When Florida voters go to the polls this fall, we will have the chance to oust Republican Ashley Moody from her appointed U.S. Senate seat. Alex Vindman is considered the frontrunner among Democrats seeking the nomination in the August primary election. Whoever the final nominee is, he or she will need a huge turnout by Democrats and like-minded independents to win. Which is why it is vital that in the upcoming election there are Democrats on the ballot for every contested seat. More on that below.

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By Christine Sexton

Florida Phoenix

Calling incumbent Sen. Ashley Moody an “automatic yes vote” for “corruption” and “chaos,” former U.S. Army Lt. Col. Alex Vindman made his bid for the U.S. Senate official Wednesday.

Vindman, a Democrat who out-raised Moody in the first quarter of 2026, turned in his qualifying paperwork in person in Tallahassee, making official the Senate run he first announced in January.

He then addressed the press, announcing he would be a candidate for the people, one who will work to lower the costs of living, and accused Moody of making special interests her priority.

“So, I think this is, this is a motivating factor, especially on the more conservative side of the spectrum. That they have somebody that’ll do the right thing, as I’ve done throughout my career, and that will deliver for Floridians’ interests, not corporate special interests,” he said.

“I think that’s a fundamental message to get across — that there is a fighter in your corner, not a fighter for corporate interests, not a fighter for billionaire class, but a fighter in your corner.”

Vindman’s paperwork comes on the heels of polling that found him competitive with Moody.

The 50-year-old Vindman will have to edge other Democrats in the race to face Moody, including former U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, Jacksonville state Rep. Angie Nixon, and Air Force veteran Tamika Lyles.

While other Democrats could still join the race, Vindman’s entry could potentially earn the Florida Senate contest national exposure.

Emma Hall, Southeast regional communications director for the Republican National Committee, earlier this year attacked Vindman as a “carpetbagger” and “grifter” because he moved to Florida only recently.

Republicans also have gone after Vindman for his role in the first impeachment of President Donald Trump. In late February, the Republican Party of Florida launched a digital ad attacking him for playing a “traitorous” role in that episode.

But Vindman, who emigrated with his father, brothers and grandmother to New York City in 1979 from Ukraine after his mother died, painted stark contrasts between himself and Moody, who served as Florida attorney general between 2019 and 2025. Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed her in 2025 to fill the Senate seat vacated when Marco Rubio became U.S. Secretary of State.

Noting Florida’s high homeowners’ insurance rates, Vindman complained Moody has “given a pass to the big insurance companies.” He criticized Moody stock purchases last year including $250,000 in stock from Eli Lilly, raising questions of insider trading. She sits on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.

“How do you think that plays out? She’s happy to engage in stock trades, some $2 million, on insider information that only Congress gets. I think that’s wrong. I think that should be illegal,” he said.

By contrast, Vindman noted that he is an Army combat veteran who was awarded the Purple Heart for wounds received in 2004 in the Iraq War.

He was director of European Affairs for the U.S. National Security Council when, in October 2019, he came to national attention for his congressional testimony revealing that Trump had asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden while his father was campaigning for president as a condition for military aid against Russia.

Vindman resigned from the military in July 2020. Following that separation, he said, for the first time in his adult life he had a choice of where to live and not just simply move where the military had assigned him.

“My wife and I chose Florida because I was raised in New York. Where else can I go?” he said jokingly. “So, pretty, pretty awesome to be able to raise a family here for the same reason that a lot of us come here — it’s a beautiful place, sunny, warm, lovely.”

Vindman’s twin brother, Eugene “Yevgeny” Vindman, also a retired lieutenant colonel in the Army and also a whistleblower in Trump’s first term, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2024 for Virginia’s 7th District. He is running for re-election in 2026 but this time to represent Virginia’s 1st Congressional District.

The reporter on this story, Christine Sexton , has spent more than 30 years reporting on Florida health care, insurance policy, and state politics and has covered the state’s last six governors. She lives in Tallahassee.

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Why don’t you run for office?

The upcoming midterm elections provide a generational opportunity to change the complexion of Florida’s political makeup. But for that to happen, Republican candidates for the state Legislature must face Democratic opponents on the ballot. Currently, there are far too many seats where Republicans are running unopposed. You can change that. Find out how you can run and how to get help doing so:

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Got questions on how to go about throwing your hat in the ring? Project 140 has the answers. Here’s their email address:

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As this newsletter was written, Tropic Press was reaching more than 700,000 subscribers in Florida and elsewhere. With mid-term elections on the horizon, the more people we reach, the more effective we can be in helping turn this country around. You can play a vital role in that effort by sharing this newsletter with friends. If you are reading this as an email, simply forward it. Or you can use the link below. Thanks.

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Coming Saturday: Miss Mingo Writes Again!

Is it true that Donald Trump has ordered McDonald’s to name a hamburger after him? Miss Mingo has the answer. Coming to your inbox on Saturday.

By Mitch Perry

Florida Phoenix

Gov. Ron DeSantis has previously indicated that he’s holding back on offering his own proposal to reduce taxes on homestead properties until the moment is “ripe” — and it doesn’t appear that’ll be anytime soon.

A special legislative session is now scheduled to take place in the last week of April to deal with congressional redistricting, artificial intelligence, and vaccine mandates.

Yet to be addressed is another special session to approve a balanced budget, which the Legislature is required to send to the governor by June 30.

“We don’t even know where it stands, and that’s a sad commentary for the legislators not to know what’s about to happen,” Democratic Rep. Dianne Hart-Lowman of Tampa lamented Wednesday night when asked about the property tax question during a town hall meeting.

“We really don’t know where we are on property taxes, but I’m looking forward to talking about it because I really need our communities to understand what it’s all about.”

Some Republicans have already indicated that whatever property tax proposal comes before them may not be as substantial as they would like. Rep. Ryan Chamberlin, R-Belleview, has said that his pessimism prompted him to attempt a citizen initiative removing all property taxes on the 2028 ballot.

Other Republicans, like Rep. Berny Jacques, R-Seminole, insist property tax relief must be passed this year.

“We did our job in the House in the regular session by passing a measure that would make that a reality,” he told the Phoenix. “It’s now time for everyone to come to the table so we can finalize a relief measure that we can send to the voters this year.”

The strategy

Speaking at Palm Beach Atlantic University’s LeMieux Center for Public Policy on March 25, DeSantis said, “Why would I produce something that is not ripe in terms of when we’re actually going to put in front of the Legislature?”

He added: “There’s obviously a strategy involved.”

DeSantis has previously mused that he’d like to wait as long as possible before having lawmakers discuss a proposed constitutional amendment. Last fall, he suggested legislators could “potentially have a special session on property taxes right in the middle of the Republican primary season in July or August,” although he was quick to add, “I’m not saying we’re going to wait that long.”

Former Republican state Sen. Jeff Brandes argues the governor is intentionally keeping mum. “I think the strategy is not to give people a chance to evaluate this,” he said.

In his remarks in Palm Beach County, DeSantis said his proposal would be phased in to allow municipalities and counties to absorb their reductions in revenue. “We would likely start at the bottom and then phase it in where you’re raising the exclusion until you get to elimination,” he said.

