Florida’s Got 99 Problems and Ron DeSantis is Responsible for Every Single One

 As first reported by The Messenger, ahead of Ron DeSantis completing his 99 county tour in Iowa, Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried and Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart released the following joint statement:

“While Ron DeSantis tries desperately to rev up his sputtering presidential campaign with a 99 county tour in Iowa, he’s left behind at least 99 problems for his constituents back home in the Sunshine State.

“Iowans need to look no further than his abysmal record down in Florida – from his extreme abortion ban without exceptions for rape or incest, to his abandonment of hundreds of thousands of Floridians who he’s blocked from getting affordable health care – to know that his extreme MAGA agenda is wrong for our country,” said FDP Chair Nikki Fried and IDP Chair Rita Hart

Florida’s got 99 problems and Ron DeSantis is responsible for every single one:

1. DeSantis signed an abortion ban without any exception for rape or incest victims to access care. 

2. He then quietly followed that ban up a year later with an even more restrictive, near-total abortion ban that he announced in the middle of the night. 

3. DeSantis’ abortion ban also threatens to throw doctors in jail for performing care. 

4. Florida’s surgeon general is a conspiracy theorist that has encouraged Floridians not to get the COVID vaccine. 

5. Since COVID vaccines became readily available, Florida has one of the highest COVID death rates in the country

6. Ron touts ‘medical freedom’ bills, but signs the strictest abortion ban in the country into law – limiting women’s freedom to make their own medical decisions 

7. In another law targeted at LGBTQ+ people, DeSantis opened the door for doctors to have moral objections to treating patients and deny coverage. 

8. As DeSantis travels across Iowa running for President, hundreds of thousands of Flordians were kicked off Medicaid while he refuses to expand coverage. 

9. DeSantis’ unwillingness to expand Medicaid in Florida has forced up to 726,000 Floridians to remain uninsured. 

10. Florida also ranks as one of the most expensive states to receive medical care in general. 

11. Defended changes to school curriculum that taught the “personal benefits” for slaves. 

12. He later doubled down on these changes being included because slaves learned skills like “being a blacksmith”. 

13. He also changed the law to make it significantly more difficult for teacher unions to remain certified, a change currently threatening the largest teachers’ union in Florida. 

14. He also expanded private school vouchers program to subsidize the cost of private school education for the ultra-wealthy and take more money out of our already poorly funded public education system. 

15. DeSantis also allowed for education funding to be used on homeschooling expenses like trips to Disney, big screen TVs, and paddle boards. 

16. Let’s remember that while DeSantis is ripping money away from public schools Florida still ranks 48th in teacher pay and per student funding is still below Great Recession levels. 

17. Florida leads the nation on book bans with 1,400 titles removed from schools and libraries 

18. New law banning classes on gender or sexuality effectively bans AP Psychology in schools 

19. Florida teacher shortage hitting record high as DeSantis ramps up attacks on educators with new laws threatening huge fines and jail time

20. DeSantis teams up with Moms for Liberty, unveiling a hit list of school board members he’s targeting in 2024 

21. DeSantis’ congressional map was struck down for violating the Florida Constitution by denying minority voters fair representation.  

22. He also mandated colleges and universities across Florida to survey their students, faculty and staff’ political viewpoints. 

23. Time and again, Ron DeSantis has refused to condemn neo-NNazis in Florida. 

24. No really, instead of condemning neo-Nazis demonstrating in Florida, DeSantis’ spokesperson instead pushed conspiracy theories. 

25. DeSantis campaign aide made a video with neo-Nazi symbols.

26. DeSantis also has criticized leaders for addressing anti-Islamic hatred as Islamophobia rises.

27. He signed a permitless carry bill into law despite the majority of Floridians opposing it

28. Ron DeSantis wants to go even further and allow permitless open carry

29. DeSantis banned age-appropriate, medically sound gender affirming care for minors who need it and opened the door for the state to take transgender children away from supportive parents.

30. DeSantis vetoed $20 million for a STEM nursing facility in Sarasota after losing the district senator’s endorsement 

31. DeSantis auctioned off his leisure time to lobbyists looking to line his political action committee.

32. DeSantis’ feud with Disney led them to cancel a $1 billion project in Florida which would have employed thousands of people. 

33. DeSantis supported Tuberville’s military blockade that threatens national security and harms military families. 

34. DeSantis used Florida taxpayer dollars to perform a political stunt in shipping migrants in Texas fleeing communism to Martha’s Vineyard. 

35. Governor Newsom even threatened DeSantis with kidnapping charges because he repeatedly used Floridians’ taxpayer dollars to dupe migrants onto flights to California to score political points. 

36. Florida leaves $800 million on the table for disability services

37. Over a dozen property insurers stop writing coverage and leave the state, leaving Floridians struggling to find coverage

38. Instead of acting on the insurance crisis, DeSantis urged Floridians to “knock on wood” and hope that it wouldn’t be a bad hurricane season. 

39. DeSantis rejects $350 million in Inflation Reduction Act energy efficiency funding that would bring down household costs for Floridians 

40. DeSantis signs into law industry-backed bill allowing Florida landlords to charge ‘junk fees’ instead of security deposits

41. DeSantis announces plans to end birthright citizenship in a state built by immigrants 

42. DeSantis’ anti-immigration law resulted in worker shortage and supply chain delays in farming and agricultural industry 

43. A grand jury put in place by Ron DeSantis proposed a tax on all wire transfers on money overseas, targeting immigrants with family abroad. 

44. DeSantis harmed Florida farmers by cutting a hundred million dollars in conservation easements which could be used by ranchers and farmers.

