By MELISSA KOENIG

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has pulled a whopping $2billion worth of its assets from woke manager BlackRock, Inc. — the largest such divestment by a state opposed to the asset manager's environmental, social and corporate governance policies

The state's Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis announced on Thursday that the state's Treasury, which he oversees, would remove BlackRock as a manager of about $600million in short-term investments, and have its custodian freeze another $1.43billion in long-term securities with the firm.

The goal, he says, is to reallocate all of the money to other money managers by the start of 2023. 

While the move will hardly dent BlackRock's $8trillion in assets, it underscores how the backlash among many Republican politicians against ESG investing — which they see as promoting a 'woke agenda' — is gathering steam. 

It will likely be a major issue in Congress once the GOP seizes control of the House of Representatives in January, even as the Biden administration begins to allow fiduciaries to invest retirement funds into investments that promote such ideals.

In his statement on Thursday, Florida CFO Patronis accused BlackRock of focusing on ESG rather than higher returns for investors.

'Using our cash... to fund BlackRock's social-engineering project isn't something Florida ever signed up for,' he said. 'It's got nothing to do with maximizing returns, and is the opposite of what an asset manager is paid to do.'