The governor has also said that he’s willing to fund grants to local governments to ease the transition. Critics note that while he put additional funding in his proposed 2026-2027 fiscal year budget in December for that purpose, there’s no guarantee a future governor would continue to do that. DeSantis leaves office in January.

On Wednesday night, Tampa Bay area Democratic Rep. Michele Rayner said that property owners in Florida would likely get a tax cut or benefit if a measure is approved by the voters in the fall but that the question of how to replace those revenues for infrastructure, parks, and libraries has yet to be addressed.

“That cost has to go to someone else,” she said. “It has to go to renters. It’s going to go to businesses. It’s going to go to everyday Floridians. And everyone already knows that Florida is already unaffordable to live here, so I would just like to know where they think they’re going to come up with the money. And when I asked that question on the House floor, [Republicans] told me that they’d figure it out.”

Brandes hopes whatever proposal that the governor and the GOP-controlled Legislature decide upon, it has a sunset date attached. “It can be two years, three years, four years, so that we can evaluate how it’s actually working and maybe change course.”

Earlier this week, GOP gubernatorial candidate Paul Renner released a plan that included a new $1 million homestead exemption that he said would eliminate property taxes for nearly 95% of Florida homeowners. He also would provide a $750,000 exemption for non-housing properties (which he says would relieve 70% of small businesses from paying property taxes) and a $250,000 per-unit exemption for rental housing to give renters a break.

For the Legislature to be put its own constitutional amendment on the November ballot, a joint resolution would need three-fifths support in both the House and Senate. It would then need to win approval by 60% of the voters to become law.

Recent polls have shown such a proposal winning more than 50% support —short of the 60% required for passage. However, that’s without the public knowing any specific details of such a plan.

The Phoenix reached out to the Florida Division of Elections office to learn what the deadline would be for the Legislature to approve a joint resolution to qualify for the November ballot, but it did not provide an immediate response.

Mitch Perry has covered politics and government in Florida for more than two decades. Most recently he is the former politics reporter for Bay News 9. He has also worked at Florida Politics, Creative Loafing and WMNF Radio in Tampa. He was also part of the original staff when the Florida Phoenix was created in 2018.

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Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization. This story is republished with their permission. To support Florida Phoenix, click here:

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Note to readers

Just a note to mention that I am on the road this week. I’m helping my son with a cross-country move. Because of this, you will likely see fewer of my original posts for the next few days and more sharing of articles by other contributors, such as today’s story by Mitch Perry. Thanks for reading.

J.C. Bruce

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As this newsletter was written, Tropic Press was reaching more than 700,000 subscribers in Florida and elsewhere. With mid-term elections on the horizon, the more people we reach, the more effective we can be in helping turn this country around. You can play a vital role in that effort by sharing this newsletter with friends. If you are reading this as an email, simply forward it. Or you can use the link below. Thanks.

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“Exempting the entire oil and gas industry … is not a national security measure, it’s a giveaway. Florida’s coastal communities, our fisheries, and our wildlife deserve better.”

By Jay Waagmeester

Florida Phoenix

Environmental groups are joining an effort to block rules from President Donald Trump’s administration exempting energy companies drilling in the Gulf of Mexico from legal protections for endangered species.

Last month, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth asked for an exemption to the Endangered Species Act, on the basis of national security, to drill for oil and gas in the Gulf. That means species such as Rice’s whale, Kemp’s ridley sea turtle, and other endangered species lose protection.

The Endangered Species Committee, an administrative panel sometimes called the “God Squad” because of its sweeping power to overrule environmental protections, comprising top administrators in the Trump administration, approved the exemption.

Now, the Southern Environmental Law Center is representing environmental groups in petitioning the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to review the administration’s decision.

The groups include the National Wildlife Federation, National Parks Conservation Association, Florida Wildlife Federation, Louisiana Wildlife Federation, and Texas Conservation Alliance.

“Our organization witnessed firsthand the devastation of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, as we watched oil wash ashore on Florida beaches, saw fishing families lose their livelihoods overnight, and documented the toll on sea turtles, shorebirds, and marine life that took years to recover,” Sarah Gledhill, president and CEO of the Florida Wildlife Federation, said in a news release.

“The [Endangered Species Act] review process is one of the hard-won lessons of disasters like that, and it forces industry to plan for harm, minimize it, and answer for it,” she said.

The groups warn that noise, vessel strikes, and spills could further threaten endangered species if oil and gas drilling picks up.

“Exempting the entire oil and gas industry from ESA compliance, forever, is not a national security measure, it’s a giveaway. Florida’s coastal communities, our fisheries, and our wildlife deserve better. We will stand firmly in the way of anyone who tries to shortchange the Gulf,” Gledhill said.

The named respondents include Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency Lee Zeldin, Secretary of Defense Hegseth, and the remaining members of the Endangered Species Committee.

The appellate court may enjoin, suspend, or modify the agency’s decision.

Another suit

Two weeks ago, other environmental groups sued for an injunction. Represented by Earthjustice, an environmental law organization, the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth, Turtle Island Restoration Network, and Healthy Gulf filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

They argue the Trump administration is abusing the national security exemption under the Endangered Species Act, and that more than two dozen species now protected as either threatened or endangered are directly at risk. And they contend that Hegseth’s finding of a national security consideration is entirely arbitrary.

Jay Waagmeester covers education for the Florida Phoenix. He previously worked for the Iowa Capital Dispatch and the Iowa State Daily. He grew up in Iowa and is a graduate of Iowa State University.

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Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization. This story is republished with their permission. To support Florida Phoenix, click here:

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Note to readers

Just a note to mention that I am on the road this week. I’m helping my son with a cross-country move. We loaded the U-Haul yesterday, and we’re heading out today. Because of this, you will likely see fewer of my original posts for the next few days and more sharing of articles by other contributors, such as today’s story. Thanks for reading.

J.C. Bruce

Share Tropic Press. Please!

As this newsletter was written, Tropic Press was reaching more than 700,000 subscribers in Florida and elsewhere. With mid-term elections on the horizon, the more people we reach, the more effective we can be in helping turn this country around. You can play a vital role in that effort by sharing this newsletter with friends. If you are reading this as an email, simply forward it. Or you can use the link below. Thanks.

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“While Florida families are struggling to keep up with rising costs, James Uthmeier is bankrolling his campaign with checks from Big Tobacco and a gun manufacturer looking to avoid accountability. That tells you everything you need to know about who he’s working for, and why Floridians aren’t seeing relief.”

— José Javier Rodríguez

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By Mitch Perry

Florida Phoenix

First-quarter fundraising totals for state candidates have now been reported, and Florida Democratic attorney general candidate José Javier Rodríguez is taking issue with a couple of financial contributions received by the man he hopes to replace in November, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier.

Among the donations Uthmeier’s political action committee drew was $50,000 from gun manufacturer Sig Sauer. That company showered hundreds of thousands of dollars on Florida Republicans this year as it attempted to get the Legislature to pass a measure (HB 1551) shielding it from liability lawsuits. The bill passed in the Florida House but died in committee in the Florida Senate.

