financial Officer Foundation (SFOF). He is also the chief financial officer of a commercial insurance exchange called Bold Penguin in Columbus, Ohio. 

From 2011–17, Metcalf served as deputy treasurer and executive counsel for then Ohio State Treasurer Josh Mandel. In addition, he previously served as a trustee for both the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System and the Ohio Deferred Compensation Plan.

Metcalf’s relationship with the state of Ohio is a bit muddied by concerns about his role in a failed bid to manage billions of dollars in its teachers’ pension fund. After leaving the treasury in 2017, he founded QED Management and pitched a $65-billion investment partnership to the administrators of the Ohio State Teachers Retirement System. After they turned him down, he accused the pension administrators of launching a smear campaign against QED.  

Metcalf started his career as a tax and bond lawyer, and worked at an international law firm. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Ohio State University and a law degree from Cornell.

Actions

• Presented awards at SFOF’s 2022 National Meeting (2/16/22)
• Presented awards at SFOF’s 2021 Fall National Meeting (11/3/21)

About

A media pundit, Carrie Sheffield directs the Center for the American Worker and the Center for American Values at the America First Policy Institute (AFPI). She is also a senior fellow at the anti-female Independent Women’s Forum (IWF), and a fellow at the State Financial Officers Foundation’s Center for Economic Freedom & Fiscal Responsibility. She previously served as executive director of Generation Opportunity, a project of Americans for Prosperity, and was a journalism fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. 

Sheffield earned a BA in Communications from Brigham Young University and a master’s of Public Policy at Harvard. As a journalist, she has covered Congress for The Hill and POLITICO, was a contributor on the political economy at Forbes, and wrote editorials for The Washington Times. She is now a regular contributor to Tucker Carlson’s right-wing Daily Caller, wrote for the SFOF-produced Smart Women Smart Money magazine, and has written op-eds that are anti-union, critical of interest-rate caps on predatory loans, anti-trans, and anti-abortion. She is working on a memoir slated to be published by Hachette Books. 

Actions

• As the inaugural fellow at SFOF’s Center for Economic Freedom & Fiscal Responsibility, Sheffield works “to educate Americans” on issues such as ESG, pension reform, fiduciary management, financial transparency, and government accountability (7/14/22)

About

Paul Atkins, a former commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), is founder and chief executive of Patomak Global Partners, a fintech consulting firm based in Washington, D.C.. Since its founding in 2017, he has also served as co-chair of the Token Alliance, a platform for connecting crypto exchanges and blockchain projects. 

Atkins served as an SEC commissioner during the administration of President George W. Bush (2002–08). Once the 2008 financial crisis began, he served on the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). In 2016, Atkins joined other business moguls as a member of President-elect Trump’s Strategic and Policy Forum. More recently, he has spoken out against the SEC’s proposed climate disclosure rule. 

Atkins holds a bachelor’s degree from Wofford College in South Carolina and a law degree from Vanderbilt.

Actions

• Spoke on a Federalist Society panel, “Utah v. Su: Are DOL (and SEC) regulations that encourage ESG investing lawful?” moderated by Gregory Jacob, Partner, O’Melveny & Myers LLP; with Elliot Gaiser, Associate, Boyden Gray & Associates PLLC; and Sharon Rose, Partner, Berliner Corcoran & Rowe LLP (7/9/24)
• Participated in a Reason Foundation webinar titled, “ESG trends and impacts on public pensions,” with Andy Puzder, a Heritage Foundation fellow and retired CEO of Carl’s Jr./Hardees (9/20/22)
• Spoke on a call with the American Petroleum Institute‘s Rolf Hanson, vice president for state government relations, and SFOF members to discuss “the SEC Climate Rule proposal” (5/9/22)
• Participated in an “ESG Discussion: How Do We Protect the Role of the Fiduciary?” at SFOF’s 2022 National Meeting hosted by Utah State Treasurer Marlo Oaks with Hester Peirce, commissioner of the SEC; and Andy Puzder, a Heritage Foundation fellow and retired CEO of Carl’s Jr./Hardees (2/17/22)

About

Paul Watkins is a senior legal fellow at Consumers’ Research and managing partner and founder of Fusion Law, a fintech-focused law firm based in Phoenix, Arizona. Prior to launching Fusion in 2022, he was a senior advisor at Patomak Global Partners, a Washington-based fintech consulting firm founded by Paul Atkins. Watkins is also a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council‘s Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force and is special counsel with Heritage Action for America.

During the Trump administration, Mick Mulvaney, the former chief of staff and Office of Management and Budget director who was serving as acting director of  the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), appointed Watkins as assistant director of CFPB’s Office of Innovation, which was largely created to help fintech firms evade consumer protection laws. That prompted intense public scrutiny of his anti-consumer policies when 80 consumer and civil rights organizations  accused Waktins of rolling back the enforcement of consumer protections. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and other congressional representatives called for his removal from the CFPB when it became clear that he had worked as a senior legal counsel for the anti-LGBTQ hate group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).

Earlier in his career, Watkins also worked at the Arizona attorney general’s office and clerked for a federal circuit court judge. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Hillsdale College, a conservative Christian college in Michigan, and a law degree from Harvard.

Actions

• Delivered remarks at the workshop, “Battles Won, War Continues: The Left, ESG and State Policy” at the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) States and Nation Policy Summit alongside CRC Advisors Senior Vice President Mike Thompson; Consumers Defense Executive Director Sal Nuzzo; and Heritage Action Director of State Advocacy Catherine Gunsalus (12/5/24)
• Spoke on the “ABCs of ESG and How You Can Fight It” for Florida policymakers and staff at an “emerging issues” event organized by the James Madison Institute (3/20/23)
• Delivered a special briefing on ESG for Heritage Action for America (3/14/23)
• Spoke on “fighting ESG efforts on [sic] the state level” as part of a “Defeating ESG” panel at the 2023 Climate Change Conference hosted by The Heartland Institute along with Jason Isaac of the Texas Public Policy Foundation and Marlo Lewis, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (2/24/23)
• Participated in a “War on Energy—ESG” discussion with West Virginia State Treasurer Riley Moore in a closed-door Energy, Environment and Agriculture task force meeting at the 2022 Annual Meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) (7/28/22)

About

Paul Fitzpatrick is president of the 1792 Exchange and an at-large board member of the State Financial Officer Foundation (SFOF). He is also a member of the Private Enterprise Advisory Council serving the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), where he sits on its Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force.

