Meet the Right-Wing Activist Who Helped Quell the Dylan Mulvaney/Bud Light Outrage Last Year

Dylan Mulvaney Photo: Jasper Colt / USA TODAY NETWORK

A watchdog group has uncovered tax filings linking right-wing attorney and Federalist Society funder Leonard Leo to the Bud Light boycott campaign, last year’s right-wing backlash against the beer brand sponsoring a 50-second video by trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney.

Tax records from 2022 obtained by the watchdog group Accountable.US show that the Concord Group, a nonprofit that Policy described as “obscure” and linked to the conservative legal activist, gave $350,000 to Consumers Defense, an arm of Consumers Research, shortly before that group played a central role in the Bud Light boycott, The Guardian reports.

Leo spearheaded the Federalist Society’s campaign to fill the judiciary with right-wing judges, including Donald Trump’s three conservative Supreme Court nominees. He personally assisted Clarence Thomas during his Supreme Court confirmation hearings and led campaigns for the nominations of Chief Justice John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Cavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett.

Mulvaney sparked outrage from the right when she partnered with Bud Light in April 2023, part of a strategy outlined by the company’s vice president of marketing to update the traditional beer brand’s image as “brotherly” and “out of touch.”

The company put Mulvaney’s face on a beer can that appeared in Mulvaney’s video, and the far right lost its mind. Consumers Defense played a central role in promoting this cause with a six-figure digital ad campaign called “Woke Alerts.”

Group CEO Will Hild said: “In light of the recent direction taken by companies like Bud Light, Jack Daniels and Bank of America, we are launching ‘woke alerts’ to help consumers make more informed decisions about where to spend their money.”

The massively promoted boycott campaign resulted in Bud Light losing its top spot among beer brands, a plunge in its stock price and death threats against Mulvaney.

“For months now, I’ve been afraid to leave my house,” she said in a video posted to Instagram. “I’ve been publicly ridiculed, followed, and felt a loneliness I wouldn’t wish on anyone.”

In one memorable protest, Kid Rock shot a case of the once-popular working-class beer with an AR-15 semi-automatic machine gun, saying, “F**k Bud Light, and f**k Anheuser-Busch.”

Shortly before the Bud Light boycott, Leo—an outspoken opponent of “woke” culture, DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion), and ESG (environmental, social, and governance investing)—described Consumer Research as “executing the most effective fightback I know of against ESG and other aspects of woke corporate culture.”

“It’s time for companies that are out of touch with the sentiments of most Americans to pay the price for defending woke special interests instead of consumers,” he told the Washington Post in 2023.

Caroline Ciccone, President of Accountable.US, said: “Leonard Leo has not only used his dark money network to reshape our courts for the worse – he is also fueling hateful anti-LGBTQ+ causes.”

“Leo’s multi-billion dollar operation and network of shadowy organizations actively work to marginalize vulnerable communities, posing a direct threat to LGBTQ+ Americans.”

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