This was unexpected.
In California Governor Gavin Newsom’s (D) most recent ad campaign, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) plays an integral role as the embodiment of Newsom’s warning regarding the threat Republicans pose.
In the ad, Newsom claims “freedom is under attack,” underlining this statement by saying, “Your Republican leaders, they’re banning books,” and that Republican governors are “making it harder to vote, restricting speech in classrooms, even criminalizing women and doctors.”
As these statements are narrated images of DeSantis are shown in the ad.
The comments about banning books seem to be a direct jab at DeSantis’ decision to reject 41 percent of math books over concerns they include themes of Common Core standards, social-emotional learning, and critical race theory, which is banned in Florida.
Commenting on the reason behind his decision to deny the books, DeSantis said earlier in the year that: “Some publishers attempted to slap a coat of paint on an old house built on the foundation of Common Core, and indoctrinating concepts like race essentialism, especially, bizarrely, for elementary school students.”
In the ad, Newsom calls on Floridians “to join the fight” before urging them to “join us in California, where we still believe in freedom.”
The California Governor then goes on to list the supposed freedoms enjoyed in California, “Freedom of speech, freedom to choose, freedom from hate and the freedom to love.”
Yet, despite Newsom’s urging, it appears Californians are the ones pursuing a mass exodus for greener pastures in Florida, with a combined 38,000 Californians leaving for Florida in 2019 and 2020.
