Consider This from NPR - DeSantis Rising

Episode Date: March 7, 2023

He hasn't yet entered the contest, but even so, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is one of the leading Republicans in the race for the GOP presidential nomination.DeSantis has just released a new book that highlights his pugnacious style and hardline stance on issues ranging from education to public health. And he has attracted even more attention as Florida's Republican-led legislature began its session Tuesday.NPR's Greg Allen has this look at how DeSantis became what some believe is the future of the Republican Party.In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community.Email us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

C-PAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, is a sort of annual testing ground for Republican policies and for potential Republican candidates. So in the keynote speech, we got a preview of the themes that may dominate former President Trump's 2024 campaign. They sound a lot like the ones he's run on before. In 2016, I declared, I am your voice. Today, I add, I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution. I am your retribution. And to judge by the admittedly unscientific straw poll of CPAC attendees, Trump still has a firm grip on the party. 62% voted for the former president. But what was most notable about this year's conference is who wasn't there. You saw the scenes at CPAC. That room was half full. Yeah. Okay. Let's not

pretend that CPAC is CPAC anymore. It's TPAC. Okay. It's Trump PAC. Former New Jersey governor and Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie pointed out on ABC's This Week that many of Trump's potential opponents opted to skip the event. And only the most desperate people showed up at CPAC to even speak other than Trump or people within Trump's orbit. Former Vice President Mike Pence sat it out. So did South Carolina Senator Tim Scott. But the most glaring absence was the candidate who took second place in that straw poll, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Instead of CPAC, DeSantis headed across the country this weekend

for a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. The appearance was ostensibly to promote his new book, but it sounded an awful lot like a campaign subspeech. He talked up his big election win last fall, his sweeping actions to limit how race, gender, and sexuality are discussed in public schools, and his decisions during the pandemic. DeSantis outlawed mask mandates for students and restricted vaccine mandates for private employees. And he pushed schools to return to in-person learning. So when the world went mad, when common sense suddenly became an uncommon virtue, Florida stood as a refuge of sanity, a citadel of freedom for people throughout the United States and indeed throughout the world. We refused to let our state descend into some type of Faucian dystopia where people's rights were curtailed and their livelihoods were destroyed.

Consider this. Ron DeSantis hasn't officially entered the race for the Republican presidential nomination, but he's already a frontrunner. After riding a Trump wave to national prominence, now he's stepping out of his shadow. From NPR, I'm Juana Summers. It's Tuesday, March 7th. This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things in other currencies. Send, spend, or receive money internationally, and always get the real-time mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees. Download the WISE app today or visit wise.com. T's and C's apply. It's Consider This from NPR. Ron DeSantis is widely expected to run for president in 2024,

but for now, he's still governor of Florida. And Tuesday marks the beginning of Florida's legislative session. State lawmakers' agenda is packed with the sort of issues that DeSantis has used to build a brand as a conservative culture warrior. There's a six-week abortion ban, a bill that forbids schools from using names and pronouns other than the ones a student is assigned at birth, and another that would make nearly every child in Florida eligible for a state-funded voucher to attend a private school. In his State of the State address, Governor DeSantis positioned Florida as a blueprint for the country. We will stand strong. We will hold the line. We won't back down. And I can promise you this,

you ain't seen nothing yet. Thank you all. Well, NPR's Greg Allen took a look at what we have seen of DeSantis so far and why some see him as the future of the Republican Party. November's election was disappointing for Republicans in many states, but not in Florida, where Governor Ron DeSantis won re-election by nearly 20 points. We will never ever surrender to the woke mob. Florida is where woke goes to die. That's the DeSantis brand, a governor who stands firm against ideas, policies, and laws he derides as woke. In his first term following demonstrations around the police killing of George Floyd, DeSantis signed a law criminalizing even some peaceful protests. Later, his Stop Woke Act restricted what schools and businesses can say about race. A parental rights and education act

dubbed Don't Say Gay by Opponents limits how teachers discuss sexual orientation and gender identity. He signed a law banning abortions after 15 weeks. Many of these measures are now held up by legal challenges in the courts. It's a different DeSantis than the one David Jolly got to know when both served as House members in Washington. Jolly, a former Republican congressman from the Tampa area, says DeSantis was part of the House Freedom Caucus, a group focused on cutting government spending. And at the time, you know, I described them as the shutdown caucus. DeSantis and other members used government shutdowns to push for policy changes and spending reductions. Jolley says the most impressive thing about DeSantis were the

connections he made with some of the nation's top Republican donors. It's always been a question for me how he did it. And I believe it was just the commitment to fundraising and the raw political hunger of moving beyond the House. DeSantis, a Yale and Harvard-educated lawyer who served in the Navy, spent three terms in Congress before running for governor. His frequent appearances on Fox News drew the attention of President Trump, who endorsed him. DeSantis embraced it and ran a now-famous ad featuring his wife and children. Fill the wall. He reads stories. Then Mr. Trump said, you're fired.

