Though it might feel like the 2020 presidential election just ended, the 2024 race is already heating up. As soon as Florida governor Ron DeSantis officially threw his hat in the ring during a botched announcement on Twitter Spaces that featured connectivity issues, the progressive youth of the Sunshine State pledged to do everything they can to keep their governor from the White House.
For Cameron Driggers, working to defeat DeSantis’s presidential aspirations involves calling voters across Florida, attending public hearings, and coordinating with other organizers. The 18-year-old fellow with Equality Florida just graduated from high school but has been canvassing and organizing politically for years.
“This past legislative session has been absolutely brutal and disheartening,” Driggers said. “But I also feel like, in other ways…it’s kind of inspiring us to continue the fight. Obviously, we want to stop [DeSantis] from being president of the United States, but I think he’s doing that work for us at the moment.”
DeSantis is currently polling in a distant second for the GOP nomination. Donald Trump has managed to maintain a clear lead, despite facing two separate indictments for falsifying business records and retaining and concealing classified documents. In his attempts to chip away at Trump’s popularity and gain national recognition, DeSantis has overseen a slew of far-right legislation. Under his watch, Florida has restricted what K-12 students can learn about sexual orientation and gender identity in schools, banned gender-affirming care, allowed Floridians to carry concealed weapons without a permit (which would mean no background check or training), and banned abortion after six weeks. The governor has also sent flights of undocumented immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard in a seeming attempt to “own the libs,” and publicly sparred with Disney, one of the top private employers in the state of Florida, leading to an ongoing legal battle.
The NAACP has issued a Florida travel warning to people of color and LGBTQ+ people, stating, “The state of Florida devalues and marginalizes the contributions of and the challenges faced by African Americans and other communities of color.” Yet, DeSantis’s 2024 pitch to the rest of the nation seems to be Make America Florida Again, as noted by Axios.
Jeremy Rodriguez, the 27-year-old field director for Hope CommUnity Center who previously worked for Rep. Maxwell Frost’s (D-FL) campaign, has joined strikes against DeSantis’s current policies while trying to educate voters on what a country with DeSantis at the helm would look like. Rodriguez attempts to reach voters, like farmworkers, who can sometimes be passed over. He said the nation is watching as Florida descends into a virulently anti-LGBTQ+ state where gun laws are becoming more lax even as immigration laws tighten and hopes people are paying attention to the stakes of a DeSantis presidency. “It won’t just be Florida’s problem anymore,” he said. “It can escalate to the nation’s problem.”
Rodriguez says young people in Florida are largely united in their fight against the state’s governor “because he doesn’t represent Gen Z values."
"We believe in human rights. We believe [people should] love who they want to love. We believe in education, not the banning of books. Gen Z does not stand for hate.”
Lola Smith, 12, was born and raised in Florida. Though they’re at an age where they should mostly be playing with friends and doing homework, they often spend time traveling to Tallahassee, the state capital, where they speak at public hearings in defense of their rights. Smith was at a state house committee hearing where Rep. Webster Barnaby (R–FL) called trans people demons, imps, and mutants. (He later apologized.) While DeSantis claims his legislation is aimed at protecting children, Smith feels far from protected. “I am being erased,” they said. “I have to put all my energy into fighting for my right to exist when, in reality, I should be focusing on doing stuff like my math homework.”
Smith is exhausted by the seemingly endless flood of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation being signed into law in Florida and by the amount of work they’re putting in to try to stop it. At school, they say kids are too scared to come out to their parents or teachers. Some students have instead confided in Smith about their identities. But while Florida is “a mess right now,” Smith hasn’t given up hope for their home state and said they’ll continue making the four-hour, one-way drive to Tallahassee to fight for what they believe is the state’s rightful future.
Tom Bonier, the CEO of TargetSmart, a Democratic data services firm, said it’s rare for a candidate’s home state voters to take such a stand against them. “It’s unusual to have that galvanization of people from [your] home state for a guy who won by a wide double-digit margin.” But, Bonier said, DeSantis’s wins in the 2018 and 2022 gubernatorial races shouldn’t necessarily be taken as a sign of overwhelming statewide popularity. Bonier says voter suppression and the feeling young voters and Democrats had that DeSantis would be impossible to beat in the governor’s race played a role. Now, young Floridians are “ in a unique position to spread the word that the rest of America should do everything they can to ensure that he’s not able to do to the United States what he has done to Florida.”
Florida is often the butt of national jokes, from the eponymous Florida Man meme to supposedly liberal calls to expel the state from the U.S. altogether. Driggers feels the need to defend his state against the idea that it’s “too far gone. I’ve seen some people convey the idea that Florida deserves its plight because we didn’t vote the right way,” he said. “And I think that’s such a horrible way to look at it. You have to consider the marginalized communities in Florida… are obviously not at fault. By no means are we a lost cause. And the fight we’re putting into confronting DeSantis is awe-inspiring.”
Stay up-to-date with the politics team. Sign up for the Teen Vogue Take