Friends of James Uthmeier also reported a $100,000 contribution from RAI Services Co., a tobacco manufacturer and subsidiary of Reynolds American Inc.

“While Florida families are struggling to keep up with rising costs, James Uthmeier is bankrolling his campaign with checks from Big Tobacco and a gun manufacturer looking to avoid accountability. That tells you everything you need to know about who he’s working for, and why Floridians aren’t seeing relief,” said Rodríguez in a written statement.

“Floridians deserve an Attorney General who stands up to corporate abuse, not one funded by it. As Attorney General, I’ll be the people’s lawyer — focused on lowering costs, protecting consumers, and holding powerful interests accountable.”

Combined with his regular campaign account, Uthmeier has raised more than $8 million in his bid to win office for the first time after being appointed to the position by Gov. Ron DeSantis a year ago.

Rodríguez has raised a combined total of more than $1 million between his regular campaign account and PAC.

Through the bully pulpit of his office, Uthmeier is able to generate media coverage on a nearly daily basis by hosting news conferences around the state.

Despite his lack of visibility, Rodríguez appears to be running a competitive race against his much better-funded opponent. A Democratic-based survey of more than 1,000 statewide voters published on Monday showed him narrowly leading Uthmeier in the race for attorney general.

Mitch Perry has covered politics and government in Florida for more than two decades. Most recently he is the former politics reporter for Bay News 9. He has also worked at Florida Politics, Creative Loafing and WMNF Radio in Tampa. He was also part of the original staff when the Florida Phoenix was created in 2018.

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Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization. This story is republished with their permission. To support Florida Phoenix, click here:

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Note to readers

Just a note to mention that I am on the road this week. I’m helping my son with a cross-country move. We got the U-Haul yesterday, and we’re loading it up today. Because of this, you will likely see fewer of my original posts for the next few days and more sharing of articles by other contributors, such as today’s story by Mitch Perry. Thanks for reading.

J.C. Bruce

Share Tropic Press. Please!

As this newsletter was written, Tropic Press was reaching more than 700,000 subscribers in Florida and elsewhere. With mid-term elections on the horizon, the more people we reach, the more effective we can be in helping turn this country around. You can play a vital role in that effort by sharing this newsletter with friends. If you are reading this as an email, simply forward it. Or you can use the link below. Thanks.

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By Diane Roberts

Florida Phoenix

Run, Ron, run!

Seriously Dude, run for president in ’28.

A nation turns its lonely eyes to you.

You broke hearts back in ’24 when you dropped out after the Iowa Caucuses: You tried so hard and came so close!

OK, so you actually came a distant second to the Current Occupant, but those good farm folk did not then realize he’d let Pete Hegseth go play with the Pentagon’s cool death toys in the Middle East to raise the price of oil and make ExxonMobil — and the price of fuel — great again.

Filling up the old combine harvester these days is a B-I-sort-of-rhymes-with-“sandwich,” so the farmers will now have seen the error of their ways.

I mean, probably.

The Boo Birds and Naysayers will nit-pick your earlier campaign: your weird laugh; your hectoring tone; that time you totally ignored the governor of Iowa even though she’d endorsed you and tried to help humanize you at a campaign rally.

Also, that time you sugar-shamed a kid drinking an Icee at the Iowa State Fair.

And that time you shook your wife’s hand.

People forget you were the only candidate who received a trophy.

It was, admittedly, a participation trophy from a guy who said, “We’re proud of you for trying,” then turned to the town hall audience, adding, “He’s special, he’s unique, and he’s our little snowflake.”

Everybody thought that was super-sweet.

Seriously, Ron, you shouldn’t have bailed! You were going to get stomped in New Hampshire, sure, but nobody cares about New Hampshire. It’s cold and their Republicans aren’t real Republicans.

Many of them listen to classical music and drink wine.

Blank slate

Unlike New Hampshire, which barely seems part of America, in South Carolina you had a real chance to shine.

You were, we know, more at home in South Carolina. It’s humid, marshy, subject to hurricanes, and proudly stuck in the past — just like Florida.

You could have probably given the Current Occupant a run for his money, maybe coming in second again, but a closer second.

If you’d hung in there, maybe the Current Occupant would have respected you more and given you a Cabinet gig or at least stopped dissing you every chance he gets.

Oh, well: dirty water under the crumbling bridge. It’s a new day! 2028 is a blank slate, a freshly painted wall that has yet to be graffitied.

Now, in 2026, your hundreds of fans dare to hope again.

On the “Hang Out with Sean Hannity” podcast, you said, “I mean, I think that in ’24, like in Iowa, the people that voted for Trump — if he wasn’t running, I would have gotten, like, 90% of those people.”

Totally!

You had brilliantly overcome the Nazi campaign video thing and the eating pudding with your fingers thing, which was fake news even though it was true.

In 2022, you led Trump in the polls — by 15-20 points. After the Jan. 6 thing, he looked like toast.

Burnt toast, at that.

But then Trump got convicted on 34 felony counts and, by February, was back on top.

People felt sorry for the old man, getting busted for porn star hush money, falsifying business records, and also sexually assaulting that writer-lady.

The old man can’t run again.

At least, he’s not supposed to.

‘DeFUTURE’

Rupert Murdoch loved you once; he can love you again — assuming he lives long enough.

You were “DeFUTURE.”

Murdoch done you wrong, running back to Trump like a scalded dog, betraying the love you gave him.

Be cool, Ron: Fox will sober up, come to its senses, and realize only you can save this nation from the Red Chinese, the whiny Ukrainians, vaccines, the powerful Palestinian lobby, crazed sociology majors, climate change radicals, feminists, soft-on-illegal-immigrants sheriffs, and anything else threatening Americans’ precious bodily fluids.

Pro tip: Send flowers.

Now, it’s true some ex-GOP, ex-congressman called you “uniquely unlikeable.”

Poppycock.

Has this guy never met Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas?

One of Cruz’s Senate colleagues described him as a person who would microwave fish in the office kitchen.

You would never microwave fish.

You would never run off to a Foreign Country in the middle of a terrible storm crisis disaster just because your kids wanted a Mexican vacay.

No, if it was your kids, like the great dad you are, you’d tell them to tough it out while you made sure you got on television every news cycle, preferably wearing white fisherman boots.

Because you’re authentic.

Ted Cruz is thinking of running in 2028.

So are a lot of other losers. Look at the so-called “competition” for the Republican nomination.

Sens. Josh Hawley and Tom Cotton might throw their truck hats into the ring.

One’s from Arkansas and one’s from Missouri, states that, unlike Florida, cannot be called “cool.”

Plus, they both have skinny necks, which makes it hard to tell them apart.

In contrast, your neck is manly.

You can’t tell what kind of neck the alleged “front-runner,” Vice President J.D. Vance, has.

The beard gets in the way. Our Minister for War with Overwhelming Violence would call him a “beardo.”

Rust Belter Dunedinite

Memo to J.D.: We’ve moved on from Abraham Lincoln, who was kind of woke, anyway.

(As you have pointed out, enslaved people learned useful skills, which helped them in their post-slavery careers.)

Actually, the beard is the least of J.D.’s problems.

