“I’m running for president”, with this phrase posted on his Twitter account, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has announced his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election.
De Santis thus ends weeks of speculation about his intentions in a race in which he has presented himself as Trump’s great rival in the Republican Party primaries. The 44-year-old governor enters the arena weakened by his fall in the polls and by Trump’s attacks.
“I’m running for president of the United States to lead our great American comeback,” DeSantis said during an event with Twitter owner Elon Musk on the site’s audio platform. “We know our country is headed in the wrong direction. We see it with our own eyes. And we feel it in our bones.”
This phrase, the only thing articulated at the beginning of the special program, was escorted by persistent technical malfunctions and the protests of nearly 400,000 users who packed Twitter’s servers. Musk admitted to the problem. “There are too many people, I think this has run out. There are 400 thousand people, ”he said.
DeSantis’s run was made easier by a change Florida Republican lawmakers made to a law. It forced an official to resign his position when applying for to a higher one.
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Thus, DeSantis joins a list that includes former UN ambassador Nikki Haley; Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina; former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson; and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. Former Vice President Mike Pence is also considered a likely candidate, but has not yet announced one.
DeSantis’ great rival is Trump. The governor, who probably would not have held office without the mogul’s backing, has adopted the former president’s persona, his populist policies and even his rhetoric and mannerisms.
“He is a danger to the nation, as he is to Florida. You have to take it seriously, you have to be attentive to their plans against the interests of the people, ”he commented to OnCuba Democratic former Congressman Joe Garcia.
Your projection
DeSantis signed a bill banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, but it won’t take effect unless the current 15-week ban is upheld in an ongoing legal challenge before the conservative-controlled state Supreme Court.
A six-week ban in Florida would be a devastating blow to abortion access in the South, as neighboring states Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi have banned the procedure at all stages of pregnancy. Georgia and South Carolina banned it after heart activity was detected (about six weeks).
Critics, including some Republicans, have reacted to the six-week law as extreme. Most women don’t even realize they are pregnant at this time.
In addition, the DeSantis administration expanded a law that its critics call “Don’t Say Gay” by banning classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity.
The move came after DeSantis signed a bill banning such lessons until the third grade, a policy he has defended as a means to protect children from “sexualization.”
This year the DeSantis administration filed a proposal with the Florida Board of Education to expand the policy to grades 4-12, unless required by existing state standards or as part of the reproductive health instruction that students may opt out of. do not take. The board, appointed by DeSantis, approved the proposal and the legislature signed it into law.
The death penalty in Florida is another matter. DeSantis has signed two bills in this regard.
The first ends a unanimous jury requirement on death penalty sentencing, allowing capital punishment with a jury recommendation of at least 8-4 in favor of execution. Only three of the 27 states that impose the death penalty do not require unanimity. Alabama allows a 10-2 decision; Missouri and Indiana allow a judge to decide when there is a split jury.
The change came in response to a verdict that did not sentence to death high school murderer Marjory Stoneman Douglas, who in 2018 killed 17 people.
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The other bill signed by DeSantis allows the death penalty in cases of child rape, despite a US Supreme Court ruling that prohibited capital punishment in such cases.
The law is intended to get the conservative-controlled Supreme Court to reconsider a 2008 ruling that ruled capital punishment in child sexual assault cases unconstitutional. Florida is among the states with laws that allow the death penalty for that figure, but has not used the procedure.
On the other hand, thanks to the governor, Floridians will be able to carry concealed weapons without a permit. The new law will allow anyone who can legally own a gun in Florida to carry it without a permit. Accordingly, no training or background check will be required to carry concealed weapons in public. The law goes into effect on July 1.
DeSantis has said he thinks Florida should go even further and allow people to openly carry guns. While some legislators have pushed for open portability, it does not appear that the legislature will pass such legislation.
Another new law prohibits universities from using state or federal funds for diversity, equity and inclusion programs, a consistent goal of DeSantis.
Those initiatives have come under increasing criticism from Republicans, who argue that the programs are racially divisive.
The law comes a year after he signed legislation called Stop WOKE, which restricts certain conversations and analysis based on race, in schools and businesses.
Last year’s law prohibits instructions that say members of a race are inherently racist or should feel guilty for past actions committed by others of the same race, among other things.
