Dear Friend,
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis proved something to us all last week: He is focused entirely on practicing the kind of petty, punitive and performative politics that he thinks will help his future presidential campaign – and not at all on actually doing his job as governor and solving the real-world problems faced by so many Floridians around the state.
In just the past week, the governor banned a bunch of math textbooks he didn’t personally like (conveniently arranging things so that there is now only one approved vendor).
He attacked transgender children by trying to cut off their access to critical healthcare (continuing what is now a four-year-long assault by the governor on LGBTQ+ rights). His administration also ended the collection of important mental health data too.
He retaliated against central Florida’s biggest employer, Walt Disney World, because it spoke out in support of the LGQBT+ community and stopped making campaign contributions (a petulant temper tantrum that could cause a 20 percent tax increase for the rest of us).
And he erased Black representation in Congress, by drawing blatantly unconstitutional maps for the state’s Congressional maps that are designed to make it harder for Black candidates to get elected (maps that are so ridiculously gerrymandered that the Republican Party expects to win more than 70 percent of the seats in a state where the governor himself won less than 50 percent of the vote).
Meanwhile, rents are soaring around Florida, pushing working people all across the state to the brink of homelessness. Property insurance companies are jacking up rates on home- and business owners – if not canceling their coverage altogether. Unchecked pollution is choking the life out of our springs, rivers and lagoons, starving our beloved manatees to death in record numbers. Nearly a million Floridians still don’t have health insurance.
And yet the governor has done nothing – literally nothing – to address any of these crises. He’s just too busy banning textbooks, demonizing trans kids, punishing Disney and erasing Black folks.
But I want you to know that we are not allowing the governor’s cynical and divisive culture wars to distract us from solving problems and improving the lives of all Floridians, regardless of political party.
I’ll give you one example: Last week, while DeSantis and Republican legislators were putting on a show of attacking Disney, I tried to amend their bill in a way that would have helped all Floridians. My amendment would have closed corporate tax loopholes that giant multinational companies like Disney are using to avoid $500 million a year in taxes. Closing these loopholes would have leveled the playing field for small businesses and generated badly needed revenue to help with everything from affordable housing to water quality.
Republican leaders ruled the amendment out of order. But we’re not giving up. At Team Anna, we’re working for you, and fighting for us.
And we cannot do this work alone. Please consider coming out to knock on doors with us, make a grassroots donation to our campaign or learn how to register voters in Florida. We need you to get plugged into our work now more than ever.
Onward,
Representative Anna V. Eskamani