TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Gov. Ron DeSantis is poised to position himself as a champion of conservative causes Tuesday during his State of the State address that will likely be as much about his national ambitions as an assessment of the state of Florida in the aftermath of the pandemic and a series of hurricanes. .
The speech comes at the start of a 60-day legislative session that has even more significance this year because it will likely be used to launch DeSantis into a much-anticipated presidential campaign.
The Republican-dominated Legislature, eager to promote DeSantis’ political views, is expected to pass nearly all of the governor’s agenda, which is replete with issues ranging from race to immigration to gender identity that could prove popular in a Republican presidential primary.
Rather than focusing on rising rents and the cost of living, a home insurance market in jeopardy and bracing for rising sea levels in the state most vulnerable to climate change, DeSantis will kick off a session in which the GOP will push through issues like telling teachers what pronouns they can use when addressing students, making guns more accessible to Floridians, keeping immigrants in the country illegally out of the state and criminalize certain stage performances, as Tennessee did recently.
WHAT THE GOVERNOR MIGHT MENTION
DeSantis’ State of the State is sure to include some of the same “anti-reawakening, pro-freedom” messages he has been spreading across the country. While critics say he took away freedoms from marginalized groups, it has become a motto for the governor.
The book he published last week is called “The Courage to Be Free” and its subtitle foreshadows his plans for 2024: “The Florida Plan for America’s Renaissance”. Instead of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan, DeSantis argues for the nation to be more like Florida and less like states like California and New York.
“These liberal states got it wrong,” DeSantis said. “It all comes down to ideology. I think it goes back to the awakened mind virus that infected the left and all these other institutions.”
But Democrats see it as bigotry and misdirected priorities. They point to efforts to build a new law called “Don’t Say Gay” that limits discussion of gender and sexuality in schools. A new Republican proposal would limit how schools can use gender pronouns, while another would criminalize certain drag performances.
“The number one killer of children in our country is gun violence, but then again, they worry about who goes to what kind of drag show,” said Senate Democratic Leader Lauren Book. “You have ‘Don’t Say Gay’. Now 2.0, ‘Don’t Say They’. Let’s make it so people can pay their electric bill and can put food on their table and pay for their prescriptions and do full of their car.”
FOR A PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN
While DeSantis is unlikely to officially announce a presidential campaign until the Legislature wraps up in May, he is already making great strides toward a run for the White House. He attended a high-profile donor event last week in Florida before traveling to California, where he delivered a speech against what he said was liberalism excess. Later this week, he will travel for the first time this year to Iowa, which will host the country’s first presidential caucuses in 2024.
Even without an official campaign, DeSantis is emerging as a top alternative to former President Donald Trump, a fellow Florida native who has already announced his third run for the White House. DeSantis’ strength is fueled in part by a nearly 20-point re-election victory last year in a state often infamous for its close elections.
He did this by limiting how topics like race and sexuality can be taught in schools, banning transgender girls and women from participating in school sports, rewriting state political maps to favor Republicans and dismantling a congressional district that he favored black voters, attacking private businesses that disagree with his ideology and suppressing Black Lives Matter protests.
DeSantis acknowledges that his decisions as governor are based on what he believes to be right and not necessarily what’s popular in the mainstream. He said that’s why he was able to turn a confirmed victory of 32,000 votes by recount in 2018 into a victory of 1.5 million votes last year, the largest margin a Republican governor has ever won. in the state.
“We beat the left day after day after day,” DeSantis said Sunday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California. “Don’t worry about the polls, don’t worry about the daily news cycle and, for God’s sake, don’t worry about the media, what they say. Do the right thing and the voters will reward you.”
While most presidential hopefuls two years later spend the early days of the campaign fundraising, traveling the country to win support and build awareness for their name, DeSantis still has $70 million in hand. political caucus just four months after his re-election.
And he’s already a star du jour at national Republican events. Almost immediately after finishing his State of the State address, he heads to Iowa: “You don’t see the Florida flag behind him anymore. They are all American flags,” said Democratic Senator Jason Pizzo.