DeSantis Leads Democrat Challenger Crist by 11 Points in Florida Governor Race

Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis maintains an 11-point lead over his Democratic challenger, Charlie Crist, as he grapples with the impact of Hurricane Ian.

The Mason-Dixon poll, which Florida Politics obtained, surveyed 800 registered and likely voters and found that 52% of them backed DeSantis, compared to 41% for Crist. The double digit lead puts the current Florida governor well outside of the survey’s +/- 3.5% margin of error.

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DeSantis Takes Measures to Combat Influence of Hostile Nations Such as China

On Thursday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.), announced a series of executive orders and proposed legislative actions aiming to reduce the influence of hostile foreign nations such as China.

The Daily Wire reports that DeSantis’ proposals focus on seven nations in particular: China, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Venezuela, Cuba, and Syria. The proposed measures will cover each of these nations’ respective efforts to target the state of Florida through such means as cyberspace, real estate purchases, and academic influence.

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Commentary: Send All of the Illegals to Martha’s Vineyard

In an extremely imaginative problem-solving (or problem-highlighting) move, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Wednesday flew two planeloads of illegal immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard. A Martha’s Vineyard lawmaker tweeted that “our island jumped into action,” and that “these immigrants were met with compassion, not chaos.” In another tweet, however, he accused Republicans of using human lives as “political pawns,” calling it “evil and inhumane.”

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Newsom’s In-Laws Donated to DeSantis Before California Governor Attacked Him in Campaign Ad

Before California Gov. Gavin Newsom attacked Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in a campaign ad, his in-laws donated money to DeSantis’ campaign through a trust they control, campaign finance records show.

Both governors are running for their second term and are favored to win reelection. Both have been identified by political pundits as a potential presidential matchup, especially after Newsom launched his first campaign ad for reelection attacking DeSantis instead of his Republican opponent in California.

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State Prohibits Florida Retirement System from Investing in Funds That Prioritize ESG

Gov. Ron DeSantis and the trustees of the State Board of Administration, CFO Jimmy Patronis and Attorney General Ashley Moody passed a resolution Tuesday updating the state’s investment and proxy voting policies for its retirement system and pension plan. The resolution prohibits state fund managers from investing state money in funds that comply with the ideological agenda of environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG). The resolution also calls for an internal review of the state’s governance policies over the voting practices of the Florida Retirement System Defined Benefit Pension Plan.

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Conservatives Sweep School Board Races Across Florida

School boards in five Florida counties flipped to be conservative majorities on Tuesday with help from Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ endorsements.

Miami-Dade County, Sarasota County, Duval County, Martin County and Clay County held their school board elections on Aug. 23. The conservative school board candidates in the five counties won their races, resulting in a flip in the majority of the school boards.

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DeSantis Stumps for Vance in Youngstown, Ohio Suburbs

Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) came to the Youngstown area this weekend in support of Ohio Republican JD Vance’s U.S. Senate campaign against U.S. Representative Tim Ryan (D-OH-13), whose district includes Youngstown.

“It is important that the people of Ohio send JD Vance to the U.S. Senate this year,” the Florida chief executive, whose mother is from Youngstown, told an audience at the Metroplex Expo Center in Girard. “Yes, Republicans need to take back the majority, and I think we will. But just as important as having the majority, we need people who are willing to go up there and do something with the majority; stop talking and actually get something done. And I think JD is somebody who’s going to be a leader and not just be a follower and we need that in that swamp more than ever.” 

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DeSantis: Electing Mastriano an ‘Opportunity to Make Pennsylvania Free’

Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) came to Pittsburgh this weekend to argue that his success governing Florida needs to be replicated in Pennsylvania and that state Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-PA-Gettysburg) is the man to do it. 

The Adams County lawmaker is running against Democratic state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, someone who Mastriano and DeSantis believe will intensify the liberal governance the Keystone State has underwent during Tom Wolf’s eight-year administration. 

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DeSantis to Rally with Vance in Ohio and Mastriano in Pennsylvania

Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) is coming through western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio on Friday, August 19, to speak at two rallies, one for Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano and the other for Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance. 

The conservative activist organization Turning Point Action is hosting the events. In a statement, turning Point founder and president Charlie Kirk expressed his gladness to facilitate the rallies and his hope that DeSantis’s endorsement will “unite conservatives” around Mastriano and Vance.

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Gov. Ron DeSantis Announces Plan to Recruit and Retain Public School Teachers, Calls Florida ‘The State Where Woke Goes to Die’

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) announced a plan to recruit public school teachers from other sectors of the community and retain effective teachers who can apprentice new recruits.

In a press conference Tuesday, DeSantis discussed three proposals he is presenting for Florida’s 2023 legislative session, all of which seek to recruit “the best and brightest” teachers in the state’s public school classrooms.