Sure, he came top of the CPAC straw poll, but I wouldn’t take that too seriously. You didn’t demean yourself by schmoozing in Dallas, yet still pulled an impressive 2 percent, right up there with Don Jr.

J.D. claims he’s, like, a “hillbilly.”

Give me a break.

He’s Ivy League all the way, unlike a fine Rust Belter Dunedinite like yourself.

Yeah, you also went to Yale, but not like him. You paid for college with jobs like moving furniture and retrieving soccer balls kicked around by elites in blazers.

You are totally American, a baseball player, a custard dessert-lover, not like him with his fancy foreign wife and his fancy gay hedge fund pals and his unbiblical notions.

J.D. used to be VERY CLOSE FRIENDS with one of those “transgenders” who calls him or herself “they.”

He signed his emails to this person “love you” and, at one point in 2016, said, “The more white people feel like voting for Trump, the more Black people will suffer. I really believe that.”

You would never say anything so WOKE.

Speaking of woke, I’d say your biggest 2028 problem is your supposed fellow Floridian Marco Rubio.

He got 35 percent at CPAC.

Like J.D. he’s got liberal thought-skeletons in his closet.

Not so long ago, he was all for so-called humanitarian assistance to countries with diseases, funding anti-violence programs across the world, giving Ukraine money, and feeding hungry children.

He used to say stuff like, “Foreign aid is a very cost-effective way, not only to export our values and our example, but to advance our security and our economic interests.”

Busted, Marco.

Warrior of God

These ungrateful foreigners should never get a red, white, and blue cent of our money.

America First!

Besides, is Marco actually American?

He is given to frequent speaking of a Foreign Language.

You speak no Foreign Language, which is exactly how we Floridians like it.

Another question: What if the Supreme Court dumps birthright citizenship?

You, Governor, understand the Constitution got it wrong with the 14th Amendment and have often demanded the court fix it.

Pandering Marco insists he’s also in favor of denying citizenship to babies who may be birthed here, but whose parents are non-Americans.

There’s just one little problem.

Marco was born in Miami in 1971. His Cuban parents didn’t become citizens till 1975.

Do the math.

You can use this: Make a campaign ad.

Maybe get Casey to star.

Another 2028 ad could address Marco’s false assertions regarding his height.

He alleges he’s 5’9″.

Please.

We all know he’s too petite for the presidency. No president has ever been so shrimpy, except for Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, John Adams, John Quincy Adams, and a couple of guys nobody’s ever heard of.

You, on the other hand, are at least 5’11”, especially if you wear your special shoes.

But none of this is important. What’s important is you, Ron.

Also, America is important.

What kind of nation do we want to be? One led by a beardo from the Midwest who probably eats casseroles?

A Miami guy of uncertain status?

Or you, a true American, a Florida man, a patriot who served honorably as an assistant urinalysis coordinator at Guantánamo, knows vaccines are bad, sustainable energy is bad, education is bad, welfare is bad.

And Spanish? Also bad.

Ron: You have to run.

You are the One, the Guy, the Chosen, the Good Hombre, the Warrior of God.

The choice is this:

Tres leches or pizza?

Plantains or cannoli?

Ropa vieja or meatballs?

Come on, Ron.

Be America’s meatball.

Diane Roberts is an 8th-generation Floridian, born and bred in Tallahassee, which probably explains her unhealthy fascination with Florida politics. Educated at Florida State University and Oxford University in England, she has been writing for newspapers since 1983. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the Times of London, the Guardian, the Washington Post, the Oxford American, and Flamingo.

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Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization. This story is republished with their permission. To support Florida Phoenix, click here:

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Onward thru the fog

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed if you are a rational person living in the Free State of Florida, but there are plenty of smart, reasonable people just like you here. The purpose of this newsletter and the Tropic Press website is to provide a source of news and commentary that shines a light through this irrational fog. That includes both original reporting and shared stories such as this one today by Diane Roberts of Florida Phoenix.

Thank you for your support as a subscriber. It is invaluable. This is especially so for those of you who have chosen to upgrade to paid subscriptions. Your contributions are making this possible.

J.C. Bruce

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Share Tropic Press. Please!

As this newsletter was written, Tropic Press was reaching more than 700,000 subscribers in Florida and elsewhere. With mid-term elections on the horizon, the more people we reach, the more effective we can be in helping turn this country around. You can play a vital role in that effort by sharing this newsletter with friends. If you are reading this as an email, simply forward it. Or you can use the link below. Thanks.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Florida has approximately 1,300 miles of coastline—many times more, actually, if you count all the bays, barrier islands and inlets. It’s the most in the contiguous 48 states. Only Alaska has more, but let’s face it, it’s not a great place for sunbathing. Historically, preservation of this marvelous asset has taken a back seat to development and tourism. But as Craig Pittman of Florida Phoenix reports, sometimes our state Legislature does things right. Tropic Press is pleased to share Craig’s story.

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By Craig Pittman

Florida Phoenix

I have something startling to tell you. You’d better take a seat. Are you ready? The Florida Legislature did something good.

Do you need to lie down? Can I get you something to drink? A touch of the hard stuff, perhaps?

Their recent legislative session was an almost total disaster. Our fine lawmakers failed to repeal one bad law they had already passed — SB 180, that awful pro-sprawl, anti-local government bill that’s led to multiple lawsuits.

They did absolutely nothing to fix affordability, Florida’s biggest crisis. Instead, they approved even more bad bills, like putting a rotten cherry on a sewage sundae.

They passed a bill to ban local governments from doing anything to eliminate their carbon emissions. They gave their blessing to one to make it even harder for local governments to say no to damaging development. And a popular effort to remove the decrepit dam creating the Rodman reservoir and restore the Ocklawaha River slammed into a last-minute roadblock in the Senate.

But on this one bill, they did the right thing. Shocking, isn’t it?

It was Senate Bill 302, which concerns something called “coastal resiliency.”

You may have seen a little news coverage about it because of a late amendment designed to knock down a deeply unpopular plan to build a cruise ship port in an aquatic preserve.

But you probably heard very little about the rest of the bill — even though, in the long run, it promises to be much more significant to the state’s future.

“It really was a bright spot,” said Katie Bauman of the Surfrider Foundation, one of the environmental groups that pushed this measure.

Seeing that this bill passed amid so many other, far worse legislative results reminded me of something Willie Wonka told young Charlie: “So shines a good deed in a weary world.”

It also made me wonder: Where did it come from? How did this glimmering pearl make it through all the wretched refuse of the legislative session? How did it reach final approval when so many others fell short?

Rather than continue worrying about whether we’d have a nuclear holocaust in the Middle East this week that would make gas prices even worse, I figured I should pursue something positive. I did some research, made some calls, asked some questions.

The story behind SB 302’s passage is more interesting than I expected, with several twists and turns. And it involves a now-forbidden term in Florida politics: climate change. Shh, don’t tell anyone!

Instead, lean closer and I’ll whisper the tale to you.

Tallahassee’s Circle of Life

I have to admit that I’ve spent years mocking the term “coastal resilience.”