In 2020, Fitzpatrick worked as deputy chief of staff for Senator Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.), a Trump-aligned businesswoman who had been appointed by Republican Governor Brian Kemp for a year before losing the seat to Democratic challenger Raphael Wornock. Prior to that, he served for five years as chief of staff for then Congressman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.). 

Except for these brief stints in the public sector, most of Fitzpatrick’s professional life—nearly 20 years—has been devoted to the Family Research Council, a Christian Right activist organization. He has also served as director of development for the billionaire Koch brothers’ Freedom Partners (now Stand Together).

Fitzpatrick holds a bachelor’s degree from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut and an MBA from Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia.

Actions

• Spoke in a challenge circle titled “Reclaiming Corporate America: Pushing Back on Woke Activism” at the Resource Bank meeting of The Heritage Foundation with Justin Danhof, head of corporate governance at Strive Asset Management (6/2/22)
• Spoke on a panel at the SFOF Fall 2021 National Meeting titled “Defending America’s Economic Freedom: Part 2,” moderated by Missouri Treasurer Scott Fitzpatrick and featuring Dan Grant, co-founder and CEO, 2nd Vote Advisors; and Jason Stverak, deputy chief advocacy officer, Credit Union National Association (11/3/21)

About

Scott Shepard, general counsel at the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR), directs the center’s Free Enterprise Project. He was previously a policy director with the Yankee Institute—a member of the right-wing State Policy Network—and manager of the Water Law Project at the Pacific Legal Foundation, which focuses on maintaining private property water rights. 

Shepard has held a number of visiting lecturer positions at law schools, including at the University of Illinois–Chicago, Wake Forest, and Vanderbilt. At Vanderbilt, he was an Olin-Searle Fellow, a fellowship funded by the ultra-conservative and libertarian Federalist Society. Earlier in his career, he clerked for a federal circuit court judge and in 2004 worked as an attorney advisor in the Civil Rights Office at the U.S. Department of Education.

Shepard is a columnist at RealClearMarkets and has written legal articles commissioned by Law & Economics  and Mercatus centers at George Mason University. Shepard holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Richmond, a master’s from Vanderbilt, and a law degree from the University of Virginia.

Actions

• Signed anti-Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) letter to Fortune 1000 businesses (10/25/24)
• Spoke on the “The Power of the Anti-Woke Right: How Americans Put Radical Companies on the Run” panel at the 2024 Pray Vote Stand Summit alongside Consumers’ Research Senior Fellow Stephen Soukup and Strive Asset Management Executive Vice President Justin Danhof (10/4/24)
• Signed an SFOF-organized letter in support of the Texas Board of Education’s decision to divest $8.5 billion from Blackrock (4/9/24)
• Signed an Advancing American Freedom coalition letter to Congress asking it to “overturn the Biden administration’s dangerous ESG rule through the Congressional Review Act” (2/7/23)
• Spoke on a panel titled “Shareholder Proposals and Voting Your Proxies” at the SFOF 2022 Fall National Meeting led by Utah State Treasurer Marlo Oaks on “how shareholder proposals are being used to advance a social agenda and what states can do to stop it.” Jerry Bowyer, president of Boyer Research, and Steve Milloy, a senior fellow at the Energy and Environment Legal Institute, were also panelists (6/15/22)
• Met with the Idaho legislature’s Joint Interim Committee on Federalism to “discuss” the ESG issue (6/7/22)
• Spoke about “Fighting Woke Inc.” at the CPAC 2022: the Conservative Political Action Conference (2/24/22)
• Presented to SFOF members on a weekly call about NCPPR’s Investor Value Voter Guide 2022 and Balancing the Boardroom Guide (2/2/22)
• Signed an open letter to BlackRock CEO Larry Fink demanding that the asset management firm not take ESG factors into consideration when making investments (4/15/20)

About

Derek Kreifels is the chief executive officer of Prospr Alligned and former chief executive officer of the State Financial Officers Foundation (SFOF), which he co-founded in 2012. He was appointed by the Kansas Speaker of the House Daniel Hawkins in 2023 to serve a four-year term on the board of trustees at the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System, but resigned in late 2024. Kreifels also became a member of the Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force at the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in 2023.

Previously, he served as secretary of the Kansas Republican Party, and from December 2010 to January 2016, served as assistant state treasurer in Kansas when Republican Ron Estes held the top post. 

Melanie Kreifels, his wife, also works at SFOF—as director of operations. From 2020–21, the couple co-published an SFOF magazine called Smart Women Smart Money. 

Kreifels holds a bachelor’s degree in communications/public relations from Wichita State University and a master’s in management from Friends University, a faith-based “Christian university of Quaker heritage” in Wichita.

