When Florida Governor Ron DeSantis campaigned, briefly, for the GOP Republican presidential nomination last year, he said he wanted to "Make America Florida." Though DeSantis may have failed in his primary bid take the Republican crown from Donald Trump , the president-elect might make his dreams come true anyway. DeSantis, once considered Trump's most formidable GOP challenger, rose to national prominence after he was endorsed by Trump to lead Trump's adopted home state six years ago.
In 2020, when the Covid pandemic disrupted every facet of American life, DeSantis saw an opportunity to lead the right's growing frustrations with what conservatives view as unbridled wokeness amid the country's leftward drift. Once President Biden was elected that fall, DeSantis was well on his way to becoming a cultural crusader, with Florida's public school system his primary foil. Now that Trump is headed back to the White House, the president-elect has made clear that he has big plans for education policy.
And his model will be based on what DeSantis has been doing from Talahasee. "[Republicans] always try things in Florida first," former Education Secretary Arne Duncan told Newsweek . "Florida leads the country in book banning, by far.
They've tried to politicize the school board candidates there with the Moms for Liberty candidates." Duncan led the Department of Education for nearly seven years under former President Barack Obama . In 2022, DeSantis ignited a national firestorm—and pub.
