Every so often, the market cuts through the noise — and lately, it’s been doing that with remarkable consistency.

In 2025, shareholders delivered an unambiguous verdict. Across 31 out of 31 corporations where anti-DEI proposals came to a vote, investors rejected them.

According to analysis from Impactivize’s 2025 Shareholder Proposal Tracker, companies including Cisco, Costco, Apple, and Coca-Cola — collectively representing more than $13 trillion in market value — saw shareholders overwhelmingly oppose efforts to roll back diversity, equity, and inclusion commitments. Even amid heightened political pressure, coordinated campaigns, and outsized media attention, these proposals were consistently rejected by over 90% of shareholders.

The pattern is unmistakable: investors do not view dismantling DEI — by that name or any other — as aligned with long-term value creation. They view it as a risk.

This Is What Fiduciary Duty Looks Like

The market is clear on what investors believe drives long-term value and reflects a principled commitment to building an economy that works for all Americans. That’s exactly what makes recent political interventions so concerning, especially Executive Order “Protecting American Investors from Foreign-Owned and Politically-Motivated Proxy Advisors.”

On its face, the order focuses on proxy advisory firms. In practice, it does not immediately change any regulations, but signals something broader and more consequential: an attempt to supplant the market’s judgment. The premise running through the order is that ESG and DEI considerations are inherently “political” rather than financially material, and that incorporating them into investment decision-making may violate investor obligations.

That premise directly contradicts what shareholders are doing in real time.

By discouraging investors from considering material social and governance risks — risks the market has repeatedly affirmed as relevant — the order points toward a framework that suppresses value creation by asking investors to ignore the very factors that drive long-term growth, resilience, and competitive performance in modern markets.

“Institutional investors agree: 87% still believe ESG factors — including DEI considerations — are indicators of financial risk, not ideological positions,” wrote Rachel Robasciotti, Founder and co-CEO of Adasina Social Capital, and Stacey Abrams for Fortune in August, citing a BNP Paribas study.

Fiduciary duty has never meant ignoring material risk. It means the opposite. Climate exposure, workforce stability, governance quality, regulatory liability, and litigation risk all affect long-term performance. Treating those factors as optional — or worse, off-limits — doesn’t protect investors. It exposes them.

Shareholders understand this reality. When they reject anti-DEI proposals, they are exercising fiduciary duty in its truest form: prioritizing sustainable value, sound governance, and comprehensive risk management over short-term ideology.

Free Enterprise & Capitalism Are Doing What They’re Designed To Do

One of the most persistent myths in today’s discourse is that free enterprise needs protection from values-driven decision-making. It doesn’t.

Free enterprise evolves by responding to new information, new markets, and new risks. That’s not a distortion of capitalism — it’s effective capitalism. Companies don’t lose relevance because of social pressure; they lose relevance because they fail to stay competitive or build the infrastructure to attract talent, understand customers, manage risk, and operate in a global economy.

Capitalism is doing exactly what it’s designed to do — rewarding decisions that create durable value and rejecting those that introduce unnecessary risk.

If companies are serious about long-term performance, resilience, and growth, the path forward isn’t complicated. Follow the market. Listen to shareholders. Build for the long term. That’s how durable companies are created — and how we create a stronger, more resilient American economy.