Actions

• Spoke on the panel, “The Texas Model: The Opportunity to Defend Fiduciary Duty & Challenges of Implementation,” at SFOF’s Public Fiduciary Network’s 2024 Summer Meeting with Texas CFO Glenn Hegar and Chair of the Texas State Board of Education Aaron Kinsey (7/23/24)
• Spoke on an Alliance for Responsible Citizenship panel, “A Backdoor For Vested Interests? ESG Under The Microscope,” with Baroness Helena Morrissey and Terrence Keeley, (5/16/24)
• Signed an SFOF-organized letter in support of the Texas Board of Education’s decision to divest $8.5 billion from Blackrock (4/9/24)
• Delivered remarks at the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship 2023 conference on his anti-ESG actions in the states (10/31/23)
• Spoke on the “ESGscam” at the Heritage Foundation‘s Leadership Summit with a panel of “defenders of American freedom” moderated by Fox & Friends host Pete Hegseth (4/20/23)
• Signed an Advancing American Freedom (AFF) coalition letter to leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives demanding that “The Woke 401(k) Rule Must Be Repealed” (3/28/23)
• Signed an AFF coalition letter to Congress asking it to “overturn the Biden administration’s dangerous ESG rule through the Congressional Review Act” (2/7/23)
• Moderated the panel “What’s Behind the Drive to Promote ESG Investing and What You Need to Know” with Consumers’ Research Executive Director Will Hild, West Virginia Treasurer Riley Moore, and Heritage Foundation Visiting Fellow Andy Puzder at the 2023 Awakening meeting of The Heritage Foundation (1/6/23)
• Spoke on a panel on “ESG & State Leadership” at the AFF’s “Unleashing American Energy” summit with Louisiana Treasurer John Schroder and Texas Public Policy Foundation‘s Jason Isaac (10/25/22)
• Spoke on the panel titled “The Truth About ESG and Investing Your Values” at Liberty University’s 2022 CEO Summit moderated by Jerry Bowyer and featuring Economic War Room’s Kevin Freeman, Sovereign Capital’s John Coleman, PayPal’s Rod Martin, Strive Asset Management‘s Vivek Ramaswamy, and QCI Capital Fund’s Steven Melanson (10/6/22)
• Spoke on DonorsTrust’s podcast on “Standing up to ESG” with President of 2ndVote Analytics Bryant Haines and Consumers’ Research Executive Director Will Hild (9/27/22)
• Spoke as part of the SFOF-sponsored panel titled “Everything States Should Know About the Dangers of ESG” at the State Policy Network 2022 Annual Meeting with Nebraska State Treasurer John Murante and Kentucky State Treasurer Allison Ball (9/19–22/22)
• Coordinated press inquiry with CRC Advisors and Nebraska and Louisiana Treasurers’ offices (6/21/22)
• Moderated a panel titled “State Treasurers Protect the Public Trust” at the Resource Bank meeting of The Heritage Foundation with West Virginia State Treasurer Riley Moore, Missouri State Treasurer Scott Fitzpatrick, and Utah State Treasurer Marlo Oaks (6/1/22)
• Drafted ALEC’s State Government Employee Retirement Protection Act with SFOF Senior Policy Advisor Jonathan Williams and Heritage Visiting Fellow Andy Puzder (4/22/22)
• Shared brochure from the Democrat Treasurers Association with Utah Treasurer Marlo Oaks office (3/10/22)
• Shared opposition research on For the Long Term with SFOF members (3/10/22)
• Signed an SFOF letter urging President Biden to withdraw his nomination of Sarah Bloom Raskin as Vice Chair for Supervision at the Federal Reserve for her “radical banking and economic views” that would “disrupt the private banking sector, reliable energy supplies, and the U.S. economy” (1/31/21)

About

Jason Isaac is president of the Texas Natural Gas Foundation (TXNG), founder/CEO of the American Energy Institute and director of Life:Powered, a pro-fossil fuel initiative of the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF). Since 2020, he has served on the board of policy advisors for The Heritage Foundation.

Isaac served four terms in the Texas House of Representatives (2010–19), during which he received more than $43,000 from the oil and gas industry, according to the watchdog group Texas for Public Justice. In 2018, the Austin American-Statesman reported that as a state representative he had worked with TXNG to develop pro-fossil fuel science education guidelines. 

During the latter half of this tenure in the Texas state legislature, Isaac was a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), participating in the Commerce, Insurance and Economic Development as well as the Tax and Fiscal Policy task forces.

Isaac is a regular contributor to the Daily Caller and the Epoch Times, and has contributed pro-fossil fuel content to the online “school” PragerU. His wife, Carrie Isaac, represents a region north of San Antonio in the Texas House. Isaac holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Stephen F. Austin State University.

Actions

• Signed an SFOF-organized letter in support of the Texas Board of Education’s decision to divest $8.5 billion from Blackrock (4/9/24)
• Participated in a TPPF event titled, “Energy, Politics, Economics: How The War Over ESG Investing Will Impact ’24,” that featured 1792 Exchange CEO Daniel Cameron, Congressman Dan Crenshaw (R), TPPF Chief National Initiatives Officer Chuck DeVore, and David Bahnsen (3/28/24)
• Testified as a republican witness in the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee’s “Hearing on Ensuring that ‘Woke’ Doesn’t Leave Americans Broke: Protecting Seniors and Savers from ESG Activism” (11/7/23)
• Testified at a joint House hearing titled “ESG Part II: The Cascading Impacts of ESG Compliance,” where he discussed “the global collusive effort that is behind the modern ESG movement” and claimed that ESG “does very little to help Americans and does everything to help the Chinese Communist Party” (6/6/23)
• Signed an Advancing American Freedom (AFF) coalition letter to U.S. House leaders demanding that “The Woke 401(k) Rule Must Be Repealed” (3/28/23)
• Spoke on the panel “ESG = Everyone’s Suffering Guaranteed” at the Texas Public Policy Foundation‘s Texas Policy Summit 2023, along with State Senator Bryan Hughes (R) and Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar (3/1/23)
• Spoke on “fighting ESG efforts on [sic] the state level” as part of a “Defeating ESG” panel at the 2023 Climate Change Conference hosted by The Heartland Institute alongside Paul Watkins of Fusion Law and Marlo Lewis, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (2/24/23)
• Signed an AFF coalition letter to Congress asking it to “overturn the Biden administration’s dangerous ESG rule through the Congressional Review Act” (2/7/23)
• Lobbied ALEC Energy, Environment, and Agriculture Task Force members to pass the Eliminate Political Boycotts Act model policy at its 2022 States and Nation Policy Summit (11/30/22)
• Delivered a Straight Talk at the 2022 State Financial Officers Foundation (SFOF) Fall National Meeting titled, “Raising America’s Energy IQ: Questioning Your High Carbon Lifestyle” (11/15/22)
• Spoke on a panel on “ESG & State Leadership” at the AFF’s “Unleashing American Energy” summit with SFOF CEO Derek Kreifels and Louisiana Treasurer John Schroder (10/25/22)
• Delivered a speech with slides promoting fossil fuels and efforts to address the climate crisis at the September 2022 meeting of the Council for National Policy (9/22)
• Spoke on a panel titled, “ESG Solutions: Anti-discriminatory Legislation & Other Examples,” at the 2022 SFOF National Meeting hosted by Louisiana Treasurer John Schroder with Darren LaSorte, Director of Government Relations, National Shooting Sports Foundation; Andy Olivastro, director of Coalitions, The Heritage Foundation; and Andy Puzder, author and retired CEO of Carl’s Jr./Hardees (2/17/22)
• Lobbied ALEC Energy, Environment, and Agriculture task force members to pass the Energy Discrimination Elimination Act model policy at its 2021 States and Nation Policy Summit (12/3/21)
• Testified against the National Climate Bank Act under consideration by the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (4/27/21)

About

Lisa Nelson has been the CEO of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) since 2014 and is a member of the boards of the State Financial Officers Foundation (SFOF) and the National Center for Public Policy.

