Free Republic

Left-leaning CNN political analyst Van Jones praised Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday for what he described as a “very smart” response to billionaire Elon Musk’s tweet expressing potential support for the governor in the 2024 presidential election cycle. Jones weighed in after CNN aired a clip of DeSantis’ response to a tweet in which Musk said he was leaning toward backing the Florida governor if he runs for president in 2024. The South Africa native also noted that he supported Andrew Yang during the 2020 election but “DeSantis has a better chance of winning.” “So what I would say,...

MIAMI (AP) — Florida is the only state that hasn’t preordered COVID-19 vaccines for toddlers in anticipation of their final approval by the federal government, and Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday that he won’t facilitate their distribution, though he said they’ll be available to those who want them. White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre, who confirmed Florida’s outlier status on Thursday, said not preordering the vaccines could mean delaying their availability in children’s hospitals and other facilities that have relied on state distribution of the shots. Florida officials said the jabs would be available at pharmacies and community health centers, which...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Ron DeSantis is governor of the state of Florida, but also is increasingly trying to be the de facto head of the state’s Republican-led Senate. DeSantis is using his political sway to recruit Republican Senate candidates to run who don’t have the backing of GOP Senate leadership. The goal is to build a coalition of GOP senators with more political loyalty to him than their own Senate Republican leadership, which has had an uneasy relationship with DeSantis over the past several months. It’s a continuation of DeSantis’ one-sided relationship with the Florida Legislature, which has bowed to...

Every state has placed an order with the federal government to ensure coronavirus vaccines for young children are delivered as soon as regulators authorize their use — except for one. Florida missed a Tuesday deadline to request delivery of COVID-19 pediatric vaccines for children under 5, guaranteeing a delay in access for parents across the state, according to two U.S. government sources. Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article262537502.html#storylink=cpy

The federal government started taking orders from states two weeks ago for 10 million doses. WASHINGTON — Florida parents with kids under 5 years old may find themselves waiting longer than the rest of the country to get their youngest children vaccinated against Covid since state officials have decided not to order any doses for that age group. Florida is the only state that hasn't submitted a request with the federal government for doses of the Covid vaccine specifically tailored for children ages six months to five years in anticipation of U.S. regulators giving clearance for that age bracket as...

A South Florida Jewish congregation has challenged a new state law that blocks abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, contending the measure violates privacy and religious-freedom rights. The lawsuit, filed Friday in Leon County circuit court by Congregation L’Dor Va-Dor, seeks to block the law from taking effect July 1. Abortion clinics also filed a lawsuit this month in Leon County challenging the constitutionality of the restriction. Both cases include allegations that the law, signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in April, violates a privacy right in the Florida Constitution that has long played a pivotal role in abortion cases in...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Wednesday that he welcomes the support of the world's richest man after Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed that he likes DeSantis's odds in the 2024 presidential election. "I'm focused on 2022, but with Elon Musk, what I would say is, you know I welcome support from African-Americans," DeSantis said at a press conference Thursday. "What can I say?" Musk, who is White but was born in South Africa, said on Twitter Wednesday morning that he is leaning toward DeSantis in the next presidential election, but his vote is still to be determined. The tech entrepreneur...

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Florida’s largest electricity provider has announced plans to eliminate its carbon emissions by 2045 by halting its fossil fuel usage and greatly increasing its reliance on solar energy, including using it to turn water into hydrogen to power its generating plants. Florida Power & Light, which serves 5.7 million homes and businesses or about half the state, said the multibillion dollar plan will not result in any price increases beyond what would be anticipated normally. FPL’s parent company, NextEra Energy, said in its announcement this week that when its “Real Zero” plan is fully implemented...

A Cuban man charged in a $4.2 million Medicare fraud scheme is being held as a flight risk after officials said he tried to flee the U.S. on a Jet Ski. Court records show that a federal judge in Miami ordered 54-year-old Ernesto Cruz Graveran to be detained pending trial Monday.

Jeremy Brown is a Green Beret and former Republican candidate for Congress in Florida’s 14th Congressional District. Jeremy Brown served his country for 20 years in the United States Army from 1992 to 2012 and reached the rank of Special Forces Master Sergeant. Currently Jeremy Brown is a political prisoner of the Biden regime in Florida. On Thursday afternoon, September 30th, 2021, at 3:45 PM Eastern the FBI raided Jeremy Brown’s home and arrested Jeremy. They charged Jeremy, a Green Beret and US Veteran, with trespassing on the US Capitol Grounds. Jeremy broke the invisible boundary around the US Capitol...

