“I’m not going to let you accuse me of committing criminal activity! I am not going to take that. You don’t get to come here and blame me for some madman,” DeSantis said as his supporters cheered. “That is not appropriate, and I’m not going to accept it. That is nonsense.” — Ron DeSantis
Even before a white supremacist killed three Black people in a Dollar General store in Jacksonville, Florida, Black people were angry with Ron DeSantis. DeSantis sent his election police to round up Black former felon voters who were told explicitly by their county officials they could vote. But they were technically violating the law passed earlier by a Republican legislature. Officers took ubiquitous videos showing armed officers handcuffing shocked voters. No such videos were taken of white residents of The Villages who purposely voted twice for Donald Trump. Those arrests fell apart in court, but DeSantis made his point.
Opinion | What DeSantis calls election integrity is nothing but intimidation
The publicized arrests of Florida residents on election fraud charges should be seen as voter intimidation in the name…
Ron DeSantis was dissatisfied with a Republican-drawn map outlining new Congressional districts ahead of the 2022 mid-term election. DeSantis vetoed their map and imposed one of his own, one that eliminated two Black-led Congressional Districts. As I write, a federal court found the DeSantis plan unconstitutional, but two fewer Black Congressmen are sitting in the House of Representatives.