DeSantis’s Florida bills targeting LGBTQ people, abortion rights, and teachings on race preview his presidential platform.
In launching his 2024 presidential campaign, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis promised to champion a new, expansive conservatism. To understand exactly what that would look like, you only need to look to Florida itself.
This legislative term, the governor and his fellow Republicans waged culture wars everywhere from the classroom to the bathroom to Disney World, making the state a pioneer of some of the most extreme right-wing policies in the US.
DeSantis’s legislative agenda in Florida — which he has framed as a “blueprint” for America — has targeted immigrants, LGBTQ individuals, Black Americans, and women, as well as the corporations who come to their defense. And state lawmakers have advanced DeSantis’s own political career at the expense of transparency and accountability. That’s all been done in the name of wooing an activist GOP base, which still loves former President Donald Trump and has given him a historically large lead in Republican primary polls.
“What’s been happening … in Florida should scare every single person across the entire country,” US Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) said in a press call. “Gov. Ron DeSantis running for president and even being within striking distance of the Oval Office should frighten anyone who values democracy, voting rights, civil rights, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness.”
Many of the Florida laws passed this session, which concluded earlier this month, go further even than other red states. Proposals banning gender-affirming care for minors and establishing a six-week abortion ban, for example, impose harsh new restrictions that could have severe consequences on those seeking such care in the state. Immigration proposals targeting undocumented people have also inspired fear among the roughly 772,000 undocumented immigrants in the state, and prompted some to leave.
The attacks on LGBTQ rights and Black Americans via policies that restrict the teaching of systemic racism and trans people’s ability to use bathrooms have been so harsh that civil rights groups like the NAACP and Equality Florida have cautioned people against traveling to the state. Some of those groups are challenging laws DeSantis has signed in court.
DeSantis has nevertheless doubled down on those policies.
“I think that the culture wars are front and center right now. People are talking about it more than economic issues, more than national security, foreign policy. So I think DeSantis has set himself up nicely,” said Brendan Steinhauser, a GOP strategist based in Texas.
A representative for DeSantis’s office did not immediately return a request for comment.
It’s not clear that pursuing an ultraconservative agenda actually serves DeSantis politically in the long-run. Florida Republicans have legislated so far to the right that there is concern among some GOP donors that DeSantis has gone too far and alienated voters who might have otherwise supported him in a general election.
“There’s a certain anti-Trump segment of the donor class has lined up with him, but another that is still looking for a candidate,” said Robert Cahaly, senior strategist and pollster at the Trafalgar Group and former Republican political consultant.
Here’s how Florida lawmakers have enacted DeSantis’s vision this session.
DeSantis has been a key figure behind the national Republican campaign against LGBTQ rights, particularly that of children, with some of Florida’s policies being the first of their kind in the nation. Those policies serve a practical purpose for the GOP: They allow them to perform opposition to the “woke left” and ensure their social conservative backers show up to vote — even after the religious right achieved its decades-long goal of overturning Roe v. Wade last year.
As Vox’s Rachel Cohen explained, Florida is among the states that have approved a very stringent abortion ban, which significantly curbs people’s access to the procedure. It joins other Southern states in harshly curtailing reproductive rights in the region, eliminating Florida’s status as a destination for people seeking out such care.
Some Republican donors are concerned the decision to move forward with such an extreme abortion ban will cause DeSantis to face political blowback as he moves on the national stage. Although restrictions on abortion have been a chief focus of some conservative voters, voters overwhelmingly supported abortion access during the 2022 midterms, and there are signs protecting abortion access will be a salient issue in 2024.
In addition to curbing education about LGBTQ rights and identity in schools, several of the Florida legislature bills have centered on limiting discussions about diversity and race. As Vox’s Fabiola Cineas explained, such measures follow a state push to reject the teaching of the AP African American Studies course in Florida.
Legislators approved a wide-ranging slate of immigration policies, which severely limit the ability of undocumented people to both work and travel in the state. These hardline proposals are intended to establish DeSantis’s credentials on an issue national Republicans have repeatedly hammered Democrats on.
DeSantis’s proposals have been slammed by immigration advocates, who note that the policies could severely hurt the state economically and drive its residents away.
“As fear becomes the norm in immigrant communities, a lot of these migrant workers will start leaving the state and looking somewhere else,” Samuel Vilchez Santiago, the Florida state director of the American Business Immigration Coalition, told Vox’s Christian Paz.
In addition to the expansive immigration package it approved, the legislature also passed a law that’s expected to harm Chinese immigrants in the state, with some local activists also telling Vox that people are considering moving as a result.
This law has raised fears of racial profiling of Chinese immigrants in the state overall and has already been challenged in court by the ACLU for being discriminatory.
DeSantis has quietly catered to gun rights activists by loosening Florida’s gun laws and invoked what he describes as a “tough-on-crime” agenda that he has positioned as a model for the country, even though it’s not clear that crime is lower in Florida than in some of the blue cities he’s criticized.
The Florida legislature has propped up DeSantis’s battles against what he calls “woke” corporations that embrace progressive social justice policies, including Disney, the state’s largest taxpayer.
Florida legislators have passed bills changing the state’s election laws and public records requirements in a manner designed to politically benefit DeSantis.
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