With an extensive history as a corporate lobbyist, Nelson has  lobbied on behalf of Visa, AOL, and Time Warner. Prior to joining ALEC, she worked as a managing partner of Ulysses Consulting. 

Nelson started her political career in the 1980s, working in the Republican National Committee’s strategic planning office.  In 1994, as executive director of GOPAC, she was instrumental in helping Republicans win back control of the U.S. House for the first time in more than 40 years. Her public-sector roles include serving as then Speaker of the House Leader Newt Gingrich’s public affairs liaison and, under President George W. Bush, acting as a commissioner for the White House Fellows Program.

While working at the National Review decades later, Nelson founded the National Review Institute, an associate member of the State Policy Network, in 2013. She was formerly. She earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and international relations from the University of California at Berkeley.

Actions

• Signed an Advancing American Freedom coalition letter to Congress asking it to “overturn the Biden administration’s dangerous ESG rule through the Congressional Review Act” (2/7/23)
• Moderated the “Politicizing ESG Investing” panel at ALEC’s 2022 Annual Meeting with Will Hild of Consumers’ Research and Jessica Anderson, CEO of Heritage Action (7/29/22)
• Promoted a new coalition to fight “corporate woke culture” at the May 2021 meeting of the Council for National Policy, stating that, “We’re particularly sensitive about this corporate woke culture,” and noting ALEC’s role in forming a “‘Back to Neutral Coalition’ that is really, really active” (5/21)

About

Jessica Anderson is the founding president of Heritage Action’s super PAC, the Sentinel Action Fund, and former executive director of Heritage Action for America, the political advocacy arm of The Heritage Foundation. During the Trump administration, she served as associate director of intergovernmental affairs and strategic initiatives at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). She is also a founding board member of the suburban-mom-focused nonprofit N2 America and founding president of the pro-Trump super PAC Moms for Safe Neighborhoods. Anderson’s first political job was at the Civitas Institute, a free market think tank in North Carolina.

In 2021, Democrats in Iowa’s House of Representatives named Anderson in a lawsuit for violating the state’s lobbying rules. That same year, Mother Jones reported on a leaked video in which she boasted to donors about Heritage Action’s role in drafting and coordinating model voter suppression laws in Georgia, Iowa, Florida, and Arizona.

An outspoken anti-abortion advocate, Anderson is a frequent guest on FOX News, FOX Business, and Newsmax, and is a regular contributor to the Daily Caller and the Daily Signal. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Florida.

Actions

• Signed an Advancing American Freedom coalition letter to U.S. House leaders demanding that “The Woke 401(k) Rule Must Be Repealed” (3/28/23)
• Signed an Advancing American Freedom coalition letter to Congress asking it to “overturn the Biden administration’s dangerous ESG rule through the Congressional Review Act” (2/7/23)
• Spoke at a workshop titled “How States Fight Back Against ESGs” at the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) 2022 States and Nation Policy Summit with Will Hild of Consumers’ Research and Andy Puzder of The Heritage Foundation, where she told ALEC lawmakers that Heritage Action’s 10 regional lobbyists are available to help in passing anti-ESG legislation (11/30/22)
• Participated in a panel discussion at the SFOF 2022 Fall National Meeting titled “The Rising Threat of China and the CCP” hosted by Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity with Commissioner Bob Borochoff from the US–China Economic and Security Review Commission (11/14/22)
• Spoke on the “Politicizing ESG Investing” panel at ALEC’s 2022 Annual Meeting with Hild and ALEC CEO Lisa Nelson (7/29/22)

About

Justin Danhof has been the executive vice president and head of corporate governance at Strive Asset Management, the investment firm cofounded by Vivek Ramaswamy, since its founding in 2022, as well as a policy advisor at the Heartland Institute. Prior to that, he worked at the National Center for Public Policy Research for 12 years—as a general counsel, director of its Free Enterprise Project (FEP), and finally, as executive vice president.

While leading FEP, Danhof produced an annual Investor Value Voter Guide for right-wing shareholder activists. It listed corporate proposals shareholders should oppose, such as ones that address the climate crisis, racism and sexism in the workplace, lobbying disclosures, reproductive health rights, and other societal concerns that impact Americans’ everyday lives.

Danhof’s public-sector work includes stints at the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, the Massachusetts Alliance for Economic Development (MassEcon), and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Danhof holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Bentley University and a law degree and master’s in tax law from the University of Miami. He is a member of the Christian Legal Society and the Federalist Society, as well as a frequent contributor to its right-wing online magazine The Federalist.

