Leading that pack is Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who not only refuses to say whether he accepts that Joe Biden legitimately won in 2020, but also has signed legislation to create the nation’s only police agency to crack down on what he acknowledged has been nonexistent voter fraud in his state. A federal judge struck down provisions of a restrictive election law DeSantis signed last year, agreeing with a lawsuit that claimed it “runs roughshod over the right to vote.”
Undermining election integrity is not the only area in which DeSantis escalates the worst impulses of his Mar-a-Lago constituent. He took away tax breaks from Walt Disney World after its corporate parent criticized Florida’s “don’t say gay” law banning instruction or classroom discussion in the lower grades of sexual orientation or gender identity. He also vetoed funding for a facility for the Tampa Bay Rays after the team spoke up against recent mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde, Tex.
Youngkin, it should be noted, has played close to the Trumpian line in some areas, and sometimes crossed it. But his has been a balancing act. He put “election integrity” at the top of his priorities during his campaign, but also acknowledged Biden’s 2020 victory and called the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection “a real blight on our democracy.” His first executive order banned teaching “inherently divisive concepts, including critical race theory,” in K-12 public education, but he criticized his health commissioner, Colin Greene, for dismissing structural racism as a reason for poor Black maternal health.
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