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U.S. Senate Hopeful Blake Masters: Mark Kelly Should Go Back to Space

PHOENIX, Arizona – Arizona Senate Republican nominee Blake Masters spoke at the recent “Unite and Win” rally in Phoenix, hosted by Turning Point Action, telling Arizonans it is time to get Mark Kelly (D-AZ) out of office.

“You know what, hey, we can respect that he [Mark Kelly] used to be an astronaut,” Masters said. “I’m sure he was really great at it. Doing all the experiments in space or whatever it is that astronauts do nowadays. Let him do that. Because here on earth, he’s failing. Here on earth, we have some big problems. Here on earth, we have massive inflation. Here on earth, in Arizona, there’s an invasion at our southern border.”

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New Website Launches for Military Veterans to Apply for Florida Teaching Jobs

Gov. Ron DeSantis is encouraging military veterans interested in teaching at Florida public schools to consider applying through a new program.

“Florida is leading the way by bringing some of the best, the brightest and the bravest among us into our classrooms through a new program that helps military veterans become teachers,” he said in a video announcement Thursday. “If you served in the military for at least four years, were honorably discharged, have taken 60 college credits, and pass a subject area exam, we want you to be able to teach Florida students.

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Christina Pushaw Resigns to Join DeSantis Campaign

Christina Pushaw stepped down from her role as press secretary for Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to serve on his re-election campaign, she told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Election laws restrict the ability of individuals to endorse political candidates or parties and make certain election-related statements in their capacity as government employees; now that Pushaw works for DeSantis’ campaign and not the Florida government, she is free from those restrictions. She appeared to warn her opponents about the next phase of her career in a Friday tweet.

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Commentary: Amid Recession Fears, Economically Free States Continue to Outperform

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis recently responded to questions about California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s ads airing in Florida, “It’s almost hard to drive people out of a place like California given all their natural advantages, and yet they are finding a way to do it.” He noted that California is hemorrhaging its population because of bad progressive economic policies so that they could be more free

Florida ranks third in the nation for economic freedom, according to the Fraser Institute. And California ranks second to last.

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Poll: More Americans Want Trump to Run in 2024 than Biden

More Americans would like to see former President Donald Trump run in 2024 than President Joe Biden, but neither candidate enjoys broad support for a potential campaign, a new Politico poll found.

Of all registered voters, 35% reported that Trump should “definitely” or “probably” run, whereas just 29% reported the same answers for Biden, the poll showed. However, the poll is not all positive for Trump, as both men have staunch opposition to their prospective candidacies in 2024 and almost half of the population strongly opposes either of them running.

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Ned Ryun Commentary: You Can Bet Trump Will Be Back in 2024

We’re going to get a massive red wave this fall. The 2021 results in Virginia, out of control inflation, Joe Biden’s dismal approval ratings in recent polls (for perspective, Obama’s approval rating was 44.7 percent in October 2010, just before the midterm mauling Democrats got that year), soaring gas prices, and a porous southern border indicate that even places Biden won by 20 points in 2020 are in play this fall.

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Exposes John Cornyn-Sponsored Civics Bill Expanding Critical Race Theory in Public Schools

A bill that would actually allow Critical Race Theory (CRT) to be pushed on every public school in the country has finally been exposed for what it is by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R).

In a statement June 30, DeSantis’ office released the positive results of Florida’s 2022 civics assessments since a major update to the state’s civics standards emphasizing the exceptional nature of the American founding and Constitution.

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Ivy League Study: Boosters, COVID-19 ‘Rebounds’ Fuel Skepticism of Federal Narratives

As the nation’s most powerful and twice-boosted infectious disease doctor battles a COVID-19 “rebound” two weeks after testing positive, new research from the public health schools at Harvard and Yale suggests the boosted fared worse against the first Omicron subvariant than the non-boosted.

The FDA is so alarmed by the “waning effectiveness” of boosters, whose formulation is still based on the ancestral Wuhan strain, that it asked manufacturers Thursday to add a “spike protein component” from the fourth and fifth Omicron subvariants to this fall’s boosters.

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Commentary: States Can Help Conservatives Secure Even More Legal Victories

America is currently in the midst of a broader political realignment. The political Left, which once upon a time purported to stand for the forgotten “little guy” against the titans of Big Business, has in recent years decided that Big Business is actually an ally of convenience in its long Gramsci-an “march” through the institutions. Chris Rufo has perhaps demonstrated this trend better than anyone else.

And the political Right, whose once-instinctive neoliberal proclivities made it a convenient ally for Big Business, is currently rethinking its approach to political economy in general, as well as its specific relationship to culturally leftist multinational corporations. The most tangible recent expression of this rethinking has been Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ crippling punishment of The Walt Disney Company for its coming out on behalf of sexually grooming innocent children in the Sunshine State.

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DeSantis: Texas Should Be Sending Illegal Immigrants Back to Mexico

Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says Texas shouldn’t be allowing illegal immigrants to enter the state, echoing sentiments conservative Texans have been arguing for over a year.