A new political action committee has formed attempting to draft Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to run for president in 2024, and it is being run by a Republican consultant heavyweight who has been a veteran of campaigns involving former GOP Presidents Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump. DeSantis, running this year for a second term as Florida governor, has consistently led polls among Republican primary voters if Trump isn’t a contender. However, when Trump is included in the polling, DeSantis usually runs a distant second. The Ready for Ron PAC is being led by two generations. Ed Rollins was the campaign...

Ever since the advent of COVID-19 vaccines early in 2021, the Special Olympics organization has been in the forefront of promoting their benefits. The organization created a special page on its website with vaccination information and resources, urging “everyone who has access to the COVID-19 vaccine to get vaccinated.” The page informed users that the vaccine would help protect them from getting COVID, prevent serious illness if they became infected and help protect people around them.

Donald Trump in recent months has been telling confidants that he may launch his 2024 presidential campaign early — and that he’s considering launching it in Florida to stick it to Gov. Ron DeSantis. Trump has kicked around staging a large, flashy launch rally (with fireworks, of course) that would announce his White House bid before the 2022 midterm elections, according to three sources familiar with the matter. People who’ve spoken to Trump say that one reason he’s eying the Sunshine State is to assert his dominance over an ascendant DeSantis, who — if they both run in 2024 —...

Florida Rep. Ted Deutch, D- Boca Raton, didn’t make many waves when he was in the house, but he caused a tsunami by leaving. Deutch announced in February that he would be retiring from congress to become the CEO of the American Jewish Committee. I wrote on February 28: It just got a lot more exciting here in Palm Beach County as there will undoubtedly be a massive brawl in both parties between everyone who wants to take a shot at this seat. Rumors true: Ted Deutch to retire from Congress.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Republican Party of Duval County organized a flotilla on the St. Johns River Saturday to honor Gov. Ron DeSantis. Boat after Boat paraded toward the Main Street Bridge, starting around noon, as some state party leaders watched from the deck of the USS Orleck. GOP leaders said it was the first big, organized flotilla for the governor and more than 1,300 boats registered for the event, which coincided with Jacksonville’s Bicentennial and a quarterly gathering of The Republican Party of Florida in the River City.

On May 19, 2022, the U.S. Census Bureau released the 2020 Census estimated overcount and undercount rates by State derived from the 2020 Post-Enumeration Survey (PES). The PES is used to estimate the accuracy of the population figures reported by the decennial census to improve the Census Bureau’s counting operations for future censuses. According to the report, 14 States are estimated to have had statistically significant net overcounts or undercounts of their state populations in the 2020 Census. States with estimated overcounts include Delaware, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Utah, while States with estimated undercounts include...

Why redirect migrants to Delaware and Washington when you could send them back to Mexico? Gov. Ron DeSantis says Texas should stave off the path of immigrants entering the country illegally by turning them around and sending them back south of the border. “They let them come across and then you give them to the feds, and the feds just release them anyways,” DeSantis said. “What they need to do, Texas, is Texas should just send them back across the border.”

He went off the deep end. A Florida man famed for his intense loathing of former President Donald Trump has been banned from a community pool after berating a woman for her “Joe Biden Sucks” T-shirt, according to a report. Ed McGinty, 74, has long been known in The Villages for plastering his golf cart with signs denouncing Trump and defiantly cruising his community’s sleepy streets. The homemade placards often feature blunt language. “Biden will kick Trump’s fat ass,” reads some of McGinty’s golf cart copy. As a blaring liberal presence in a deeply conservative enclave, McGinty has often skirmished...

BALTIMORE — Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, nearing the end of his administration and actively flirting with a presidential bid in 2024, could face a significant challenge winning Republican voters’ support over former President Donald Trump in the state where Hogan has been a popular, twice-elected governor, a new poll shows. In a potential primary matchup between Trump, Hogan and four other possible candidates, Trump has twice the support of Hogan among likely Republican voters in Maryland, according to the poll from Baltimore Sun Media and the University of Baltimore. Trump was the first choice of 48% of Maryland Republican voters,...

Former President Donald Trump "handily" defeats Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in a head-to-head matchup for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination in most states being polled regularly according to Club for Growth reports."As Trump prepares to possibly announce his campaign in the next two months, multiple sources say the Club for Growth has regularly tested Trump v DeSantis in its polls in different states. A Club official insists it’s been to test Trump’s strength in the party," New York Times senior political reporter Maggie Haberman tweeted Tuesday."Through a spokesman, a Club official says Trump wins ‘handily’ in every state but Georgia."News...