Settlement of landmark lawsuit ‘a powerful blow against the runaway ESG agenda’
SCHAUMBURG, IL (February 27, 2026) — This week, The Vanguard Group, one of the world’s most powerful financial asset management firms, settled a lawsuit brought by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and other state AGs to abandon its ESG (environmental, social, and governance) activism. ESG initiatives put leftist social political goals, such as environmental activism and racial and gender hiring quotas, ahead of fiduciary duties to shareholders.
The settlement requires Vanguard to pay $30 million in fines, turn over all documents related to their coordinated ESG efforts, and end all its ESG activism.
The following statements from experts at The Heartland Institute may be used for attribution. For more information or to schedule an interview, please contact Executive Vice President and Director of Communications Jim Lakely at [email protected] or call/text 312-731-9364.
“Attorney General Paxton’s historic agreement with Vanguard marks a powerful blow against the runaway ESG agenda, forcing one of Wall Street’s giants to choose investors over ideological activism. It’s a major win for energy producers, American consumers, and all who reject politicized investing that jeopardizes our economic freedom.”
Donald Kendal
Director, Emerging Issues Center
The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
“Ultimately, the ESG-driven financial discrimination that had been carried out by investment firms like Vanguard imposed political orthodoxy at the expense of sound risk assessment, consumer choice, and economic vitality. Pursuing these extremist goals often directly contravened the interests of companies, shareholders, and customers, while also degrading macroeconomic prosperity, free markets, democratic institutions, and individual liberty.
“This settlement will go a long way to ensure that radical climate activists, many from outside of the Lone Star State (and outside of this country, for that matter) will not curtail the freedoms of every Texas citizen.”
Tim Benson
Senior Policy Analyst
The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
If you’d like to interview a Heartland Institute expert on this topic or other topics, please contact Donald Kendal, the director of the Glenn C. Haskins Emerging Issues Center at [email protected], or contact Vice President and Director of Communications Jim Lakely at [email protected]. You can also call/text Jim at 312-731-9364.
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Donald Kendal is Director of The Heartland Institute’s Socialism Research Center. Kendal is also the host of Heartland’s In the Tank Podcast.
Tim Benson joined The Heartland Institute in September 2015 as a policy analyst in the Government Relations Department.