Actions

• Spoke on the “The Power of the Anti-Woke Right: How Americans Put Radical Companies on the Run” panel at the 2024 Pray Vote Stand Summit alongside Consumers’ Research Senior Fellow Stephen Soukup and National Center for Public Policy Research General Counsel Scott Shepard (10/4/24)
• Spoke on a panel titled “Should the Market or Regulators or Neither Mandate ESG Disclosures?” at the Federalist Society‘s Second Annual In-House Counsel Network Conference with Paredes Strategies Founder Troy Paredes, Former United States Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia, and United States Securities and Exchange Commissioner Hester Peirce (5/19/23)
• Participated in a panel discussion titled “ESG: Evil, Stupidity, or Grift?” at the 2022 National Conservatism conference, speaking about “post-ESG” investing (9/11/22)
• Spoke in a challenge circle titled “Reclaiming Corporate America: Pushing Back on Woke Activism” at the Resource Bank meeting of The Heritage Foundation with 1792 Exchange CEO Paul Fitzpatrick (6/2/22)
• Presented the “ESG threats to free enterprise” at the Bradley Foundation (2021)
• Signed an open letter to BlackRock CEO Larry Fink demanding that the asset management firm not take ESG factors into consideration when making investments (4/15/20)

About

Andy Olivastro is vice president for outreach at The Heritage Foundation. His background in public relations includes having founded the firm ATO Strategies and worked at United Technologies (now Raytheon Technologies) and Edelman Public Relations. Earlier in his career, he worked as a speechwriter for Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie and for Carlos Guitierrez, PresidentGeorge W. Bush’s commerce secretary. In 2007, he was a fellow at the Claremont Institute, the right-wing think tank that later developed strong ties to Trump and became “a nerve center of the American Right,” as The New York Times describes it.

Olivastro is on the advisory council of Viewpoint Diversity Score, a project of the conservative Christian Alliance Defending Freedom. His writing for The Heritage Foundation blog has been syndicated by The Daily Caller, Daily Signal, and the American Mind. Olivastro holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism and political science from New York’s Troy University. 

Actions

• Spoke with Strive Asset Management Executive Chairman Vivek Ramaswamy on “Taking on Woke, Inc.: Tackling Identity Politics and ESG in Corporate America,” at The Heritage Foundation‘s 2023 Awakening conference (1/7/23)
• Moderated a panel titled “Taking on the ESG Overlords” at Heritage’s 2022 Resource Bank meeting with Puzder, Will Hild, executive director of Consumers’ Research; Vivek Ramaswamy, founder and executive chairman of Strive Asset Management; and Nebraska State Treasurer John Murante (6/1/22)
• Moderated a panel at The Heritage Foundation’s Awakening Conference on “Defeating the Moral Attack on Free Market Capitalism” featuring Andy Puzder, a visiting fellow in business and economic freedom at Heritage, and Samuel Gregg, research director at the Acton Institute (1/8/22)
• Led a call to “develop strategy and unify in pushing back against the various issues surrounding ESG” with State Financial Officers Foundation CEO Derek Kreifels, Utah Treasurer Marlo Oaks, Utah Auditor John Dougall, Heritage Foundation’s Bridgett Wagner, and Andy Puzder (12/16/21)

About

Vivek Ramaswamy is the author of Woke Inc.: Inside Corporate America’s Social Justice Scam (2021) and cofounder and former executive chairman of Strive Asset Management, an investment company with financial backing from billionaires and far-right activists Peter Thiel and J.D. Vance. Ramaswamy still owns 50-75% of Strive shares, according to a June 15, 2023 SEC filing. After announcing his candidacy in the GOP presidential primary, the 38-year-old entrepreneur resigned from active involvement in Strive in early 2023 and contributed $10 million to his own campaign in the first quarter. He professes to be ready to “gut the federal government,” as The Atlantic reported in an August 2023 profile, and seems to back conspiracy theories about government involvement in both the 9/11 and January 6 attacks on the country.

Born and raised in Ohio, Ramaswamy frequently brandishes his first-generation American credentials (both his parents are immigrants from India) to boost his Horatio Alger image. Prior to launching Strive in 2022, he built on his background in biotech investing by founding the biopharmaceutical company Roivant Sciences.

Ramaswamy is also a board member of the Philanthropy Roundtable and the right-wing think tank Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, the latter being an associate member of the State Policy Network (SPN). He holds a bachelor’s in biology from Harvard and a law degree from Yale.

In 2022, Ramaswamy received the State Financial Officers Foundation (SFOF) Honors Lifetime Achievement Award.

Actions

• Delivered the keynote at the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship 2023 conference on “good governance and ‘the farce’ of ESG” (10/31/23)
• Delivered the keynote breakfast address at the Texas Public Policy Foundation‘s Texas Policy Summit 2023 (3/3/23)
• Delivered the keynote address at the Council for National Policy’s February 2023 meeting at the Trump National Doral Miami (2/11/23)
• Spoke on the “landscape of corporate wokeness and advises his audience of university students on how to engage with courage” at the David Network 2023 Conference (1/20/23)
• Spoke on “Taking on Woke, Inc.: Tackling Identity Politics and ESG in Corporate America” at The Heritage Foundation‘s 2023 Awakening conference with Andy Olivastro, vice president of outreach at Heritage (1/7/23)
• Participated in a panel moderated by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost (R) titled “ESG Investment Decisions—Understanding the Legal & Fiduciary Requirements” at the National Association of Attorneys General Capital Forum. Other panelists included: Karl Racine, the District of Columbia’s attorney general; Jonathan Skrmetti, Tennessee’s attorney general; and Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, senior associate dean for leadership studies and Lester Crown Professor of Leadership Practice at Yale School of Management (12/6/22)
• Delivered the closing keynote at the SFOF Fall National Meeting (11/14/22)
• Spoke on the panel titled “The Truth About ESG and Investing Your Values” at Liberty University’s 2022 CEO Summit moderated by Jerry Bowyer and featuring Economic War Room’s Kevin Freeman, Sovereign Capital’s John Coleman, PayPal’s Rod Martin, State Financial Officers Foundation’s Derek Kreifels, and QCI Capital Fund’s Steven Melanson (10/6/22)
• Spoke on “How States Can Fight the Woke Industrial Complex” at the American Legislative Exchange Council 2022 Annual Meeting (8/1/22)
• Participated in an “Educational Roundtable on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)” at the Idaho State Capitol hosted by Idaho State Treasurer Julie Ellsworth with U.S. Senator Mike Crapo (R-ID), SFOF CEO Derek Kreifels, Utah State Treasurer Marlo Oaks, Idaho State Representative Sage Dixon (R), and Idaho State Senator Steve Vick (R) (6/7/22)
• Spoke on a panel at The Heritage Foundation’s 2022 Resource Bank meeting moderated by Andy Olivastro, vice president of outreach at Heritage, titled “Taking on the ESG Overlords” with Will Hild, executive director, Consumers’ Research; Andy Puzder, a senior fellow at Heritage ; and John Murante, Nebraska state treasurer (6/1/22)
• Participated in a panel discussion at the 2022 SFOF National Meeting titled “China Discussion: Why Should We Be Concerned?” hosted by Nebraska State Treasurer John Murante that included Peter Schweizer, author of Red Handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win (2/16/22)
• Delivered remarks on woke capitalism at the Council for National Policy‘s September 2021 meeting (9/24/21)

About

Mike Nasi is a partner at Jackson Walker, a Texas-based law firm where he specializes in environmental and energy law. He also serves as special counsel for the Southern States Energy Board (SSEB) and is considered “a top lawyer for coal companies,” as the New York Times refers to him. 

