Washington, DC — Yesterday, at a House Oversight Committee Hearing, Republican AGs showcased their efforts to impede financial institutions’ abilities to make sound investment decisions regarding the hard-earned dollars of American workers. “For over a year now, Republicans have been trying to turn this obscure three-letter acronym into a full-fledged culture war,” reports the New Republic.

“If you’ve heard of Marshall, it may well be because he’s spent considerable time since 2020 trying to overturn the results of that year’s presidential election, and shield other Republicans from accountability for spreading lies about it. Both he and Marshall joined fellow red states attorneys general in filing a brief with the Supreme Court supporting Trump’s claims about election fraud. Marshall, for his part, was serving as head of the Rule of Law Defense Fund that year, which sent out robocalls encouraging Trump supporters to flock to the Capitol on January 6. RLDF—whose donors include the Edison Electric Institution and the Judicial Crisis Network—is also a sister organization of the Republican Attorneys General Association, or RAGA, which Marshall was appointed chair of after continuing to deny, in 2022, that Joe Biden won the 2020 election.”

Also reporting on the GOP AG anti-ESG crusade, Raw Story outlines, “Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) ridiculed Republican [AGs] objections to block a leading investment firm from imposing its own standards on utility companies to cut emissions linked to climate change.”

“‘Environmental, social, and governance disclosures give those investors the information to take that into account, and it’s not just progressives,’ Porter said to Alabama attorney general Steve Marshall. ‘Plenty of conservatives have dumped their stock in Disney or stopped buying Bud Lite because they think they’re too woke. Mr. Marshall, if a company became less woke based on market pressures, would you take legal action against them as AG?’”

“The whole point of being a fiduciary is to be vigilant, watchful and alert to opportunities and risks,” Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, said during the hearing. “And that’s what asset managers, corporate board members and executives do with other people’s money,” writes USA Today.

“‘Illinois Treasurer Michael Frerichs, also a Democrat, agreed. “This pushback is anti-free market and anti-investor,’ he testified.”

Rep. Seth Magaziner again called out the Republican AGs for their support of Donald Trump’s Big Lie. Magaziner said, “Our Republican witnesses [two Republican AGs] have experience trying to overturn elections that were freely and fairly won.”

When GOP AGs called ESG a ‘deadly weapon,’ Rep. Jarad Moskowitz responded, “I’m from Parkland… If you want clear clarity on what a deadly weapon is, I can assure you it’s not ESG. It’s a kid with an AR-15 and unlimited ammunition walking into my school and killing 17 people.” 

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