At the tail end of Pride Month, Tractor Supply Co. buckled under major social media pressure to eliminate the diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives it had pledged to put in place. The outcry, led by music-video director and conservative commentator Robby Starbuck, had taken over platforms like X (formerly Twitter) since June 6, with Starbuck himself saying, “I’ve exposed the woke agenda @TractorSupply’s corporate office for 3 weeks. Now they responded.”
That response was in the form of a letter dated June 27, in which the rural retailer noted, among other things, that it would:
- “Further focus on rural America priorities including ag education, animal welfare, veteran causes and being a good neighbor and stop sponsoring nonbusiness activities like pride festivals and voting campaigns”
- “Eliminate DEI roles and retire our current DEI goals while still ensuring a respectful environment”
Starbuck had been calling on customers to boycott Tractor Supply and contact its corporate leadership. Throughout the month, TSC’s stock prices fell 5 percent, and the #BoycottTractorSupply hashtag became prevalent.
Big change in the Tractor Supply employee app.
How it started vs. how it’s going now. 🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/w7OP8hoySH
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) June 28, 2024
TSC’s response to the DEI backlash was an effort to stabilize the business amid fears that it would continue to lose its role as a key retailer in rural America, where diversity, equity, and inclusion issues have had difficulty gaining ground.
“We have heard from customers that we have disappointed them,” the company said. “We have taken this feedback to heart.”
However, with the bulk of the pressure being instigated and nurtured by Starbuck, it’s unclear how extensive the outrage was among the broader consumer base.
“I find it ironic that a company would turn its back on minorities of race, gender and orientation when agriculture and the people that comprise it ARE ALREADY minorities in the grand scheme of our society,” Brandi Buzzard Frobose, a rancher and longtime rural promoter, said on her brand Facebook page. “You’d think the retailer would understand that relatively simple concept.”
In an email backing Starbuck’s stance, one anti-TSC campaigner alleged that “Tractor Supply is in the process of destroying our moral values by promoting the corrupting of the minds and lives of children and adults with their support of gender confusion ideologies as well as other Marxist policies.”
The email went on to say that the company “diabolically emphasizes” things like LGBTQIA+ training for employees, funding pride/drag events, funding sex changes, and including pride month decorations in the office.
In its announcement, TSC said that it would also cease sending data to the Human Rights Campaign and will withdraw its carbon emissions goals.
Tractor Supply sells farm supplies, animal feed, tools, fencing, and workwear at more than 2,200 stores across 49 states. It has over 50,000 employees nationwide and is a major supporter of the National FFA Organization and 4-H.
Many notched it as a win that TSC was rolling back its DEI pledges, with people on social media calling it a “monumental step in the right direction” and saying “The move by Tractor Supply likely saved the company.”
Tractor Supply made national news over the weekend, including in The Wall Street Journal, CNN, NPR, and The Washington Post.
“The effectiveness of Starbuck’s campaign — and Tractor Supply’s swift and decisive reversal — show how the tide has turned against efforts to promote diversity and inclusion in American corporations,” The Wall Street Journal’s article said. “Four years ago many companies saw it as a necessity to support these policies. Today some see it as too much of a risk.”
Shaun Harper, a professor of business, public policy and education at the University of Southern California, told CNN one reason for the conservative backlash was the fact Tractor Supply failed to tailor its DEI policy to the community in which it most commonly operates.
Starbuck, who is based in Tennessee, where TSC has its corporate offices, praised the outcome as a “massive victory for sanity,” and said in a video that this is the “first Fortune 300 company in our lifetimes to go backwards on [environmental, social, and governance issues], DEI and all these woke causes and donations, in record speed.”
Ryan Goodman, the founder of Pride in Agriculture and a longtime advocate for DEI in rural and ag spaces, said in a blog post that he was disappointed — but not surprised.
“I found one of my first off-farm jobs at TSC in high school, and the team there was incredibly supportive. They helped me get started and learn how to care for customers within the resources we had to work with,” Goodman said. “That experience, and now taking a look around at our current political environment, makes it even more concerning to see TSC pulling back from supporting marginalized groups.”
The Washington Post noted that John Boyd Jr., founder of the National Black Farmers Association advocacy group, said that TSC’s decision last week was “sending the wrong message to America. … We’re just going backwards.”
It’s unclear what kind of longer-term impacts this will have for Tractor Supply or whether the issue will be revisited. A range of companies have come under similar criticism and largely kept their DEI and other initiatives in place. The Wall Street Journal noted that around 70 percent of companies plan to expand their DEI programs, according to a 2023 survey from Bridge Partners, an executive recruitment firm.
Starbuck told the media outlet that what made the campaign work was choosing one company and releasing criticism every few days, not in one post, as well as targeting a company with a generally conservative customer base.
In an article from NPR, Frank Dobbin, a Harvard sociology professor who has studied corporate diversity programs for decades, called it a mistake for companies to roll back low-cost efforts aimed at equalizing opportunities for underrepresented groups like Black, Hispanic and LGBTQ+ workers — and to signal so publicly that members of those groups aren’t welcome in their workplace.
Regardless of TSC’s policy shift, many X users vowed to never shop at the stores again.