The plain-English definition is that it’s a way for a battered coastline to bounce back after damaging phenomena such as massive storm surges. But to me it was usually just a dodge that politicians would trot out to sound like they cared about the environment.

They’d brag about being in favor of coastal resilience when what they meant was: “This is an opportunity for me to hand out government contracts for major construction work that will only briefly cope with rising sea levels.”

Of course, as the sea level continued to rise, those construction projects would prove to be inadequate to stopping the water. We’d have to build something even bigger, requiring even more expensive government contracts, and so on.

Meanwhile, the recipients of those big government contracts would funnel campaign contributions to the aforesaid politicians. See how that works? It’s the Tallahassee version of the “Circle of Life.”

Perhaps the ultimate example of the build-it-big solution to Florida’s increasing flooding problem was the ginormous walls 20 feet high that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed in 2019 for Biscayne Bay. That project was a steal at a mere $4.6 billion!

People freaked out, as you might expect. This was NOT the “Wonderwall” that Oasis sang about.

The fact remains that we’re a particularly flat state with a coastline that stretches 1,300 miles. That means we’re particularly vulnerable to … umm … er … uh … that thing that Gov. Ron DeSantis doesn’t want us to discuss.

“South Florida is on the front lines of sea-level rise, stronger storms and increasing flood risk,” Sen. Ileana Garcia, the Republican from Miami who wound up sponsoring SB 302, wrote in an op-ed column. “The question is not whether we act, but how.”

As in: What if our storm-damaged coast were rebuilt using something other than those ugly concrete structures?

What if we used the natural materials that Florida coastlines are supposed to be made from — particularly mangroves? What if we made “living shorelines” the desired outcome instead of pumps and pipes and seawalls?

“People want to see infrastructure that looks like Florida,” said Dawn Shireeffs of the Environmental Defense Fund, which has been doggedly prodding the state to make the living shoreline the default setting. “There’s a real hunger for that.”

The problem is, Florida coastal rebuilding regulations have never covered that.

And local governments that tried to go that route “got caught up in the lack of guidance,” Baumann said.

Enter SB 302. It requires the state Department of Environmental Protection to create those guidelines. The DEP also must establish criteria for monitoring, inspection, and reporting requirements for permits. The goal: More dune and wetland restoration, reef restoration, and seagrass replanting.

This way the state can encourage more innovative nature-based projects, like one in Titusville designed to help repair the Indian River Lagoon. The plans call for planting new seagrass beds and then, using drones, the builder will drop in approximately 1 million clams to filter impurities from the water.

“Mangroves, seagrasses, living shorelines and hybrid systems work with nature to stabilize coastlines, reduce erosion and absorb wave energy,” Garcia wrote in her op-ed. “They protect communities while preserving the natural beauty that defines Florida.”

You say you want an evolution

The first time Garcia sponsored a version of SB 302 was in 2022. That was just a few months before Hurricane Ian clobbered Florida, inundating communities like Fort Myers with more than 7 feet of storm surge.

The Category 4 hurricane dropped more than a foot of rain, swelling rivers and causing floods. It was the deadliest storm in nearly a century, and most of the 150-or-so deaths were caused by water, not the wind.

The Ian disaster exposed our state’s poor planning and shoddy building practices. Many of the state’s waterfront lots were created and built before we knew that the sea was creeping up higher and higher, getting ready to inundate our communities.

But when local governments tried to adjust their development practices to what they saw the hurricanes do, the Legislature stepped in and ordered them to allow developers to rebuild in the exact same places that had been washed away.

Given our lawmakers’ hostility to common sense, it should come as no surprise that Garcia’s bill promoting all-natural restoration work failed to find sufficient support.

“There has been an evolution on this,” Shirreffs told me. “We spent three years having discussions on this.”

The first year they were just pushing for more mangrove planting, she said. Gradually, in subsequent iterations of the bill, they added other elements.

One thing that helped sell the bill: The natural approach to shoreline repair turns out to be much cheaper than constructing a lot of concrete infrastructure, she said. Several studies found that planting mangroves isn’t as expensive as piling up tons of concrete.

That way, even if the legislators weren’t interested in green solutions, they could be drawn to support saving the other kind of greenery.

Cruising to the finish line

Last year, the bill aaaaaallllllllllmost made it across the finish line, Shirreffs said. To supporters’ chagrin, it failed to make it to a final floor vote.

What made the difference this year, so that it finally passed every stop?

The amendment to block a new cruise ship terminal, Shirreffs said.

There are already three cruise ship terminals in Tampa. There used to be one at Port Manatee, too.

It sat on the landward side of the Sunshine Skyway bridge. From 1993 to 2003, the Regal Empress embarked from there for Mexico and the Caribbean. But then the Empress began having some royal problems.

The ship ran aground on one cruise. On another, it was chartered by folks in the adult film industry. There was a lot of concern over whether they, contrary to what the Hues Corporation warned everyone, might be rocking the boat.

Eventually the cruise ship line went out of business, still owing Manatee County about $300,000.

Manatee now handles only cargo, which is smart. In the years since the current version of the Skyway was opened in 1987, cruise ships have become a lot taller.

The bridge’s center span rises 190 feet above the water. Cruise ships, which are basically floating amusement parks now, tend to be more than 200 feet high. A modern-day cruise ship would crash into the bridge like a dump truck getting snagged under an overpass with a low clearance.

In January, SSA Marine and Slip Knott LLC proposed building a new cruise ship terminal in Manatee County that wouldn’t be limited by the height of the Skyway. It would sit beyond the bridge, so no ships would have to squeeze under it.

Unfortunately, the companies picked one of the worst possible places to build something industrial: the Terra Ceia Aquatic Preserve.

“The Terra Ceia Aquatic Preserve is home to healthy and thriving seagrass, wetlands and a vital wildlife habitat,” Justin Tramble, executive director of Tampa Bay Waterkeeper, wrote in a column about the proposal. “We’re talking about a pristine part of our estuary, one that has such significant ecological value.”

Because the aquatic preserve is a beloved fishing spot, enough protesters showed up to fill a cruise ship. More than 19,000 people signed a petition to stop the project.

As a result, Sen. Jim Boyd, R-Bradenton added an amendment to Garcia’s bill. The amendment would restrict large-scale dredging projects in the preserve — an attempt to shut down the cruise terminal project before it could even get started.

Because Boyd has been designated as the next Senate president, people in the Legislature were leaping to grant his every wish.

“The amendment helped it to become a must-pass bill,” Shirreffs told me. “The public outrage over the port really helped us.”

The wild card

Although the bill passed both houses easily this year, there was still one wild card: Gov. DeSantis.

Despite occasionally cosplaying as a conservationist, our goofball governor has repeatedly lined up for scrimmage against the environment on every major issue.

The Everglades? He built a polluting detention camp in it. State parks? He tried to build golf courses in one. Water pollution? He cut a deal with an Israeli company to do repeated cleanups of our algae blooms, instead of trying to stop polluters.

Now Florida is the No. 1 state for polluted lakes. A toxic algae bloom killed off so much seagrass in the Indian River Lagoon that more than 1,000 manatees starved to death. Florida’s longest river, the St. Johns, is coping with steadily increasing pollution from septic waste.

