DeSantis: Defeating amendments, university reform key to deepening Florida's red hue

MILWAUKEE — Following a scorching Republican National Convention speech Tuesday night, Gov. Ron DeSantis laid out a blueprint to run up the score on Florida Democrats by turning holdout bastions of the state to red from blue.

The governor lost just five of the state's 67 counties in his stunning 19-point re-election victory almost two years ago. He did flip Democratic bastions Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties.

The governor noted that since 2016, the state GOP has turned a 300,000-vote deficit with Democrats into what it is targeted to be a 1 million-vote advantage for Republicans by Nov. 5. What turned the tide, the governor said, was "producing results" for the state.

"It shows that this can be done," he said. "When they see you standing in the breech fighting for them and not backing down and delivering, they will go out and vote for you. They will turn out. They just want to know that you're going to be there, and you're going to be willing to take the blows and fight back."

He said Hillsborough County is on pace to have more registered Republicans than Democrats, following neighboring Pinellas.

DeSantis touted carrying Osceola County, where an effort to narrow the Democrats' voter lead there "is trending in the right direction." That is the case, too, in Duval County, which he said "we'll be able to take that over."

"You don't do that just by putting more money in voter registrations," he said. "You do it by producing results that causes people to want to affiliate."

DeSantis takes aim at amendments, state universities

On Wednesday, he laid out a strategy for keeping the two South Florida counties in the Republicans' column, while slashing the Democrats' advantage in two university-centered counties, Alachua and Orange counties. The path to doing so, he said, includes university reforms to oust "Marxist" professors and defeating constitutional amendments addressing reproductive rights and permitting broad marijuana use.

DeSantis cited Amendment 4, a reproductive rights measure that he said would "eliminate all pro-life protections," including parental consent for abortion. "That is wrong. That is something we have to defeat," he said.

He also eschewed Amendment 3, which permit recreational marijuana. The governor said he opposes the measure but acknowledged that "different people have different views"

However, he said it could affect tourism and leave Florida communities smelling like marijuana, as he said is the case in Denver, where some marijuana use is legalized. Furthermore, he added it would be far more liberalizing than what other states allow, while providing a Canadian company a constitutional shield.

As worrisome, he said, it would attract more liberal-minded citizens to the state, eroding the GOP's majority.

"It will be bad for quality of life. And it will make Florida more blue," DeSantis said. "There's no question that would happen."

The other strategy DeSantis singled out involved higher education changes.

The governor noted that counties where Republicans still have a tough slog are those that are college hubs. Specifically, he said the GOP lags in closing registration gaps in Alachua, home of the University of Florida, and Orange, where the University of Central Florida is based, as well as in Leon and Gadsden counties, in the area of Florida State and Florida A&M universities.

"When you look at the state, we're making gains," he said. "Really, the only places that we haven't really outpaced them are the places that have universities in them."

DeSantis noted the elimination of diversity, equity and inclusion programs at state universities, but especially cited how Florida will churn the professor ranks. He pointed out that tenured professors now face an evaluation every five years and can be fired if they don't "flee" first.

"If Marxist professors are leaving Florida, that is not bad for Florida. That is good for Florida," he said. "I will tell you no one's doing more on reforming universities than we are."

Antonio Fins is a politics and business editor at The Palm Beach Post , part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at afins@pbpost.com . Help support our journalism. Subscribe today .

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: DeSantis: Defeating amendments, university reform key to deepening Florida's red hue