A new report from the State Leadership Initiative (SLI), released Wednesday, is sounding the alarm on how conservative states are quietly adopting woke policies, driven by little-known national bureaucratic organizations.
The report, first reported by Fox News, details how a web of well-funded national associations, often posing as nonpartisan or professional groups, is behind this trend, pushing what SLI calls “shadow governance.” These groups set policy frameworks, control federal funding, and offer “best practices” that lean heavily into left-leaning priorities, according to Fox News.
Among the organizations exposed in the report are the National Association of State Treasurers (NAST), the National Association of Medicaid Directors (NAMD), and the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE). SLI’s report examined 23 of the largest associations and found widespread embrace of DEI initiatives, transgender ideology policies, and ESG principles.
One example highlighted in the report points to NAMD’s push for equity over outcomes in Medicaid reform. In its 2021 Regulatory Priorities document, NAMD listed 11 “broad issues” for improving state Medicaid programs, with “advancing equity in Medicaid” as the top focus. The document reads, “Equity work should include a focus on racial and ethnic minorities, rural populations, Tribal populations, and any other groups experiencing disparate health outcomes, with an understanding that inequities are multidimensional and often fall across multiple population characteristics or categories. We also see discrete areas where focus would be beneficial, bearing in mind that the work to advance equity in Medicaid is holistic and branches across all issue domains.”
“Conservative leaders are fond of declaring victory,” the report reads. “They win elections, pass legislation, and appoint agency heads with great fanfare, yet, on issue after issue, the administrative state trudges forward in open defiance of their mandate: enforcing equity initiatives, embedding climate policy, and advancing bureaucratic priorities wholly alien to the voters who ostensibly elected the government. This disconnect is not incidental. It is structural.“
“The ideological left does not need to win a single statehouse so long as it controls the bureaucratic bloodstream,” the report added.
In a statement to Fox News, SLI founder and president Noah Wall said about the revelations that, “Every single one of these associations pushes DEI.” “It doesn’t matter how specific—whether it’s a fish and wildlife group or a treasury department—DEI is a core part of their programming.”
Wall demanded Republican governors to crack down on the quiet push for far-left policies and called for accountability.
“We think that Republican governors in particular need to make sure that they’re sending people to these associations, knowing the problems that these associations have had in the past,” he said. “I don’t think they have. So our goal is to educate Republican governors about the scale of the problem and make sure that they condition future membership on reforms.”
This task will be far from easy.
While some Republican leaders and President Trump have pushed to eliminate progressive policies like DEI from public and corporate spheres, major U.S. companies are adapting by subtly rebranding their diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
A recent report by The Conference Board found that major companies, particularly those in the S&P 100 and S&P 500, are reframing rather than abandoning their DEI initiatives. Over half of S&P 100 companies adjusted their DEI messaging in 2025 SEC filings, with a 68% drop in the use of the term “DEI” among S&P 500 firms and a significant reduction in DEI-related metrics.
“This shift in public disclosure doesn’t signal companies are abandoning DEI,” said Andrew Jones, a researcher for The Conference Board. “Rather, they’re selectively reframing commitments, reducing public exposure and embedding oversight more quietly yet firmly into governance and human capital management.”
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