Heck, he even became the first governor in history to openly oppose restoration of the Ocklawaha River.

What, I wondered, would DeSantis the Destroyer do to screw this bill up?

Turns out, the answer was: Nothing. He didn’t like that cruise terminal proposal either.

“There’s not really a need to add another port in the middle of a conserved area, and an aquatic preserve,” DeSantis said during the bill signing ceremony. “So, construction of a new port next door I think struck a lot of people as being unnecessary.”

I don’t know if DeSantis realized he was signing a bill related to battling climate change. If he had, he might have vetoed it on general principle. Here’s hoping nobody tells him he did something right for a change.

Three lessons

There are sound lessons here for other environmental problems that need support from our ignorant, angry, and frequently distracted lawmakers.

1. Be prepared for a long fight. Getting this bill passed took years.

2. Be ready to show how the move saves taxpayer money as well as benefits the environment.

3. If possible, hitch your wagon to a popular cause favored by a powerful legislator. A massive public protest helps too.

Bauman and Shirreffs acknowledged that this isn’t the end of the effort. Now they have to prod the DEP to get these guidelines done and done right.

Bear in mind that in 2016 the Legislature told the DEP to draw up new rules to better protect the state’s springs by 2017. Instead, the agency has put off following the law for so long it should qualify for an Olympic gold medal in foot-dragging.

Still, it does my heart good to see the Legislature do something right every now and then. I just wish it was habit-forming.

The reporter on this story, Craig Pittman, is a native Floridian. In 30 years at the Tampa Bay Times, he won numerous state and national awards for his environmental reporting. He is the author of six books. In 2020 the Florida Heritage Book Festival named him a Florida Literary Legend. Craig is co-host of the "Welcome to Florida" podcast. He lives in St. Petersburg with his wife and children.

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Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization. This story is republished with their permission. To support Florida Phoenix, click here:

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Onward thru the fog

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed if you are a rational person living in the Free State of Florida, but there are plenty of smart, reasonable people just like you here. The purpose of this newsletter and the Tropic Press website is to provide a source of news and commentary that shines a light through this irrational fog. That includes both original reporting and shared stories such as this one today by Craig Perry of Florida Phoenix.

Thank you for your support as a subscriber. It is invaluable. This is especially so for those of you who have chosen to upgrade to paid subscriptions. Your contributions are making this possible.

J.C. Bruce

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As this newsletter was written, Tropic Press was reaching more than 700,000 subscribers in Florida and elsewhere. With mid-term elections on the horizon, the more people we reach, the more effective we can be in helping turn this country around. You can play a vital role in that effort by sharing this newsletter with friends. If you are reading this as an email, simply forward it. Or you can use the link below. Thanks.

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Congressional redistricting was not on the mind of Gov. Ron DeSantis or any other Florida Republican last year, until Donald Trump made it an issue. The president, concerned Republicans would lose their majority in the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2026 midterm elections, called on Texas initially and then other red states to redistrict their congressional delegations.

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By Mitch Perry

Florida Phoenix

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has previously said that one of the reasons why Florida must conduct an unusual mid-decade congressional redistricting this year is because the state would likely be “forced” into compliance with an expected U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the constitutionality of key provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

That legal opinion has yet to be issued by the court, however, and likely won’t be by the time the Legislature reconvenes in Tallahassee on April 20 to begin the weeklong special session devoted to redistricting.

DeSantis said Monday that the Legislature should go ahead and begin the process, nonetheless, predicting that judicial opinion may come later but that there are other legitimate reasons to go forward, beginning with the fact that the state’s congressional lines should be updated to more accurately reflect the growth in population over the past five years.

“What I’ve said was, Florida has experienced 10 years’ worth of population growth in, like, three [years],” he said in response to a question by a Phoenix reporter at a news conference in Tampa.

“And so, if you look, our districts are not fairly apportioned because of that. It wasn’t the fault of the people who did the maps, and you still got to use the baseline 2020 data, but I think when you’re looking at that, how do you make that work? I think that’s something that’s totally appropriate,” he said.

DeSantis has previously mentioned that he believes the state’s existing maps for legislative and congressional districts are outdated because of the influx of new residents that began at the beginning of the COVID pandemic in 2020. According to a report by the U.S. Census published in June 2025, Florida’s population increased by 8.24% from July 1, 2020, to July 1, 2024, more than any other state in the country.

However, as DeSantis noted, when state lawmakers begin drawing up new congressional maps later this month, they will not have in their possession any of that updated U.S. Census Bureau information. Instead, they will rely on the 2020 U.S. Census numbers. The governor has not said how those congressional lines would change from 2022 if the state is using dated demographic data.

Congressional redistricting was not on the mind of DeSantis or any other Florida Republican last year, until Donald Trump made it an issue. The president, concerned Republicans would lose their majority in the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2026 midterm elections, called on Texas initially and then other red states to redistrict their congressional delegations last summer.

While Texas followed suit to (likely) give Republicans more congressional seats later this year, blue states responded to create new congressional districts that will likely favor Democrats. The next blue state that may do so is Virginia, which is scheduled to vote on a redistricting referendum led by its new Democratic governor, Abigail Spanberger, on April 21.

Florida law bans gerrymandering of legislative and congressional redistricting, and DeSantis has been careful to say that the state would not redraw congressional lines for any partisan gain. That’s why he previously emphasized that he would be “forced to” if the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately strikes down Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

The section prohibits voting laws or procedures that deny or abridge voting rights due to a person’s “race or color” or membership in a language minority, and is at the heart of Louisiana v. Callais, which the Supreme Court heard oral arguments about in October and is expected to rule on before it ends its current session at the end of June.

DeSantis said in December that his motivation for redrawing congressional districts is that the state will “be forced to do it because the Supreme Court’s VRA [Voting Rights Act] decision is going to impact the current map. No matter what else, that is going to have to be addressed.”

On Monday, DeSantis said it was more than likely that the high court would strike down Section 2 of the VRA, and he said that it wouldn’t be that big of a deal if that doesn’t happen before Florida’s special session on redistricting begins later this month.

“I also think that we know how that Supreme Court case is going to come out at this point,” he said. “I don’t think that there’s much of a dispute about that, and I think Justice Alito is writing the opinion. So, us looking at our map, understanding the issues in that case, and fixing it, I think that’s appropriate whether the decision comes before we do it or after. And it will obviously come sometime between now and the end of June.”

DeSantis comment that Justice Samuel Alito was “writing the opinion” drew concerns from John Bisognano, president of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NDRC).

“I’m sorry, is this a sitting US Republican Governor saying that he has INSIDE information from a Supreme Court Justice about a case before the court to ensure political capitalization off the case?” Bisognano said on X. “It sure sounds like it…”

Polls show that Floridians oppose the effort. More than 56% of 1,125 likely Florida voters think it’s a “bad idea,” according to an Emerson College poll released last week. That includes 64% of independents and 65% of Democrats, while 57% of Republicans support the idea.