In his role at Jackson Walker, Nasi has conducted a number of webinars about ESG and has lobbied for anti-ESG bills on behalf of various organizations in several states.

In West Virginia, Nasi testified in favor of SB 262 in 2022, speaking on behalf of the Life:Powered project of the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF). In his testimony, he noted that he had also been in contact with the West Virginia Coal Association about the legislation. In Indiana, he lobbied on behalf of Reliable Energy in 2022 as a proponent of the state’s proposed anti-ESG legislation HB 1224.

In his testimony in West Virginia, Nasi claims to have been heavily involved in the process of drafting the original anti-ESG legislation in Texas. He also helped develop a model anti-ESG bill “in conjunction with several different states” and has worked with Republican attorneys general Ken Paxton (Texas) and Patrick Morrissey (West Virginia) to advance legal arguments against the federal Clean Air Act, one of the country’s first environmental protection laws—passed in 1963 to control air pollution. 

Nasi holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin and a law degree from the University of Houston Law Center.

Actions

• Delivered an “Update on State Government Responses to ESG” webinar for Jackson Walker (10/21)
• Delivered an “ESG and the Near Term Impact to the Energy Industry,” webinar for Jackson Walker and Echo Production (6/21)

About

Will Hild is the executive director of Consumers’ Research, a dark-money group that is one of the largest funders of the State Financial Officers Foundation (SFOF). Since he assumed that position in 2020, the organization has filed lawsuits against the Consumer Products Safety Commission and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and launched a multimillion-dollar smear campaign against BlackRock CEO Larry Fink. Consumers’ Research hosts a tracker highlighting anti-ESG legislation.

Hild previously served as deputy director of the Federalist Society’s Regulatory Transparency Project and worked at the Philanthropy Roundtable. He holds a law degree from Georgetown and a bachelor’s in political science from the University of Florida. The Washington Post reported that Leonard Leo, the “court whisperer” credited with pushing the federal judiciary to the far Right in recent years, is one of Hild’s mentors and an advisor to Consumers’ Research. 

In 2023, SFOF gave Hild the “State Economic Impact” award.

Actions

• Testified against the consideration of ESG factors in investing at the Texas Senate Committee on State Affairs (10/17/24)
• Presented Arkansas State Representative Mindy McAlindon (R) with Consumers’ Research’s Consumer Champion award for passing anti-ESG legislation at ALEC’s 2024 Annual Meeting (7/24/24)
• Wrote a letter to leaders in Congress “to raise the alarm about the encroachment of another existential threat to our liberty: the so-called investment strategy Environmental Social and Governance, or ESG” with an attached Consumers’ Research report titled, “Defeating the ESG Attack on the American Free Enterprise System” (3/8/23)
• Spoke on the panel “What’s Behind the Drive to Promote ESG Investing and What You Need to Know” with West Virginia Treasurer Riley Moore, Heritage Foundation Visiting Fellow Andy Puzder, and SFOF CEO Derek Kreifels at the 2023 Awakening meeting of The Heritage Foundation (1/6/23)
• Spoke at a workshop titled “How States Fight Back Against ESGs” at the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) 2022 States and Nation Policy Summit with Heritage Foundation Fellow Andy Puzder and Heritage Action’s Jessica Anderson where he asked ALEC lawmakers to explore their committee subpoena powers to investigate how banks and asset managers are incorporating ESG into their investment strategies (11/30/22)
• Spoke on DonorsTrust’s podcast on “Standing up to ESG” with President of 2ndVote Analytics Bryant Haines and SFOF CEO Derek Kreifels (9/27/22)
• Spoke on the “Politicizing ESG Investing” panel with Jessica Anderson of Heritage Action and ALEC CEO Lisa Nelson at ALEC’s 2022 Annual Meeting (7/29/22)
• Spoke on a panel at the Heritage Foundation’s 2022 Resource Bank meeting moderated by Andy Olivastro, vice president of outreach at Heritage, titled “Taking on the ESG Overlords” with John Murante, Nebraska State Treasurer; Andy Puzder, a senior fellow at Heritage ; and Vivek Ramaswamy, founder and executive chairman of Strive Asset Management (6/1/22)

About

Jonathan Williams is the senior policy advisor for the State Financial Officers Foundation (SFOF) as well as a member of its national advisory board. He is also the chief economist and executive vice president of policy at the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which he joined in 2007 before establishing its Center for State Fiscal Reform four years later.

Prior to joining ALEC, Williams served as staff economist at the Tax Foundation, a pro-business think tank founded in 1937 to monitor governmental tax and spending policies. In addition, he is an adjunct fellow at the Kansas Policy Institute, a member of the right-wing State Policy Network, and the writer behind the “State of the States” column for Tax Notes, a site that bills itself as offering “comprehensive and impartial coverage of tax news.” A native of Michigan, Williams graduated with a BBA from the state’s private, free-market-oriented Northwood University in 2005. 

