Ron DeSantis
Governor of Florida
Ron DeSantis dropped out of the presidential race on Jan. 21, 2024. This page is no longer being updated.
He signed a six-week ban in Florida and supports a 15-week national ban.
After refusing for months to confirm whether he supported a national ban, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida said in the second Republican debate in September that he would back one at 15 weeks’ gestation.
He has supported efforts to adapt to the effects of climate change, but not to prevent it.
Gov. Ron DeSantis leads a state, Florida, that is on the front lines of climate change: It has been hit hard by hurricanes, which are becoming more frequent and more severe as the Atlantic Ocean grows warmer.
He says the war is not a vital U.S. interest, but backtracked on calling it a “territorial dispute.”
In Europe,
what I would say is with NATO, NATO needs to do more.
These countries, they need to produce adequate amount
for their own defense, and they should really
be taking the lead in ensuring the security
of the continent.
So I would rely on them to be taking up that mantle.
And I think that that’s something that’s very,
very important.
He has tried to run to the right of Trump on immigration, but is mostly aligned with him.
On Day 1,
we will declare the border to be a national emergency.
We will marshal all available resources, including the
U.S. military, to stop the invasion cold.
There will be new rules on Jan. 20, 2025,
because if a cartel is trying to cut through a border wall
and run product into this country,
that’s going to be the last thing that cartel operative
ever did, because they are going to end up
stone cold dead.
He has mildly criticized Trump’s actions, but mostly attacks the justice system as biased.
There’s a difference between being brought up on criminal
criminal charges and doing things like, for example,
I think it was shown how he was in the White House
and didn’t do anything while things were going on.
He should have come out more forcefully,
of course that, but to try to criminalize that,
that’s a different issue entirely.
And I think that we want to be in a situation where, you know,
you don’t have one side just constantly trying to put
the other side in jail.
He has signed some aggressive legislation in Florida and wants to do so nationally.
We have to restore the economic sovereignty
of this country and take back control of our economy
from China.
This abusive —
the abusive relationship,
the asymmetric relationship between our two countries
must come to an end.
No more massive trade deficits.
No more importing of goods with stolen
intellectual property.
No more preferential trade status.
He has cast conservative economic plans as a way to stick it to elites.
Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida has framed his economic plan as a way to disempower “bureaucrats” and “elites.” His 10-point blueprint is titled “We Win. They Lose.”
He has sharply restricted transgender rights in Florida and embraced anti-transgender rhetoric.
What we have done, not just through our Board of Medicine,
but even now through statute,
we have prohibited puberty blockers and operations
on gender for minors.
It’s mutilation.
It’s wrong, and it has no place in our society.
And we need to step up and say this, and take action.
He supports an impeachment inquiry.
Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida said at the beginning of August that he supported an impeachment inquiry. “The inquiry into Biden, I think that they should pursue that,” he told Newsmax shortly after Speaker Kevin McCarthy discussed the possibility.
He approved new restrictions for some Florida unions and opposes minimum wage increases.
Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida signed a bill in May that restricted unions for teachers and other public-sector employees by banning automatic dues deductions from paychecks and letting employees leave a union at any time, among other things. But unions that tend to support Republicans — including those for police officers, firefighters and correctional officers — were largely exempted from the new restrictions.
He says he’s open to Social Security cuts for younger Americans.
Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida has ruled out reducing Social Security benefits for current retirees and people near retirement age, but he has expressed openness to reductions for younger Americans.
He wants to repeal the First Step Act and remove progressive prosecutors, as he has in Florida.
Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida has positioned himself to the right of Mr. Trump, vowing to repeal the First Step Act, despite his voting for an early version in Congress. It “has allowed dangerous people out of prison who have now reoffended and really, really hurt a number of people,” he told the conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, though at least one study has found that people released under the act have a below-average recidivism rate.
He has been a staunch supporter of Israel and is unsympathetic toward Palestinian residents of Gaza.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR After the Hamas attack, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida said Israel “not only has the right to defend itself against these attacks, it has a duty to respond with overwhelming force.” He added: “America must stand with Israel.” Like many Republicans, he claimed falsely that President Biden’s policies toward Iran had funded the attack.
He has signed restrictions on voting rights in Florida, and long avoided questions about 2020.
The bulk of Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida’s record as it relates to democracy centers on voting in his home state.
He wants to close the Department of Education and has enacted ideological restrictions for Florida curriculums.
Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida supports expanding programs that provide publicly funded vouchers for parents to enroll their children in private schools or home-school them.
His health care promises have been delivered in broad strokes, and he has pledged to release more detailed plans later.
Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida said in December that he would pursue legislation that would “supersede” the Affordable Care Act, calling its repeal a broken promise from Mr. Trump. (As a member of Congress, Mr. DeSantis voted multiple times to repeal it.)