DeSantis takes victory lap over Florida’s legislative session ahead of possible 2024 run
Mabinty Quarshie
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Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) touted the several measures he has signed into law on conservative Hugh Hewitt’s radio show as Florida‘s legislative session comes to an end on Friday and he mulls a 2024 presidential campaign.
Backed by a Republican supermajority legislature, DeSantis fulfilled campaign promises to conservatives that include passing a six-week abortion ban, expanding the Parental Rights in Education law to ban “classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity” through all grades, and passing a sweeping immigration enforcement bill that allocates $12 million to relocate immigrants to other parts of the United States and requires employers to use the E-Verify system.
DESANTIS’S BIGGEST ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF THE 2023 LEGISLATIVE SESSION
“I think the No. 1 thing is what we’re saying is, ‘Look, we don’t control immigration law; it’s federal. But we can eliminate incentives to come illegally,'” DeSantis told Hewitt. “So we are doing mandatory E-Verify so that if you’re hiring people in the state of Florida, you got to run them through the system and ensure that they’re here legally.”
On the abortion ban, DeSantis added: “It’s going to save a lot of lives in Florida, and it was the right thing to do.”
“Our protections for life, our protections for an unborn child when there’s a fetal heartbeat. And then there’s exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother. And that was something that we were very proud to do,” he said.
DeSantis also signed a capital punishment law that allows for the death penalty to be used on a convicted criminal if eight out of 12 jurors recommend it. It also calls for the death penalty on criminals convicted of child sexual abuse.
The Florida governor has not shied away from his feud with Disney after the company denounced DeSantis’s support for the Parental Rights in Education Act. In February, he signed into law a bill that restructured the district encompassing the Walt Disney World Resort. But after learning that Disney had signed an agreement with the previous oversight board that stripped the new DeSantis-approved board of control, the state legislature passed amendments that revoked the old agreement with the previous board and subjects Disney’s monorail to state inspection. DeSantis is expected to sign both bills.
Disney sued DeSantis over the attempted park takeover late last month, alleging a “relentless campaign to weaponize government power against Disney in retaliation for expressing a political viewpoint unpopular with certain State officials.” In response, the board countersued Disney.
“On the Disney thing, you know, as you said, they negotiated with themselves to try to get out from what the Florida legislature had determined that they should not be able to govern themselves and they should live under the same laws as Universal and SeaWorld,” DeSantis told Hewitt. “So it was really a middle finger to the people of Florida that they don’t think that they should have to follow the same laws. And they don’t even care what the elections are or what the legislature says.”
“We believe the contract that Disney tried to do has so many different flaws,” he added.
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DeSantis’s prolific legislative session will bolster his likely 2024 presidential campaign, which he is expected to announce in the upcoming weeks. As the GOP reflects on the legislative session, DeSantis said, “We will have produced, I think, the boldest, most significant body of work that has ever been done in the history of our state, and we would put it up with any state in the country in the modern history of the United States. And so we’re very proud of that.”
Although not a candidate, DeSantis is former President Donald Trump’s closest competitor. He is the only 2024 GOP hopeful to achieve double-digit figures in polling consistently. Never Back Down, a super PAC supporting DeSantis, has already made a seven-figure ad buy in early primary states touting the Florida governor as Trump’s successor.