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…
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