“No one in Florida wants this,” Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried told the Phoenix. “Not his own congressional members. Not legislative leaders. Not voters. Fifty-six percent of Floridians just said so in a brand new poll. Ron DeSantis is fighting a battle nobody asked him to fight, spending money nobody wants him to spend on a map nobody has even seen yet. This has never been about Florida, it has always been about him. That is his legacy: self over service, every single time.”

Mitch Perry has covered politics and government in Florida for more than two decades. Most recently he is the former politics reporter for Bay News 9. He has also worked at Florida Politics, Creative Loafing and WMNF Radio in Tampa. He was also part of the original staff when the Florida Phoenix was created in 2018.

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Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization. This story is republished with their permission. To support Florida Phoenix, click here:

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Onward thru the fog

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed if you are a rational person living in the Free State of Florida, but there are plenty of smart, reasonable people just like you here. The purpose of this newsletter and the Tropic Press website is to provide a source of news and commentary that shines a light through this irrational fog. That includes both original reporting and shared stories such as this one today by Mitch Perry of Florida Phoenix.

Thank you for your support as a subscriber. It is invaluable. This is especially so for those of you who have chosen to upgrade to paid subscriptions. Your contributions are making this possible.

J.C. Bruce

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As this newsletter was written, Tropic Press was reaching more than 700,000 subscribers in Florida and elsewhere. With mid-term elections on the horizon, the more people we reach, the more effective we can be in helping turn this country around. You can play a vital role in that effort by sharing this newsletter with friends. If you are reading this as an email, simply forward it. Or you can use the link below. Thanks.

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By Diane Roberts

Florida Phoenix

Back in the last century, before condos choked the beaches and theme parks displaced orange groves, I was a page in the Florida House of Representatives.

All you had to do was fetch coffee and copies of bills for men in fat ties who called you “Young Lady.”

For this, you got a week off school and $50.

It was a lesson on how the Legislature worked.

Or didn’t.

Sure, they made speeches about serving “the great people of the great state of Florida” and passed plenty of bills, but they also behaved like giddy kids, spinning in their chairs, telling jokes, playing pranks (it was mostly men in those days), yelling at each other, sometimes nearly coming to blows.

We rolled our eyes — such juvenile behavior.

We were in 5th grade.

I regret to inform you the Florida Legislature has not exactly matured.

Indeed, it has devolved to the point that it can’t even perform its one job — ONE JOB, y’all — which is to pass a state budget.

So, what have your 160 elected representatives been doing since the session began on Jan. 13 and ended on March 13?

Not much.

No state budget; no attention to making insurance or housing more affordable; no addressing the climate crisis or the monumental strain on our aquifer; no meaningful oversight of the cash-hemorrhaging school voucher program; no acknowledgment the war in Iran is driving up gas prices; no relief for food-insecure kids in Florida; no ensuring the public has a right to know if some vampiric tech bro billionaire is building an AI data center next door to you.

‘Embarassing’

Lawmakers couldn’t even get the new state bird bill over the finish line.

Better luck next year, Flamingo.

The 2026 session limped to Sine Die, the official ending at which they symbolically drop a handkerchief on the Capitol floor and head home.

Sen. Don Gaetz called it “embarrassing.”

How did they fill those long hours in Tallahassee — other than lying to reporters, bloviating in committee meetings, and downing cocktails at the Governor’s Club?

They passed a lot of resolutions, including ones to commemorate, celebrate, and raise awareness of things like Uterine Fibroids and Women in Diplomacy.

I’m afraid you’ve missed Florida Gulf Coast University Day (Jan. 27), Space Day (Feb. 3), and Florida Kidney Day (Feb. 10), but there’s still a chance to arrange festivities for Vein Week (April 6-12) and Endangered Species Day (May 15).

Sadly, some these special days and weeks will have a pretty short shelf life.

Endangered Species Day, for example: Legislators are happy to watch Florida’s panther population numbers diminish as ranchers demand their “rights.”

Mustn’t upset Big Ag.

They refused to name the threatened scrub jay, the only bird endemic to Florida, our state bird, too. That might lead to official protection of its habitat.

Mustn’t hurt developers’ feelings.

As for Rare Disease Day, it will soon be irrelevant.

Given the state surgeon general’s hostility to vaccines and other evidence-based medicine, rare diseases won’t be rare for long.

Y’all give a big Sunshine State welcome to Hepatitis B!

When legislators weren’t declaring Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Day (Feb. 10) or Obsessive-Compulsive Awareness Week (Oct. 12-18), they were congratulating everybody they could think of.

At length.

Mean people

The Senate spent seven hours lauding departing colleagues term-limited out or (wisely) putting plenty of distance between themselves and the unseemly food fight we know as state government.

Former Senate President Kathleen Passidomo (R-Naples), Sen. Daryl Rouson (D-St. Petersburg), Sen. Lori Berman (D-Boynton Beach), and the ICE-loving Trump cheerleader Sen. Joe Gruters (R-Sarasota) got a heaps of fulsome praise, even from people who hate them like poison.

The House did the same thing, verbally licking each others’ ears and sharing their Milkbones.

As if this wasn’t enough time-wasting, they embarked on a lengthy round of Bobby Bowden love.

The FSU coach has been dead for five years and has yet to have anything named for him but two football fields and a fund-raising club. The Senate means to right this injustice by designating the capital’s “International” (stop laughing) airport the Bobby Bowden Tallahassee International Airport.

Sort of: It’s an “honorary” naming.

The Legislature made a name change for Palm Beach International (seriously! You can fly to the Bahamas from there and sometimes to Montreal!) official: the Donald J. Trump Airport and Modeling Agency.

(Might have made that last bit up).

OK, I’m being unfair. While your Florida legislators generally ignore bills sponsored by Democrats, or (in the House) bills the Senate cares about, or (in the Senate) bills the House cares about, they did pass a solid 12% of bills filed.

The problem is, none of these bills will actually make schools or rent cheaper or citizens healthier or do something about saltwater invading our aquifer or guns on our streets.

What they did pass — other than the new law mandating kids learn cursive — is almost entirely guaranteed to cause harm.

These are some mean people.

Non-existent problems

Speaker of the House Daniel Perez and Gov. Ron DeSantis despise each other (Perez labeled DeSantis’ refusal to shake his hand on Opening Day “petulant”), while the Senate sees no reason to cooperate with the tiresome folks in the other chamber.

Yet they somehow suspended their antipathy long enough to join forces on voter suppression.

The governor and the Republican legislative supermajority all say 1. Florida’s elections are great, safe, damn near perfect; and 2. At the same time, sinister foreigners and other undesirables compromise Florida’s elections with their fraudulent voting.

Therefore, they’ve passed HB 991, a solution chasing a non-existent problem.

In 2025, Florida had 13 million voters on its rolls.

The state has found 198 who could have registered or voted illicitly.

Possibly, maybe.

Making it harder to vote is something of a passion project for the current regime.

If you’re a married woman who took your husband’s last name, you’d better be ready explain yourself with paperwork.

Anyone wanting simply to register will have to prove who his, her, or their (although that’s not allowed anymore) identity with a passport, a REAL ID driver’s license, a court order, naturalization papers, or a birth certificate.

Hundreds of thousands don’t have REAL ID; getting a copy of your birth certificate costs money, and older, poorer people might not even have one.

