ADF spearheads investor letter applauding Walmart for dumping DEI, urging super store to resist activist pressure

Faith-based shareholders, investment professionals highlight Walmart’s interest in promoting merit-based hiring, personnel decisions over legally, reputationally risky DEI mandates

WASHINGTON – A coalition of faith-based investors, investment advisors, and proxy voting and corporate engagement consultants and the State Financial Officers Foundation sent a letter to Walmart CEO Doug McMillon supporting his company’s decision to end discriminatory Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies and cut ties with the far-left Human Rights Campaign.

Representing investment advisors with over $9 billion in assets under management in addition to shareholders and other investment professionals, the coalition of faith-based investors includes Inspire Investing CEO Robert Netzly, Bowyer Research CEO Jerry Bowyer, along with Andrew Olivastro and John Backiel from The Heritage Foundation and Dr. OJ Oleka from the State Financial Officers Foundation, whose members include 38 financial officers from 28 states.

In late November, Walmart announced it was dropping DEI initiatives and distancing itself from the HRC, which pressures companies to provide puberty blockers for minors in their health care plans. Combatting DEI and irreversible and radical transgender drug regimens for children have been top priorities for the current Trump administration, which has issued a series of executive orders aimed at eliminating the practices in the federal government, at public institutions, and at private corporations.

“Every company should follow Walmart’s lead and end divisive and legally risky DEI policies,” said ADF Senior Counsel and Senior Vice President for Corporate Engagement Jeremy Tedesco. “Private companies like Walmart are now operating within a new legal environment where it’s crystal clear that DEI’s legal and reputational risks far outweigh any perceived benefits. DEI policies inherently treat some people worse than others based on their protected characteristics like sex and race. President Trump’s executive orders rightly prioritize meritocracy over discriminatory DEI policies, and companies like Walmart are doing the right thing by revisiting their past decisions and taking corrective action to adapt to this new legal and cultural landscape.”

One of a growing list of U.S. companies to cut ties with DEI and the HRC’s index over the past year, Walmart came under fire from activists just a week before President Trump’s inauguration, when activist shareholders and 13 Democrat state attorneys general sent letters pressuring the nation’s largest private employer to readopt DEI policies.

“The timing of these letters could not have been worse,” the coalition wrote to McMillon. “Within a week of their arrival, President Trump issued a series of executive orders aimed at rooting out discriminatory DEI practices from the federal government and private companies—including corporations like [Walmart]. Companies that double-down on DEI policies are now playing a dangerous game of chicken with the administration, and they’re doing so at the expense of shareholders we represent.”

Shareholders have filed over 60 ADF-backed resolutions for the upcoming season, including 10 that call on major companies including federal contractors Lockheed Martin, ConocoPhillips, and IBM to provide transparency to their shareholders on the impact of their DEI policies. Overall, ADF-backed resolutions have resulted in more than 30 meetings with corporate leaders, and have led to important policy changes and transparency at PepsiCo, Johnson & Johnson, Morgan Stanley, and Verizon.

“America’s success is built on the value of hard work and excellence, said SFOF CEO O.J. Oleka. “DEI promises the exact opposite of that high standard. Companies like Walmart that reject this failed ideology are doing their part to prioritize equal opportunity for employees and long-term financial success for their shareholders. Public employees depend on state financial officers like treasurers and auditors to safeguard their hard-earned financial futures, and that’s why we’re encouraging Walmart to continue to rightly value merit over ideology.”

Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, parental rights, and the sanctity of life.

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