A number of conservative proposals that were championed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis died after state legislators wrapped up their legislative session Friday — a sign that the former presidential candidate’s “war on woke” agenda has fizzled out.
A number of culture war proposals introduced by Republican lawmakers did not pass the legislative body before the legislature ended its session on Friday. The proposals included a bill banning rainbow flags from government-owned buildings in the state, as well as another that would have prevented the removal of Confederate monuments. Other bills would have required transgender people to have their sex assigned at birth labeled on their driver’s licenses, and banned local and state government officials from using transgender people’s pronouns.
These bills may resurface in the future, but the fact that the bills failed to pass underlines the waning influence the governor and former GOP presidential candidate has on the legislative body.
Even some Democrats are sensing a shift — with Democratic state Sen. Shevrin Jones telling the Washington Post, “When his presidential race ended, I think that a lot of his influence and power died at the same time … And I think that people in Florida and across the country, including Republicans, are starting to see that the culture wars are getting us nowhere.”
Many are crediting Republican Senate President Kathleen Passidomo for some of the shift. She blocked several culture war bills from moving forward in the upper chamber, including the bill DeSantis strongly supported punishing local officials for efforts to remove Confederate monuments.
“I’m not going to bring a bill to the floor that is so abhorrent to everybody,” she said.
Notably, Passidomo had also stalled most of the legislative wishes of Florida’s Republican party, arguing that the party shouldn’t dictate what lawmakers are able to pass.
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“Our bill process is not the Republican Party of Florida,” Passidomo told Politico in February. “We are the Legislature. We make the laws. We review the laws.”
However, DeSantis was able to see some of his priorities passed. The legislature was able to approve a bill that banned citizens from sleeping in public, and another bill banning lab-grown meat products.
