Ron DeSantis and Florida Republicans are trying to hand this to us

| 3:00 pm EDT September 24, 2021
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Florida has been one of the targets Democrats set their sights on for 2022 since at least the last election. There are the detractors who say that it’s officially a red state and all hope is lost, despite Democratic losses there since the 2018 midterms only being by small margins. If we can improve our ground game there rather than just reaching out beyond the base in September, the state is still winnable. Having a governor as terrible as Ron DeSantis is a big motivator to vote in 2022 – since he’ll only continue his reign of slaughter if re-elected. Now, however, Democrats in the sunshine state have yet another big reason to show up in droves and vote out some of the most worthless politicians in the country.

On Wednesday, Rep. Webster Barnaby (R-FL) introduced his own incarnation of the draconian Texas abortion law that would ban most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy and like SB 8, it gives authority to citizens to file lawsuits against abortion providers, hoping to undo access to healthcare by trying to intimidate people from the medical profession. While defenders of the law might argue that it’s not as bad as SB 8, the exceptions to the law are pretty much unenforceable ones – so this needs to be fought just as ruthlessly.

At the same time, we must force every Republican candidate in 2021 and 2022 to take a position on this and make sure they suffer either way. DeSantis has already shown a reluctance to act on legislation as sweeping as SB 8, but it’s hardly a guarantee that he won’t support this – as he’ll need the support of anti-choice voters, especially if he’s going to keep up with the Trump playbook. While Donald Trump is not on the ballot this year or next, Trumpism certainly is. Make sure we show up in droves to vote out every last one.