WEEKLY ROUNDUP
Off and running
TALLAHASSEE — The wait is finally over.
Gov. Ron DeSantis this week put an end to a months-long tease about a possible presidential run and formally entered the race for the White House, pledging to be an “energetic executive” who “will get the job done.”
DeSantis made the announcement during a Twitter Spaces event with Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of the social-media site. Even before the event began, people questioned whether Twitter – which has been riddled with technical issues since Musk’s takeover of the platform last fall – could withstand the anticipated traffic.
Turns out, it couldn’t.
The site, with more than 600,000 listeners trying to tune in, repeatedly glitched. The conversation with DeSantis eventually began after a more than 20-minute delay, with just a fraction of the initial participants connecting.
Early reports of the announcement focused more on the technical meltdown – labeled “embarrassing” by DeSantis detractors and “flattering” by supporters – than the content of his message.
DeSantis said one of his priorities as president would be an “overhaul” of agencies that oversaw the response to the Covid-19 pandemic. His criticism of lockdowns and vaccination mandates has helped build his national political reputation with conservatives.
“These past few years have given me a new appreciation for the fragility of our freedoms,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis, whose team filed campaign paperwork earlier Wednesday with the Federal Election Commission, also used the online announcement to criticize the “legacy” media and “elites” whose “assumptions are never challenged.”
DeSantis’ tech troubles sparked a tongue-in-cheek barb from President Joe Biden, who tweeted a link to his campaign website with the line, “This link works.“
Trump’s campaign also took aim at DeSantis: “Glitchy. Tech issues. Uncomfortable silences. A complete failure to launch. And that’s just the candidate!” the Trump campaign said in a release.
Early polls have shown Trump leading DeSantis in the Republican primary fight, with other GOP candidates further behind. Trump, whose endorsement helped DeSantis get elected governor in 2018, contends DeSantis is being “disloyal” by mounting a challenge.
Trump has long viewed DeSantis as his top primary rival and has used his Truth Social online site to insult and criticize DeSantis, including taunting the governor as Ron DeSanctimonious, which is often shortened to DeSanctus.
DeSantis didn’t directly address Trump during Wednesday’s interview with Musk. The governor will start barnstorming in early Republican battlegrounds next week, with public events scheduled in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.
THAT DIDN’T TAKE LONG
Hours before his presidential announcement, DeSantis signed into law a major elections bill – and immediately the legal battles began.
The bill (SB 7050), in part, cleared the way for the governor to enter the race for president without having to resign from office.
But the most-controversial parts of the bill are new restrictions on voter-registration groups.
Organizations such as the League of Women Voters of Florida, the NAACP and Hispanic Federation filed three federal lawsuits Wednesday and Thursday arguing that the restrictions violate First Amendment rights and will harm efforts to sign up Black and Hispanic voters.
The restrictions on “third-party” voter-registration groups include dramatically increasing fines for legal violations and preventing non-U.S. citizens and certain convicted felons from handling registration applications.
“The challenged provisions’ only aim, and indeed, only effect, is to limit the ability of 3PVROs (third-party registration groups) like LWVFL (the League of Women Voters) to register eligible Florida citizens to vote, and in so doing, persuade them to action by participating in the electoral process. Indeed, SB 7050 is part of a decades-long pattern of the Florida Legislature seeking to punish and deter the expressive conduct of third-party civic engagement organizations like LWVFL,” said a lawsuit filed by the League of Women Voters of Florida and the League of Women Voters of Florida Education Fund.
STORY OF THE WEEK: Ending months of speculation, Gov. Ron DeSantis formally announced his candidacy for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination during a glitch-riddled Twitter Spaces event.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “These onerous, overbroad, and vague requirements do not serve and cannot be justified by any compelling or legitimate state interest.” — Lawyers for the League of Women Voters of Florida, in a lawsuit challenging an elections law (SB 7050) signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.