“What Texas needs to do is just send them [illegal immigrants] back across the border,” Gov. DeSantis said at a recent press conference in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. “Who cares what the Feds are saying. They aren’t doing their job.

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More than $3 Million Awarded to Florida Military Communities

More than $3 million has been awarded to military communities in Florida through three grant programs to support economic diversification efforts, local infrastructure projects, and military community relations.

“In Florida, we value those who protect and serve our nation and the sacrifices that their families make,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said. “That is why we work to provide tangible support that enhances the lives and communities of service members for generations to come.”

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DeSantis Vetoes Bills He Says Waste Taxpayer Money

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed two bills and several lines of another as part of what he said is his ongoing commitment to fiscal stewardship.

The bills in question were passed by the legislature during the regular session earlier this year. As the bills are sent to the governor for his consideration, he said he’s been going through them to exercise his line-item veto authority.

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Gov. DeSantis Launches Government-Wide Effort to Ban Child Sex Changes

The Florida Department of Health (FDOH) urged the state’s board of medicine to establish standards of care in accordance with guidance strongly advising against child sex treatments in a Thursday letter.

Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo pointed to a lack of evidence on the safety and efficacy of the procedures and urged the Florida Board of Medicine to consider FDOH guidance that advised against child sex changes, according to the letter. The move is the latest effort from Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration to restrict sex change treatments, particularly for children.

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In Wake of Surfside Condo Collapse, Florida Legislature Passes Condominium Safety Legislation

A bill to ensure condominium safety passed both chambers of the legislature and was signed Thursday by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Within days of the special legislative session starting this week, both chambers passed bills to reform property insurance and increase safety measures for condominiums. Both bills, Senate Bill 2D, Property Insurance, and Senate Bill 4D, Building Safety, were sponsored by state Sen. Jim Boyd, R-Bradenton, who chairs the Senate Committee on Banking and Insurance.

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Okaloosa County Received $3.2 Million to Expand Manufacturing Operations at Shoal River Ranch Gigasite

Okaloosa County received $3.2 million to expand operations at the Shoal River Ranch industrial gigasite, a massive 10,000-acre site near Eglin and Hurlburt Field Air Forces bases.

The funds were made available through the Florida Job Growth Grant Fund and will go toward expanding roads, rail lines, and utility infrastructure in an area located seven miles east of Crestview with access to Interstate 10, Highway 90, and the Florida Gulf & Atlantic Railroad.

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Commentary: Coverage of One Million COVID Deaths Must Include the Pandemic of Bad State Responses

This week, the United States officially hit the sad mark of one million COVID-19 deaths. The mainstream media coverage has detailed how this death toll has varied based on age, race, and vaccination status. However, it has conspicuously ignored how these COVID-19 deaths have occurred independently of differing state policies regarding economic and education restrictions.

Many Democrat-run states imposed severe restrictions in 2020 and 2021 that did nothing to stop the virus and much to harm small businesses and ordinary Americans. Job Creators Network called on policymakers to “flatten the fear” when it became clear the virus couldn’t be controlled by hiding at home or a big government response, yet we were ignored by blue-state officials. Any reckoning of the nation’s COVID response at one million deaths must incorporate these unforced errors that exacerbated the pandemic’s wrath.

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Corporations Stay Quiet on Abortion After Disney’s Disastrous Tangle with DeSantis

Ron DeSantis

Corporations previously outspoken about hot-button social issues have stayed quiet on the likely overturning of Roe v. Wade after a dramatic fight between Disney and Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis over the company’s political activism.

Following the leak of a draft opinion indicating the Supreme Court is likely to overturn Roe v. Wade, Democrats are trying to ram through a bill legalizing third trimester abortions; however, corporations are largely staying out of the fray, following Disney’s disastrous battle with Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis that ended with the company losing its special tax privileges.

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DeSantis Signs Bill Dedicating More Than $44 Million in Support for Florida Foster Families

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday signed a bill into law dedicating $44 million in support to Florida foster families.

At a news conference held at Miami-Dade College, he said, “signing the bill should leave no doubt … that this state stands committed to the proposition that every life counts. All these kids deserve an opportunity and we’re going to do what we can to make sure that their dreams and hopes and aspirations can become a reality and a loving home.”

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Florida Gov. DeSantis Signs Bill to Guarantee Visitation Rights for Patients and Their Families

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the No Patient Left Alone Act into law Wednesday. The bill guarantees that Floridians can visit their loved ones in hospitals, hospices and long-term care facilities regardless of a public health emergency.

In Florida, and nationwide, families have been kept apart as loved ones died in hospitals, hospices and long-term care facilities due to coronavirus safety protocols. In late 2020, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) reinstated federal visitation protections for long-term care facilities, which includes waiving visitation policies for hospitals allowing them to prohibit patient visitation.

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