Actions

• Participated in the “Economic Summit” at 2023 SFOF’s national meeting alongside Ark Invest CEO Catherine Wood, Arthur Laffer, Stephen Moore, Hoover Institution Fellow Kevin Hasset, Heritage Foundation Visiting Fellow Andy Puzder, and Brian Wesbury (8/30/23)
• Participated in a panel at the SFOF 2022 Fall National Meeting titled “Protecting Taxpayer Dollars from Inflationary Pressures Throughout the 2022 Recession” hosted by then Missouri Treasurer Scott Fitzpatrick and featuring Steven Chiavarone, CFA of Federated Hermes, and Andy Puzder, a visiting fellow at The Heritage Foundation (11/14/22)
• Met with the Idaho Legislature’s Joint Interim Committee on Federalism, where he urged lawmakers to consider legislation in 2023 “aimed at keeping ESG out of public pension investments” (6/7/22)
• Drafted ALEC’s State Government Employee Retirement Protection Act with SFOF CEO Derek Kreifels and Heritage Visiting Fellow Andy Puzder (4/22/22)
• Discussed ALEC’s State Government Employee Retirement Protection Act and Resolution Urging Congress to Permanently Extend the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 on an SFOF national call with members (4/18/22)
• Shared Competitive Enterprise Institute web memo on ESG with Pennsylvania Treasurer’s office (3/9/22)
• Gave a “legislative update” to SFOF’s Policy Committee (2/1/22)
• Moderated a Tax & Fiscal Policy Task Force Panel Discussion at the 2021 SFOF-ALEC Joint National Meeting that included Louisiana Treasurer John Schroder, North Carolina Treasurer Dale Folwell, and West Virginia Treasurer Riley Moore (7/29/21)

About

Andy Puzder served as CEO of CKE Restaurants, the parent company of the popular fast-food chains Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s, from 2000–17.  Now a member of the national advisory committee to the State Financial Officers Foundation (SFOF) , he also holds positions at a number of conservative institutions, including serving as board chairman at 2ndVote Advisers, an anti-ESG investment firm; a visiting fellow at The Heritage Foundation, where his work is focused on anti-ESG activism; a senior fellow at the public policy school at Pepperdine, the private Christian research university in Malibu, California; and a senior fellow at the America First Policy Institute. 

Puzder told Bloomberg that he “credits David Black, founder of the conservative website 2ndVote, and Black’s wife, former US Congresswoman Diane Black, with his philosophy on corporate activism and keeping social causes out of company decisions.”

After winning the 2016 presidential election, Trump nominated Puzder as his labor secretary despite his outspoken opposition to worker protections such as paid sick leave and expanded eligibility for overtime pay, The president-elect then withdrew his nomination after it became clear that Puzder wouldn’t secure enough votes to be confirmed. In 2012, the businessman was an economic adviser for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, and served as a delegate at the Republican National Convention. 

A frequent public lecturer on business, Puzder has contributed anti-minimum wage content to the online “school” Prager University, where he’s also on the advisory board, and has written a number of books promoting free market principles. He began his career as a commercial trial lawyer after earning a law degree at Washington University in St. Louis. 

In 2022, the SFOF presented Puzder with its Honors Lifetime Achievement Award.

Actions

• Signed an SFOF-organized letter in support of the Texas Board of Education’s decision to divest $8.5 billion from Blackrock (4/9/24)
• Co-authored Other People’s Money: How Progressives Hijacked Your Investments to Achieve Their Aims (2023) with Stephen Soukup (10/3/23)
• Participated in the “Economic Summit” at 2023 SFOF’s national meeting alongside Ark Invest CEO Catherine Wood, Arthur Laffer, Stephen Moore, Hoover Institution Fellow Kevin Hasset, American Legislative Exchange Council Chief Economist and Executive Vice President of Policy Jonathan Williams, and Brian Wesbury (8/30/23)
• Spoke on the panel titled “The New Axis of Evil: Soros, Schwab, and Fink” at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) with Sean Spicer, former President Donald Trump’s first press secretary, and Charles McCall, Oklahoma Speaker of the House (3/3/23)
• Spoke on the panel “What’s Behind the Drive to Promote ESG Investing and What You Need to Know” with Consumers’ Research Executive Director Will Hild, West Virginia Treasurer Riley Moore, and SFOF CEO Derek Kreifels at the 2023 Awakening meeting of The Heritage Foundation (1/6/23)
• Spoke as part of a workshop titled “How States Fight Back Against ESGs” at the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) 2022 States and Nation Policy Summit with Will Hild, executive director of Consumers’ Research, and Jessica Anderson of Heritage Action where he compared the fight against ESG investing to that against the Nazis or socialists (11/30/22)
• Drafted Heritage’s State Pension Fiduciary Duty Act (11/21/22)
• Participated in a Reason Foundation webinar titled, “ESG trends and impacts on public pensions,” with Paul Atkins, a former commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and founder and chief executive of Patomak Global Partners (9/20/22)
• Spoke on a panel at The Heritage Foundation’s 2022 Resource Bank meeting moderated by Andy Olivastro, vice president of outreach at Heritage, titled “Taking on the ESG Overlords” with Will Hild, executive director of Consumers’ Research; John Murante, Nebraska State Treasurer; and Vivek Ramaswamy, founder and executive chairman of Strive Asset Management (6/1/22)
• Drafted ALEC’s State Government Employee Retirement Protection Act with SFOF Senior Policy Advisor Jonathan Williams and SFOF CEO Derek Kreifels (4/22/22)
• Spoke on a panel at The Heritage Foundation’s 2022 Awakening Conference on “Defeating the Moral Attack on Free Market Capitalism” moderated by Andrew Olivastro, director of Coalition Relations at Heritage, and featuring Samuel Gregg, research director at the Acton Institute (1/8/22)

About 

Mike Harmon served as Kentucky’s auditor of public accounts from 2016 to 2023. Instead of running for reelection in 2023, he ran for governor of Kentucky, and lost in the republican primary. In 2023, Harmon served as auditor-at-large of the State Financial Officers Foundation (SFOF).

Prior to being elected auditor, Harmon served as a Kentucky state representative from 2002–15. While in the state legislature, he was active in the American Legislative Exchange Council as a state chair.

Harmon holds degrees in math, statistics, and theater from Eastern Kentucky University and has lived in the state for most of his life. 

