basquebromance
Diamond Member
- Nov 26, 2015
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Ron DeSantis has done quite a lot during his time as governor of Florida, and he intends to do a lot more. He is aggressively changing the stateās education system to root out perceived āwokenessā in academia, has taken an ostentatious stand against pandemic precautions while calling for investigations into vaccine makers, pushed for a variety of law-and-order measures, and more.
Before all that, though, he served in the U.S. House, where his career was typical of a rank and file Republican in the 2010s.
DeSantisās career in the House, from 2013 to 2018, was relatively uneventful. He gave occasional floor speeches, cosponsored legislation, and even wrote some of his own bills, most of which were simple vehicles for partisan messaging. He joined a handful of far right members to launch the Freedom Caucus, the ultra-conservative working group that spearheaded much of the major disputes and dysfunction over the past decade in the House. He also mounted a brief run for Senate in 2016 but withdrew and ran for re-election to his House seat after Marco Rubioās presidential campaign flopped, leaving Rubio in Congress.
One bill DeSantis authored that did not make it to the presidentās desk was the āDrain the Swamp Act.ā An obvious nod to Trumpās 2016 slogan about fighting corruption, the bill included various provisions intended to obstruct the revolving door between American government and the influence-peddling industry, including a ālifetime post-employment ban on lobbying on behalf of foreign governments by former senior executive branch officials.ā
But despite the billās strong stance on keeping American politics free of foreign influence, DeSantis has employed at least one foreign agent of his own since taking over the governorās office: his spokeswoman Christina Pushaw, who retroactively registered with the Justice Department as having worked for Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili. (Georgia the ex-Soviet country, not the American state)
Before all that, though, he served in the U.S. House, where his career was typical of a rank and file Republican in the 2010s.
DeSantisās career in the House, from 2013 to 2018, was relatively uneventful. He gave occasional floor speeches, cosponsored legislation, and even wrote some of his own bills, most of which were simple vehicles for partisan messaging. He joined a handful of far right members to launch the Freedom Caucus, the ultra-conservative working group that spearheaded much of the major disputes and dysfunction over the past decade in the House. He also mounted a brief run for Senate in 2016 but withdrew and ran for re-election to his House seat after Marco Rubioās presidential campaign flopped, leaving Rubio in Congress.
One bill DeSantis authored that did not make it to the presidentās desk was the āDrain the Swamp Act.ā An obvious nod to Trumpās 2016 slogan about fighting corruption, the bill included various provisions intended to obstruct the revolving door between American government and the influence-peddling industry, including a ālifetime post-employment ban on lobbying on behalf of foreign governments by former senior executive branch officials.ā
But despite the billās strong stance on keeping American politics free of foreign influence, DeSantis has employed at least one foreign agent of his own since taking over the governorās office: his spokeswoman Christina Pushaw, who retroactively registered with the Justice Department as having worked for Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili. (Georgia the ex-Soviet country, not the American state)
