Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a near-declared presidential candidate, has ramped up his headline-hunting trips and events ahead of an official announcement, criss-crossing the state and trying to capture national attention as he signs the heavily conservative legislation which he believes can propel him to the nomination of the Republican Party.
Wednesday, Mr. DeSantis signed a series of measures that hit every cultural shock note his base has rewarded him for, including laws banning gender transition care for minors, preventing children from attending “shows live for adults’ like now drag shows and restrict the use of favorite pronouns in the schools
“We have to let our kids be kids,” said Mr. DeSantis at a Christian school in Tampa. “What we have said in Florida is that we will continue to be a haven of sanity and a citadel of normality.”
It was his third consecutive day holding public bill signing ceremonies across the state. The ceremonies, which he hosts in his official capacity as governor, allow Mr. DeSantis promotes his political message in settings he carefully manages like a true MC, inviting additional speakers and then thanking them for their contributions. These events sometimes take on the feel of political rallies.
This platform gives Mr. DeSantis has an advantage over potential presidential rivals, many of whom are out of office or in legislative roles, as he races to declare his candidacy, which is likely to happen by the end of the month.
On Monday, his signing of a bill defunding diversity and equity programs at public colleges and universities drew robust news coverage, as well as strong protesters. He and other Republicans who shared the stage jeered at the protesters, many of them students at the New College of Florida, a public liberal arts school in Sarasota that the governor has tried to transform into a conservative stronghold.
The signing of bills targeting the LGBTQ community Wednesday was “a total attack on freedom,” Joe Saunders, senior policy director for Equality Florida, an advocacy organization, said at a virtual news conference. He pointed out that Mr. DeSantis had already signed a six-week abortion ban, as well as bills allowing doctors to refuse care on moral or religious grounds.
Mr. DeSantis sees freedom “as a campaign slogan in his bid for the White House,” Saunders said. “The nation should be on alert, because today we are all Floridians.”
Some centrist Republicans say the way Mr. DeSantis has pushed Florida to the right on social issues is a potential weakness in a general election. The representatives of Mr. DeSantis did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
As he travels across the state, the lines between the papers of Mr. DeSantis as governor and potential presidential candidate can seem like a blur at times.
On Tuesday, after signing several bills near Fort Lauderdale to curb human trafficking, an issue the right has tried to weaponize in national politics, Mr. DeSantis got a boost from Florida’s top two GOP legislative leaders, Senate President Kathleen Passidomo. , and Paul Renner, the Speaker of the House.
After concluding the signature, Ms. Passidomo and Mr. Renner approached a lectern, emblazoned with the seal of the state of Florida, in place of the “Stop Human Trafficking” sign the governor had used moments earlier — for endorse Mr. DeSantis as president, a position he is not yet formally seeking.
Katie Betta, spokeswoman for Ms. Passidomo said the approval was a matter of convenience because the governor and legislative leaders have not been together since the legislative session ended on May 5. “It was a good opportunity to answer a question they’ve both been getting from the press since the day they were sworn in last November,” Ms. Betta wrote in an email, referring to Ms. .Passidomo and Mr. Renner.
The governor is expected to reveal more endorsements from state lawmakers soon. Behind the scenes, his allies are battling former President Donald J. Trump’s supporters to secure those promises. At the federal level, members of Florida’s congressional delegation have gone big for Trump.
Mr. DeSantis has now held an official event every weekday this month. He spends his weekends on political trips, including the crucial early voting state of Iowa last Saturday.
Since winning re-election in a landslide in November, Mr. DeSantis has regularly faced questions at state events about his national political ambitions. For months, he usually defended them with jokes about how he wasn’t interested in petty infighting and how it was too early to talk about future campaigns with the annual legislative session pending.
Not more. Tuesday, Mr. DeSantis took the opportunity to call Mr. Trump to dodge a question about abortion. The former president had criticized Florida’s six-week ban is too harsh without compromising on the restrictions it could support.
“I signed the bill. I was proud to do so,” said Mr. DeSantis to reporters. “He won’t answer whether he would sign it or not.”
This time, it was Mr. Trump made the headlines.
