DeSantis gets conservative wish list to campaign for president. Will it matter?

Naples Republican Kathi Meo has been thrilled by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ record as governor.

Yet if forced to choose between DeSantis and former President Donald Trump, there is no doubt who Meo will support, saying: “Trump needs to finish what he started.”

And nothing DeSantis does as governor can shake Meo from that view, not even a legislative agenda filled with policy wins that delight conservatives.

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DeSantis “can do everything he wants but Trump has proven, he over-delivered on what he promised in his campaign,” said Meo, the Collier County GOP secretary, adding: “There’s just no arguing with that. It’s not like a hypothetical; he proved it.”

Florida's 60-day legislative session wrapped up Friday, and DeSantis is emerging with a long list of new laws he championed that are aimed straight at the hearts of GOP primary voters such as Meo.

Legislators served up measures that make it much more difficult to get an abortion in Florida and easier to impose the death penalty. They loosen gun regulations, outlaw certain medical care for transgender minors, force transgender people to use bathrooms corresponding with their birth sex, provide taxpayer-financed vouchers for any student to attend a private school and crack down on drag shows.

Tougher penalties for illegal immigration, limits on diversity programs on university campuses, and a ban on socially conscious investing by the state and local governments also sailed through supermajorities in the House and Senate.

DeSantis and GOP leaders in Tallahassee showed they are willing to unleash government to craft a state that reflects the way Republicans say they want citizens to live. And for the governor, the session’s conservative, culture war roster of accomplishments is certain to play prominently in his campaign to wrestle the GOP presidential nomination from Trump.

Almost $1.3 billion in tax breaks also burnishes the governor’s claim that Florida’s economy is on fire. Long-sought business-backed restrictions on lawsuits against them also are uniting the state’s industry associations behind DeSantis.

All told, the measures may help power DeSantis’ self-portrayal as a MAGA warrior in Trump’s image who actually gets things done and has the receipts to prove it.

“I think we’ve delivered major, major victories on so many different fronts,” said House Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast. “And the governor can rightly claim credit for having one of the biggest sessions, certainly in Florida history."

“But look around the country and ask which state has done more in a 60-day session than we have this year. I think that can only benefit him,” Renner added.

Can policy power DeSantis past Trump?

Whether Trump voters can be wooed away from the former president with a message centered around governing competency and conservative policy wins remains to be seen.

Trump became president talking about issues such immigration, crime and trade, but many conservatives are drawn more to his pugnacious personality than any specific policy.

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Trump’s celebrity and boundary-pushing persona excited his supporters and bonded them to him in a way that DeSantis appears to be trying to duplicate. But severing those relationships and replacing Trump in the hearts of the GOP primary electorate is a mountain DeSantis is struggling to climb.

“There’s a visceral emotional connection they have to Donald Trump and no policy is going to break through that connection,” said Ron Filipkowski, a former Florida GOP activist who broke with the party.

Filipkowski closely monitors GOP leaders and trends within the party, chronicling everything to his 729,000 Twitter followers. He believes DeSantis will struggle to develop the same connection as Trump with the right wing of the party.

“They love Donald Trump,” Filipkowski said. “They don’t love Ron DeSantis as a person. They love that he owns libs and he talks tough, they love all the Trumpy stuff he’s copied.”

DeSantis’ agenda seems to be built around peeling off some Trump voters who are extremely conservative but may be turned off by the former president’s antics, or simply believe he can’t win.

The question is how large a pool of voters that represents, and whether DeSantis has the right formula to reach them.

While much of Trump’s appeal to conservatives is about personality, Florida GOP Vice Chair Evan Power believes policy still matters.

“President Trump has been a different kind of leader in that he’s led a lot on his personality and being outspoken with the megaphone, but I think if you look at primary voting Republicans they care about policy and winning the war against the left,” Power said. “If you look around, the left is trying to fundamentally change America… and I think people are ready to fight back and our base cares about some of these policy positions.”

Power pointed to DeSantis’ push for universal school vouchers and other major laws he passed this year as “landmark” pieces of legislation that will play well on the campaign trail.

“I think it makes him a player on a national stage,” Power said. “Everyone looks at COVID as what made the governor, but if you look at the policies under his leadership they’re transformative.”

DeSantis' pitch to voters starts with what he did in Florida

Florida Gulf Coast University political science professor Peter Bergerson said DeSantis’ pitch to voters always was going to rest on what he did in Florida, so having a strong legislative agenda is important.

“He’s going to be introducing himself, most of the country has no idea who he is,” Bergerson said. “He has to have a story, and the story is going to be look what I’ve done in Florida.”

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush had a similar message when he ran for president in 2016 touting his governing record at the state level, but was thrashed by Trump as an establishment figure.

DeSantis is trying to appeal to the type of conservatives who shunned Bush by signing legislation outlawing abortion after six weeks of pregnancy and allowing people to carry concealed weapons without a permit.

Filipkowski believes it’s a flawed strategy.

“DeSantis figures I need to get to the right of Trump, which is clearly his strategy, but he’s not going to get the far right,” Filipkowski said. “The far right are Trump’s people. He’s not going to get them.”

Trump also nodded to social conservatives when he ran for president the first time, releasing a list of conservative picks for the U.S. Supreme Court who were likely to overturn the Roe v Wade decisions protecting abortion rights, which they eventually did.

Evangelical voters eventually became some of Trump’s strongest supporters, despite some of his personal baggage.

Roger Stone, a longtime Trump adviser, acknowledged that some of DeSantis’ legislative agenda could play well in a primary. Stone believes the governor overstepped, though, pointing to his effort to rein in Walt Disney Co., after it opposed parental rights legislation last year that was dubbed “Don’t Say Gay” by opponents.

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The prohibition on discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in early school grades was recently expanded through high school by the state’s Board of Education.

But DeSantis continues to battle Disney, drawing mixed reviews from many voters. The matter now is in federal and state courts after the company sued, accusing the governor of retaliating against it and violating its constitutional right to free speech and the governor’s appointees on the special district overseeing Disney property countersued.

“While these issues may be marginally helpful in national Republican primaries, I think his tussle with Disney now just looks petty and most voters have long forgotten the origins and reasons for the fight,” Stone said.

Some Trump supporters have aligned with Democrats in criticizing DeSantis' record as governor, citing the Disney clash and the soaring property insurance rates paid by Floridians.

But the two-month legislative session also has been marked by protesters converging on the Florida Capitol outraged over the six-week abortion limit, restrictions on universities and the cascade of measures aimed at the transgender community.

“This is not what the American people want,” said Rep. Hillary Cassel, D-Dania Beach. “What he’s doing is not popular on a national scale.”

She noted that a majority of Florida’s 20 Republican members of Congress have endorsed Trump – not DeSantis.

“When you look at the people in Florida who are not endorsing him, I think that says something,” she added.

House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell of Tampa also saw DeSantis’ support waning. While polls show DeSantis’ support sagging under a steady barrage of political attacks and personal insults from the former president, Driskell said the congressional delegation’s stance is clearly a troubling sign for the governor.

“If they thought that DeSantis was strong and they thought these things were helping him, you would not see so many defectors to Donald Trump,” Driskell said.

Meo, the Collier County Republican activist, said she is bothered by DeSantis taking on Trump after the former president’s endorsement helped make him governor in 2018. She’d like to see DeSantis serve out his final term as governor and continue to push conservative policies.

“We love what he’s doing,” she said. “We want to keep him for the four years.”

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Legislature gives Ron DeSantis policy wins to use against Donald Trump