Actions

• Signed an Advancing American Freedom coalition letter to U.S. House leaders demanding that “The Woke 401(k) Rule Must Be Repealed” (3/28/23)
• Signed a letter to Morningstar asking the company to stop its negative ratings of firms connected to Israel. (8/25/22)
• Signed a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) opposing the proposed rule known as the Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors (6/17/22)
• Signed an SFOF letter opposing the FDIC proposed principles on climate-related financial risk management for large financial institutions (6/3/22)
• Signed a letter to the Department of Labor opposing possible agency actions to protect life savings and pensions from threats of climate-related financial risk (5/16/22)
• Signed a comment letter to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board regarding ESG practices in the municipal securities market (3/8/22)
• Signed a letter opposing the proposed Department of Labor rule change entitled Prudence and Loyalty in Selecting Plan Investments and Exercising Shareholder Rights (12/13/21)
• Signed an SFOF letter urging President Biden to withdraw his nomination of Sarah Bloom Raskin as vice chair for supervision at the Federal Reserve for her “radical banking and economic views” that would “disrupt the private banking sector, reliable energy supplies, and the U.S. economy” (1/31/21)

Recent Campaign Filings

Kentucky’s campaign finance portal is interactive. To view individual contributors and expenditures — which aren’t itemized in the report overviews — please visit the Kentucky Registration of Election Finance website. 

• 2023 60 Day PostElection Filing
• 2023 30 Day PostElection Filing
• 2023 15 Day PreElection Filing
• 2023 30 Day PreElection Filing
• 2023 January Campaign Report
• 2022 October Campaign Report
• 2019 30 Day PostElection Filing
• 2019 15 Day PreElection Filing
• 2019 30 Day PreElection Filing
• 2019 60 Day PreElection Filing

Statements of Financial Interests

• 2024 Statement of Financial Interests
• 2023 Statement of Financial Interests

About 

John Murante is the director of the Nebraska Public Employees Retirement Board, which oversees the agency that administers the state’s retirement plans. He served as Nebraska’s state treasurer from 2019 through October 2023. In 2022, Murante served as national chair of the State Financial Officers Foundation (SFOF).

Murante was a Nebraska state senator from 2013–19 and was a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council during that period.

As a state senator, Murante also served as the chair of the National Conference of State Legislatures Elections and Redistricting Standing Committee, and on the advisory committee to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

During his most recent run for treasurer, Murante told voters that he had repeatedly “proven [his] conservative credentials,” saying, “I have fought for voter ID to make sure not a single illegal vote is cast in Nebraska despite fierce opposition from the Democrats and liberal media. I opposed tax increases and have fought for tax relief. I have led the fight on pro-life issues, most recently to guarantee tax dollars will not go to organizations like Planned Parenthood that perform abortions.”

Actions

• Signed an Advancing American Freedom coalition letter to U.S. House leaders demanding that “The Woke 401(k) Rule Must Be Repealed” (3/28/23)
• Testified in favor of LB 67, a bill seeking to prevent the treasurer from depositing  state funds in accounts “used by financial institutions for social or political causes or objectives” (1/30/23)
• Presented “Straight Talk” with Stephen Soukup, author of The Dictatorship of Woke Capital: How Political Correctness Captured Big Business, at the SFOF Fall National Meeting (11/14/22)
• Spoke on an SFOF-sponsored panel titled “Everything States Should Know About the Dangers of ESG” with SFOF CEO Derek Kreifels and Kentucky Treasurer Allison Ball at the 2022 Annual Meeting of the State Policy Network (9/19–22/22)
• Signed a letter to Morningstar asking the company to stop its negative ratings of firms connected to Israel (8/25/22)
• Participated in ESG Coalition calls organized by CRC Advisors (6/22/22)
• Signed a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) opposing the proposed rule known as the Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors (6/17/22)
• Signed an SFOF letter opposing the FDIC proposed principles on climate-related financial risk management for large financial institutions (6/3/22)
• Spoke on a panel titled “Taking on the ESG Overlords” at The Heritage Foundation 2022 Resource Bank meeting moderated by Andy Olivastro, vice president of outreach at Heritage, with Will Hild, executive director, Consumers’ Research; Andy Puzder, senior fellow, Heritage Foundation; and Vivek Ramaswamy, founder and executive chairman, Strive Asset Management. During the discussion, Murante said, “I really think ESG is going to be the [critical race theory] of 2023 and 2024…. When people find out about it, they are going to be absolutely livid.” (6/1/22)
• Signed a letter to the Department of Labor opposing possible agency actions to protect life savings and pensions from threats of climate-related financial risk (5/16/22)
• Signed a comment letter to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board regarding ESG practices in the municipal securities market (3/8/22)
• Hosted a panel discussion at the 2022 SFOF National Meeting titled “China Discussion: Why Should We Be Concerned,” with Vivek Ramaswamy, founder and executive chairman, Strive Asset Management, and Peter Schweizer, author of Red Handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win (2/16/22)
• Signed a letter opposing the proposed Department of Labor rule change entitled Prudence and Loyalty in Selecting Plan Investments and Exercising Shareholder Rights (12/13/21)
• Signed letter to banking industry warning that state financial officers “will be taking collective action in response to the ongoing and growing economic boycott of traditional energy production industries by U.S. financial institutions.” (11/22/21)
• Signed letter to John Kerry expressing “deep concern with recent reports” that the Biden administration is “privately pressuring U.S. banks and financial institutions to refuse to lend to or invest in coal, oil, and natural gas companies.” (5/25/21)
• Signed an SFOF letter urging President Biden to withdraw his nomination of Sarah Bloom Raskin as vice chair for supervision at the Federal Reserve based on her “radical banking and economic views,” which they claimed would “disrupt the private banking sector, reliable energy supplies, and the U.S. economy” (1/31/21)
• Accepted the 2019 SFOF Newcomer of the Year Award (2019)

Recent Campaign Filings

• 2022 Post General Campaign Statement
• 2022 2nd General Campaign Statement
• 2022 1st General Campaign Statement
• 2022 Post Primary Campaign Statement
• 2022 2nd Primary Campaign Statement
• 2022 1st Primary Campaign Statement

Statements of Financial Interests

• 2024 Statement of Financial Interests
• 2023 Statement of Financial Interests

Contact Information

Nebraska State Treasurer
State Capitol, Third Floor
P.O. Box 94788
Lincoln, NE 68509-4788
Website: treasurer.nebraska.gov/
Phone: (402) 471-2455
Email: NA