By BRENDAN FARRINGTON and ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Gov. Ron DeSantis is poised to position himself on Tuesday as a champion of conservative causes during a State of the State address that will likely be as much about his national ambitions as it is an assessment of Florida’s status in the wake of a pandemic and a series of crippling storms.
The address comes at the outset of a 60-day legislative session that has added significance this year because it will likely be used to launch DeSantis into a highly anticipated presidential campaign.
The Republican-dominated Legislature, eager to promote DeSantis’ political prospects, is expected to sign off on virtually all of the governor’s agenda, which is packed with issues ranging from race to immigration to gender that could prove popular in a GOP presidential primary.
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Instead of focusing on rising rents and cost of living, a property insurance market that’s in distress and preparing for rising sea levels in the state that’s most vulnerable to climate change, DeSantis will kick off a session where the GOP will push issues like telling teachers what pronouns they can use for students, making guns more available to Floridians, keeping immigrants that are in the country illegally out of the state and criminalizing some drag shows, as Tennessee recently did.
Though DeSantis is unlikely to formally announce a presidential campaign until the Legislature wraps its work in May, he’s already making big moves toward a White House bid. He participated in a high profile donor retreat last week in Florida before traveling to California, where he delivered a broadside against what he argued were excesses of liberalism. Later this week, he’ll travel for the first time this year to Iowa, which will host the nation’s first presidential caucuses in 2024.
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