45. Despite Florida feeling the effects, Ron DeSantis continues to ignore the science of climate change. 

46. Banned public colleges from spending money on gender studies and DEI initiatives

47. DeSantis belittled a 15 year old for asking if Joe Biden won the 2020 election

48. Signed bills that made it harder for local governments to be able to make clean energy and conservation decisions

49. He has consistently made it harder for Floridians to access the ballot box by making it tougher to vote by mail and limiting the number of ballot drop boxes for his political gain. 

50. DeSantis also signed a law that would deter outside groups from giving voters waiting in line snacks or water. 

51. Made it difficult if not impossible for many transgender adults to access the care they rely on. 

52. In an extreme power grab, DeSantis blocked private businesses and local communities from protecting themselves from disease. 

53. DeSantis committed a “political hit job” against Florida’s only Black female state attorney — who just won re-election by a 2:1 margin the year before — without alleging a single violation of Florida law.

54. DeSantis appoints Moms For Liberty Co-Founder to Florida Ethics Commission 

55. A federal court ruled that DeSantis violated the Constitution by removing the Hillsborough County state attorney for exercising prosecutorial discretion. 

56. Ron DeSantis militarized the State Guard under his control, forcing out veterans

57. DeSantis signs law to make use of death penalty easier, reducing the threshold from unanimous vote to 8 out of 12 jurors

58. On the campaign trail, DeSantis fudges and misrepresents crime numbers for talking points despite being warned by his own law enforcement officials

59. DeSantis has been pushing for a Muslim travel ban since before Trump took office. 

60. To avoid public scrutiny, DeSantis changed Sunshine Laws to keep his travel records hidden

61. DeSantis took over a university board in Florida to install loyalists and force conservative ideologies.

62. “DeSantis directed the Florida Republican Party leader to fire a party official who had cancer — on that person’s first week back from surgery.”

63. DeSantis’ first Secretary of State resigned just weeks after taking the job because a photo showed him dressed up in blackface to look like a Hurricane Katrina victim. 

64. DeSantis reportedly eats pudding with three fingers 

65. Floridians have been left on the hook for more than $16 million defending his culture war bills in courts. 

66. Ron DeSantis criticizes Democrats for government spending, passes the largest budget in Florida’s history

67. DeSantis spends $8 million of taxpayer money on travel costs to fly him around the country on the campaign trail

68. DeSantis calls two special sessions on property insurance crisis, with no real relief 

69. On average, Floridians pay the highest property insurance costs in the country. 

70. The average cost of homeowners insurance has more than doubled since DeSantis took office in 2018. 

71. Under DeSantis, Florida has also become “America’s inflation hotspot”. 

72. “Florida home to 9 of 21 most overpriced US rental markets, FAU study says” 

73. DeSantis delayed a one month gas tax holiday until it was politically advantageous for him. 

74. Car insurance rates rise over 30% in Florida as DeSantis fails to address dual insurance crises

75. Ron appointed a Qanon follower that supported the January 6th insurrection to the State Board of Education

76. DeSantis helped FPL raise rates by nearly $5 billion over four years by stacking the Public Service Commission. 

77. Championed the “Don’t Say Gay” law, which used overbroad language to keep inclusive teaching out and bully and isolate LGBTQ+ students in the classroom. 

78. Doubled down on this by signing a second version of the Don’t Say Gay Law that further restricts teaching about sexual orientation and gender in classrooms. 

79. Allowed the use of ultra-conservative PragerU videos in the classroom — videos that teach skewed or false versions of history to push a narrative onto children. 

80. DeSantis signed one of the strictest immigration laws in the country that requires doctors to ask about immigration status

81. Florida’s immigration law criminalizes transport of migrants, leads to arrests of undocumented drivers

82. Immigrants leave behind homes and businesses, forced out of the state by anti-immigrant law

83. Construction delays and hurricane relief comes to a halt as anti-immigrant law threatens deportation of immigrant workers 

84. New property laws prevent undocumented immigrants and new citizens from Cuba and Venezuela from buying property near infrastructure facilities like airports or military bases

85. DeSantis vows to send troops to the border and leave people engaged in drug trafficking ‘stone cold dead’

86. DeSantis banned local cities and municipalities from being able to enact local fertilizer bans. 

87. DeSantis failed to fully adopt more than 85% of his own Blue-Green Algae Task Force’s recommendations. 

88. DeSantis signed legislation making it harder to hold sugar harvesters responsible for poisoning the air. 

89. Despite campaign promises, DeSantis allowed exploratory oil drilling in the Apalachicola River Basin.

90. After Hurricane Idalia, DeSantis abandoned Florida while President Biden and Rick Scott surveyed the damage. 

91. A federal court blocked DeSantis’ new voter registration law that undermines community-based organizations performing voter registration. 

92. DeSantis’ voter suppression law cancels hundreds of thousands of vote-by-mail requests, forcing voters to reenroll every two years

93. DeSantis signs bill to create election police unit despite no evidence of widespread voter fraud

94. Supreme Court declines DeSantis request to enforce anti-drag show law

95. Florida lawmaker introduces bill that would expand DeSantis ‘Don’t Say Gay’ laws to prohibit required use of preferred pronouns in the workplace 

96. DeSantis signs bathroom bill that makes it a crime for a person to use a bathroom intended for the sex opposite of what they’re assigned at birth

97. Florida county removes LGBTQ books from schools in response to Don’t Say Gay laws

98. DeSantis appoints Liberty Counsel attorney Roger Gannam, with history of attacking LBGTQ+ community, as Sixth District Court of Appeal Judge.

99. DeSantis claimed that there was “no need” for the Respect For Marriage Act after Clarence Thomas put marriage equality on the chopping block.