TALLAHASSEE — Florida’s Republican legislators delivered a host of policy wins to their conservative constituents during this year’s legislative session with an eye not just on their own reelections, but on President Donald Trump’s, too.
Uniting around an agenda that Democrats were powerless to stop, the GOP-controlled Legislature spent 61 days sending signals to its base and delivering on promises to faithful party donors, flexing its muscles on immigration, school vouchers and everything in between.
If that wasn’t enough to deliver the state’s crucial electoral votes to a polarizing president next year, the party also threw up roadblocks to voting, imposing conditions on tens of thousands former felons who thought they’d had their rights restored after Floridians overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment in November.
“It’s all battlefield preparation,” said Rick Wilson, a Florida-based GOP consultant and Trump critic.
State GOP leaders downplayed the political implications of the session. But as lawmakers wrapped up their work on Saturday, the Capitol was full of smiling, boisterous Republicans eager to bask in their victories.
Ahead of Trump’s visit to Panama City Beach on Wednesday, a fundraising appeal from Gov. Ron DeSantis on behalf of the Republican Party of Florida asserted that policies such as one aimed at illegal immigration would help the president next year.
“Not only is Florida a do-or-die state for the President in 2020, but he can also point to Florida as solid proof that our shared conservative principles do in fact lead to prosperity,” DeSantis wrote in the fundraising email.
But DeSantis also said the agenda was never about Trump.
“I really didn’t look at whether it would be good for 2020, I think it’s just, we’re doing basically what we said we were going to do,” DeSantis said after the Legislature adjourned Saturday.
“People have been promising this. I was able to deliver it and I think that’s a good victory for us.”Other Republicans, too, said their policy agenda over the past two months wasn’t political. They framed their move to restrict voter ballot initiatives, for example, as a way to prevent “billionaires” and outside special interests from amending the state constitution.
Legislation on felon voting rights, they said, was necessary to clarify a vaguely-worded amendment.
“I would say that only the uncareful observer of this session would say something like that,” House Speaker Jose Oliva said. “It’s not for the base. It’s for all Floridians. It’s been a fantastic session.”
In short order, the Legislature this year approved an immigration crackdown that blocks the use of sanctuary policies by state and local agencies, a measure that previously had divided Republicans.
They adopted a new state-funded private school voucher program that’s likely to trigger a lawsuit, and gave teachers the freedom to carry guns in schools.
They reined in the ability of citizen groups to put ballot questions to voters. And they raised the bar for felons who want to vote, mandating that they pay all court-ordered restitution, fines and fees first — or win a court-ordered waiver.
It was a conservative agenda that ignored the party’s hard-fought wins in the 2018 elections. DeSantis, whose campaign for governor was aided by Trump’s early endorsement ahead of the Republican primary, only narrowly defeated Democratic nominee Andrew Gillum.
The state is primed to play a pivotal role in 2020. While Trump’s reelection might ultimately depend on the Rust Belt vote, losing Florida would likely doom his campaign.
DeSantis has appealed to moderate voters with his environmental agenda and push to repeal the state’s ban on smoking medical marijuana. But Democrats say the rest of his agenda is about getting Republicans pumped for next year.
“It’s saber-rattling,” said Rep. Evan Jenne, a Dania Beach Democrat and veteran legislator. “It is trying to get their base energized because there is a high chance that their president is a criminal and they are trying to get everybody onto issues that get the ultra-right wing worked up.”
Conservative voters weren’t the only ones who fared well this year. The big-money donors that are reliable sources of campaign cash for the GOP — such as insurers, utilities and business groups — also won. Lawmakers passed several bills backed by these industries, including the measure on ballot initiatives, which could undercut a campaign to increase the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour being pushed by a long-time Democratic donor.
Some of the bills passed were also strongly opposed by some of Democrats’ biggest supporters, including the state's teachers union.
“There’s a lot of pressure on this institution to move the needle and put points on the board for our customers, and when I say customers, I just don’t mean the people of the state of Florida,” said Sen. Tom Lee, a Thonotosassa Republican and former Senate president. “I mean that pool of 2,300 lobbyists who finance and grease the skids of the election process. That’s just the way it is. And that pressure is greater and greater every year because the cost of campaigns are going up.”
Sen. Joe Gruters (R-Sarasota), chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, said the GOP wins notched this session, including passage of his bill banning sanctuary cities, weren’t about next November.
“If it was about 2020 I would have waited until next year to file it,” Gruters said. “The public forgets things very often. Even people up here forget things. It’s out of sight and out of mind. If you want to really do it for campaign purposes, you do it during the campaign.“
Article originally published on POLITICO Magazine