Time and time again, Ron DeSantis has made it blatantly apparent that his priority lies with his own political interests instead of the people he was elected to represent. Between threatening to defund schools and refusing critical federal aid for those hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic, Ron DeSantis’ political games are costing people their lives and Floridians are fed up. 

Floridians overwhelmingly support requiring masks in schools and oppose Governor DeSantis defunding schools that require masks.

• Quinnipiac Poll: “As Florida deals with a surge in COVID-19 cases and a battle intensifies over an executive order issued by Governor Ron DeSantis to ban mask mandates in schools, a majority of people in Florida say 60 – 36 percent that they support requiring students, teachers, and staff to wear masks in schools.”
• Quinnipiac Poll: “On Gov. DeSantis’ threat to withhold school leaders’ salaries if they require masks for students, 69 percent say it’s a bad idea, while 25 percent say it’s a good idea.”

A majority of Floridians say that Florida’s surge in COVID-19 cases is out of control and was preventable, and Floridians say DeSantis is hurting, rather than helping, efforts to get the pandemic under control. 

• Quinnipiac Poll: “A majority of Floridians say 61 – 33 percent that the recent rise in COVID-19 cases in the state was preventable. Nearly 6 in 10 (59 percent) say the spread of COVID-19 in the state is out of control.”
• Quinnipiac Poll: “While 41 percent say that Governor Ron DeSantis is helping efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19 in Florida, 46 percent say he is hurting efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19.”

On top of that, Governor DeSantis has refused federal aid for those hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Tampa Bay Times: “Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration has not yet applied for up to $820 million in food assistance to more than 2 million Florida children, raising concerns from food assistance groups and others who note that child hunger remains a significant problem.”
• Tampa Bay Times: “DeSantis in recent months has pushed aggressively for life to return to normal, even if it means Floridians missing out on billions of dollars in federal benefits. When he allowed the state’s pandemic state of emergency to expire over the summer, it caused SNAP recipients to lose about $280 million in additional federal benefits each month. In May, he chose to stop jobless Floridians from receiving an additional $300 in federal unemployment benefits each week, an effort, he said, to get people to return to work.”