INTERVIEW | Incoming Missouri State Auditor Outlines Plans to Combat ESG Policies

A newly elected official in Missouri says his emphasis in his role as state auditor will be to focus on combating left-wing "environmental, social, and governance"—or "ESG"—policies with respect to investments. 

"Well, as the state treasurer, I've gained ... a lot more exposure to ESG issue than pretty much anybody in elected office in Missouri. So, I will try to at least use that knowledge that I've gained, and that experience that I have being on the board of the [state] pension plan and working on these issues, to help," Missouri State Treasurer Scott Fitzpatrick, who was elected this month as the state's next auditor, told The Daily Signal. He will take his new office on Jan. 9.

"There's going to be legislation in Missouri this coming session dealing with ESG issues and proxy voting, and things like that. So, as somebody who's been very involved in that conversation at the board level on a pension plan, as well as having been exposed to it a lot through my engagements with the State Financial Officers Foundation, with [The Heritage Foundation], with you guys, the stuff that I've been able to learn, I'm going to be a part of that legislative process in helping develop that legislation," Fitzpatrick said. (The Daily Signal is the news outlet of The Heritage Foundation.)

The incoming Missouri state auditor explained why he's against the use of environmental, social, and governance policies.

Fitzpatrick explained: 

Essentially, the reason I am against ESG being used as a tool for investing purposes is because it prioritizes nonfinancial factors in investment decisions, and how you're managing people's investments, over those financial—or what we call pecuniary—factors that should be the priority when you're managing somebody else's money and have a responsibility to them to generate the best return possible on their investment.

Fitzpatrick, a Republican, joins "The Daily Signal Podcast" to discuss why he is against those environmental, social, and governance policies; how he will continue his work combating those policies as state auditor; and why he thinks he was able to flip the auditor's seat, which had been held by a Democrat for nearly seven years. 

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