Ron DeSantis' Problems Keep Getting Worse and Worse

Ron DeSantis has had a particularly turbulent few weeks, as the 2024 Republican hopeful's nomination campaign struggles to gain serious traction on top of criticism of his performance as governor of Florida.

DeSantis, who is currently trailing former President Donald Trump in the 2024 GOP primary polls by a large margin, has also faced a string of problems on a state-wide scale, ranging from the fallout over his ongoing battle against "woke" to new cases of malaria being contracted in Florida for the first time in two decades.

There is also a potential economic catastrophe brewing in the Florida insurance policies spiral, with companies continuing to leave the state, resulting in tens of thousands of people being forced to change their providers.

There have been suggestions that DeSantis risks spreading himself too thin as he juggles his job as governor with running for the presidential nomination.

"Appearing to look like he is neglecting his duties running the state gives his potential primary opponents easy material with which to criticize him," David B. Cohen, professor of political science at the University of Akron in Ohio, told Newsweek in April.

Another criticism is that DeSantis in focusing too much on the culture wars and his ongoing battle against "woke," rather than policies and issues which a majority of voters care about.

During an address to a conference in Phildalephia on June 30, DeSantis said: "In Florida, we fought the woke across the board, and as president, I will fight the woke in the corporations, I will fight the woke in the schools, I will fight the woke in the halls of Congress. We will never ever surrender to the woke mob. We are going to leave woke ideology in the dustbin of history."

Newsweek contacted DeSantis' office for comment via email on Thursday.

Disney Feud Hits State

One incident this week which would have caused embarrassment for DeSantis was the news that Disney—who he began feuding with after the company spoke out against his so-called "Don't Say Gay" bill—would be pumping investment money into the Democratic-state of California.

On Tuesday, Disney announced that they will be pressing ahead with its Disneyland Forward program in Anaheim, California, which it projects will generate $253 million a year for the local economy and create more than 2,200 jobs in The Golden State.

The decision by Disney to invest money in California arrived just weeks after the company said it would be pulling a proposed plan to build a $1 billion corporate campus in central Florida that it said would have created 2,000 jobs in the state, as a result of the "considerable changes that have occurred since the announcement of this project."

The move came after DeSantis stripped the entertainment giant of its social privileges and tax breaks that were protected under the Reedy Creek Improvement District.

The decision by Disney to invest in Anaheim was praised by Gavin Newsom, the California governor who has repeatedly clashed with DeSantis. In a statement, Newsom suggested that Disney chose to invest in California specifically for its pro-LGBTQ+ rights stance in a thinly veiled attack on the Florida governor.

"In California, we don't just tolerate our diversity, we celebrate it and all the ways it makes us stronger," Newsom said. "Our inclusivity and acceptance attract new talent and ideas that drive our economic growth and make California a hotspot for world-leading companies to grow and prosper."

DeSantis has shown no signs of backing down against Disney. "I know in Florida they basically called the shots for many, many decades. But there's a new sheriff in town and we don't subcontract our leadership out to woke corporations," he said in a speech to the Republican North Carolina state convention on June 9.

"We stand for the protection of our children. We reject the sexualization of our children. We will fight against anybody who seeks to rob them of their innocence."

Insurance Crisis Continues

On Tuesday, Farmers Insurance announced it would stop offering its policies in Florida, including home, auto and umbrella, in the latest case of an insurance company either leaving the state or going into liquidation. It said the move was "necessary to effectively manage risk exposure."

The news of Farmers Insurance leaving the state arrived amid reports that premiums in Florida have reportedly surged by more than 200 percent since DeSantis was elected governor in 2018.

On average, Floridians are currently spending around $4,200 a year on property insurance, compared to the national average of approximately $1,700, according to the Insurance Information Institute.

As noted by Yahoo Finance, Florida's problems regarding insurance existed years prior to DeSantis entering office. Other issues that negatively affected insurance rates that are out of the governor's hands include increased extreme weather conditions, and more areas becoming susceptible to floods and fires in the state.

Florida recently had a policy where insurers had to not only pay the legal fees of any policyholder who won a lawsuit filed against them, but also pay for their own legal costs if they themselves won.

"Florida's property insurance market has been chaotic since 2007, when bad public policy forced insurers to flee Florida," Jeremy Redfern, DeSantis's Florida press secretary, told Yahoo Finance. "Since 2007, the main cost driver has been excessive litigation."

"We continue to work with the Office of Insurance Regulation to monitor the market's stability," Redfern added. "Even the most aggressive reforms will take time."

Commenting on the insurance crisis, Democratic state Sen. Tracie Davis suggested DeSantis put his nomination campaigning on hold and return to Florida to deal with the fallout.

"Governor, come home and take care of your state. We all know that he's running for president, but we have real problems, real issues, and the crisis with property insurance," Davis said.

On top of all this, DeSantis is still struggling to topple Trump as the overwhelming favorite to clinch the GOP 2024 candidacy, despite the former president's host of legal difficulties.

A recent YouGov/Economist poll found that a total of 49 percent of Republican voters want the former president to be the GOP's nomination in 2024, with 20 percent opting for DeSantis

According to FiveThirtyEight's national poll-average tracker, Trump leads the GOP primary with 49.4 percent, with DeSantis a distant second on 21.2 percent.

In a recent interview with Fox Business, DeSantis defended his campaign and suggested that the media has tried to "create a narrative that somehow the race is over."

"This is going to be a state-by-state contest," DeSantis said. "We've worked really hard to build the type of organization in places like Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina that you need to actually be able to win these early [nominating] contests. And we're gonna continue doing that. We got a lot of work, but we've had a very, very favorable response."

Update 7/13/23, 12:45 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.