I love that part. He was narrowly elected governor by less than half a percentage point. Two years later, after Trump was defeated, DeSantis rarely mentioned his name anymore and refused to join the chorus of supporters who said the election was stolen. Jolly says DeSantis used Trump to build his name recognition, but after being elected, he moved on. What he is incredibly skilled at, as Wayne Gretzky, the Hall of Fame hockey player, used to say is,

I skate to where the puck's going. He saw it was going to be Donald Trump's party, and he skated to Donald Trump very quickly. DeSantis' rise to national prominence got a boost with the arrival of the COVID pandemic. In the first months, he largely followed guidance from the Trump White House and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He shut down Florida's beaches, bars, and nightclubs. Schools were closed. When the vaccine became available, he championed it in almost daily news conferences and in a live interview where a 94-year-old World

War II veteran received his shot on Fox News. Today is the day we're going to hit our 2 million senior vaccinated, and I couldn't think of a better fella to be able to have that honor. But shortly after that appearance, in February of 2021, DeSantis' approach to COVID began to change. He soon signed bills banning face masks and vaccine mandates by businesses and government. Republican Aaron Bean, who served in Florida's Senate under DeSantis, has nothing but praise for how the governor responded to the pandemic. He went against the grain, and when that happened, you can't say Florida without now saying the free

state of Florida, because Governor DeSantis has led the way. With his hiring of a new Surgeon General, Dr. Joseph Latipo, DeSantis completed his transition way. With his hiring of a new Surgeon General, Dr. Joseph Latipo, DeSantis completed his transition from vaccine proponent to vaccine skeptic. Among their many controversial recommendations, Latipo and DeSantis said men age 18 to 39 should not receive the mRNA vaccine. Nationally recognized public health experts say that recommendation is wrong and based on a faulty analysis. Bill Hanage, an epidemiologist at Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health, believes those policies led to an increase of COVID deaths in Florida. You know, if you compare it with California, New York, Massachusetts, and the United Kingdom,

it's the only one to have more deaths since vaccines were available than before. The only one of them. In Florida, 60% of the total deaths occurred after vaccines were available. In the other places, it was 40% or less. DeSantis dismisses the criticism, saying Florida voters looked at its record on COVID in November and gave him a resounding vote of confidence. Not only did we win re-election,

we won with the highest percentage of the vote that any Republican governor candidate has in the history of the state of Florida. As governor, DeSantis has extended his authority beyond state agencies and laws into local matters, exerting control over school boards and even businesses that hold drag shows. To the delight of supporters, he's quick to attack any who challenge him, from the media to the state's largest employers. After Disney's CEO said he'd work to overturn a law, DeSantis signed a bill ending Disney World's self-governing status in Florida. With his efforts to control local policies, he's left behind the commitment to limited government

he once had as a member of the Freedom Caucus. Former Congressman David Jolly says it's a lesson he took from Donald Trump. What Donald Trump brought to the party was to really crush that orthodoxy of small government and instead say the ends justify the means. And so whatever it takes to achieve conservative results. To DeSantis, it doesn't even matter if courts have said it's unconstitutional. Last year, with an eye to federal law and Florida's constitution, lawmakers drew up new maps for the state's 28 congressional districts. DeSantis didn't like the result and demanded lawmakers draw new maps that ended up eliminating two districts that favored Black voters. I was completely dumbfounded, blindsided. Democratic State Senator Geraldine Thompson is an African-American lawmaker from Orlando. DeSantis' maps were challenged in court as unconstitutional, partisan gerrymanders,

but they remained in place and helped Florida Republicans pick up four additional seats in Congress. Thompson says DeSantis' motivation in targeting Black voters is clear. I think he has an interest in making sure that only certain individuals vote and that those people are people who are supportive of his agenda and then making it difficult for anyone who does not support his agenda, making it difficult for them to vote. DeSantis doesn't shy away from battles involving race. He's taken aim at programs promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in state colleges and universities. He also drew

headlines when his education commissioner said he'd prohibit the use of an AP African-American studies course in Florida. Aaron Bean, now a member of Congress, says those policies aren't intended to target groups, but instead stand up for conservative principles. Bean doesn't expect DeSantis to soften his hardline stance in a campaign for president. I believe that should he go to the next level, which I think he will, that he will push forth an America First agenda, a common sense agenda, a freedom agenda. There are lots of questions surrounding a DeSantis presidential bid. Among them, how will he handle intense scrutiny from the media and attacks from other candidates, notably Trump? Up to now, he's mostly avoided interviews with mainstream media, preferring instead friendly appearances on Fox News and

other conservative outlets. But there may be a more fundamental question. DeSantis' supporters have a slogan, Make America Florida. Next year, voters across the country may get a chance to decide if that's something that they want. NPR's Greg Allen in Miami. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Juana Summers.