This is a poll tax.

Not only do they not want you to vote, they don’t want you and your elected city or county government to celebrate Black History Month or Pride or Women’s Equality Day or, hell, maybe St. Patrick’s Day.

Why should the Irish get DEI?

Who’s heritage?

SB 1134 threatens local officials with removal from office if they spend a penny of public money recognizing or celebrating anything deemed insufficiently “Heritage American.”

Bill sponsor Dean Black, R-Jacksonville, says DEI initiatives foster “resentment instead of good will” and “mediocrity instead of merit.”

Here are some of those “mediocre” people and resentment-provoking assertions of human rights Rep. Black’s bill wants us all to ignore: Bayard Rustin, Sandra Day O’Connor, Sojourner Truth, Harvey Milk, Malala Yousafzai, Marie Curie, Alan Turing, Simon Bolivar, James Baldwin, Helen Keller, Toni Morrison, Tecumseh, Stonewall, Selma, Wounded Knee—

If you aren’t familiar with these names, look them up.

And imagine you are female or a person of color or LGBTQ+ or disabled: Your state government now says you should sit down and shut up.

Don’t expect the rest of us to care about your struggles and your experiences.

Some Americans are more equal than others.

If you dissent, if you say Black lives really do matter, if you oppose genocide in Gaza or protest the regime’s increasing authoritarianism, if you follow a disfavored faith, you may be a criminal — at least according to the state of Florida.

It has dawned on the governor and Legislature Florida’s voucher program also supports students in accredited Muslim private schools.

Republicans from the governor’s office on down began to holler about “sharia law,” although they presented no evidence these schools promote it or even teach it, and implied (again, without much evidence) the schools have connections to foreign terrorist groups.

Sharia is based on the Quran. You could say (as plenty of politicians do) that western legal systems derive from the Old Testament.

Both holy texts endorse gender discrimination and violent punishments. Neither has the force of law in the United States or any other western nation.

Spot the terrorist

But the soon-to-be-signed HB 1471 will allow the governor and Cabinet to declare groups “domestic terrorists,” deny vouchers to certain schools, and expel students who, say, wave a Palestinian flag at a campus demonstration.

DeSantis wants to ban the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a civil rights organization. A federal judge is blocking him.

Oddly enough, nobody’s talking about banning the College Republicans.

Members of the University of Florida chapter have been entertaining themselves with Nazi salutes and antisemitic declarations, while another gaggle of white boys, mostly students (one in law school at FIU) have been indulging in a WhatsApp chat insulting Jews, calling women “whores,” making free with the N-word, and suggesting Black people should be beheaded.

To be fair, UF kicked their College Republicans off campus.

The College Republicans are suing on free speech grounds.

I wish I could say the Legislature’s done all the damage it can this year, but that’s not at all the case.

They’ll be back in Tallahassee after Easter, allegedly to pass a budget. It could end up with all kinds of insane and hateful provisions slipped in at the last minute.

They’ll be back again later to fight over property taxes and redistricting.

That’s assuming they can overcome their feuding, back-biting, tantrum-throwing, and snit fit-pitching long enough to do their job.

Then again, the collective emotional age at the Capitol is about 10, so let’s not get our hopes up.

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Diane Roberts is an 8th-generation Floridian, born and bred in Tallahassee, which probably explains her unhealthy fascination with Florida politics. Educated at Florida State University and Oxford University in England, she has been writing for newspapers since 1983. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the Times of London, the Guardian, the Washington Post, the Oxford American, and Flamingo.

Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization. This story is republished with their permission. To support Florida Phoenix, click here:

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Onward thru the fog

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed if you are a rational person living in the Free State of Florida, but there are plenty of smart, reasonable people just like you here. The purpose of this newsletter and the Tropic Press website is to provide a source of news and commentary that shines a light through this irrational fog. That includes both original reporting and shared stories such as this one today.

Thank you for your support as a subscriber. It is invaluable. This is especially so for those of you who have chosen to upgrade to paid subscriptions. Your contributions are making this possible.

J.C. Bruce

Subscribe now

Sharing is caring

As this newsletter was written, Tropic Press was reaching more than 700,000 subscribers in Florida and elsewhere. With mid-term elections on the horizon, the more people we reach, the more effective we can be in helping turn this country around. You can play a vital role in that effort by sharing this newsletter with friends. If you are reading this as an email, simply forward it. Or you can use the link below. Thanks.

Share Tropic Press: J.C. Bruce

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No Kings Day is fast approaching. To find a rally near you, click here:

No Kings

Time to take back our state

The upcoming midterm elections provide a generational opportunity to change the complexion of Florida’s political makeup. But for that to happen, Republican incumbents in the Legislature must face Democrats on the ballot. Currently, there are far too many seats where Republicans stand to run unopposed. Here’s how we can fix that:

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By Patricia Callahan

Pro Publica

Dr. Adam Ratner hovered over a gravely ill infant in a New York City intensive care unit on a grim day in 2022. The 3-month-old girl spiked a fever two days earlier and had become lethargic. Soon she was having seizures and struggling to breathe.

She didn’t register Ratner’s towering frame or the bright hospital lights. Her eyes stared up and to the right, eerily frozen.

He ran his hand over the soft spot on her head, which should have been flat. Instead, it bulged, a sign that too much fluid was building up inside her skull.

The baby’s life was in danger, and Ratner needed to figure out why. He worried the culprit was bacterial meningitis, an infection of the membranes that protect the brain.

What came back on her lab tests was something out of the history books.

The infant’s meningitis was caused by invasive Haemophilus influenzae type b, or Hib, a type of bacteria that used to kill nearly 1,000 children a year in the U.S. A shot introduced in the late 1980s was so effective that Ratner, a veteran pediatric infectious disease doctor, was among the generations of physicians who had never seen a case. But the baby’s parents, Ratner learned, had chosen not to vaccinate her.

Disheartened, he told his colleagues, “This should be a never event.”

It wasn’t. The following year, Ratner treated another infant with Hib, then another, each of them unvaccinated. Two went home, but one had to be discharged to a rehabilitation facility. That 5-month-old boy had huge black pupils that didn’t respond to light, and he needed a ventilator to breathe. Ratner and his colleagues noted an “absence of brain stem reflexes,” indicating severe damage.

The U.S. government took a half century to build a vaccination system that shielded children from such a fate. Its success depended on two fundamental pillars: parents trusting in vaccines and children having access to them. Both are now in peril, thanks in no small part to the man steering America’s health policy.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who founded an antivaccine group and once likened the immunization of children to a holocaust, is transforming a government that long championed the lifesaving benefits of shots into one that spreads doubts about their safety here and abroad.

Kennedy is also considering changes that could prompt the few companies that make vaccines for American kids to abandon the U.S. market, leaving parents who want the shots unable to get them.

The threat to vaccine access reaches across the globe after Kennedy yanked the government’s $1.6 billion pledge to the aid group that provides shots for the world’s poorest children. For decades, the U.S. had funded such work not just as a humanitarian mission but as a way to keep Americans safe from unchecked contagions.

Kennedy’s efforts to reshape vaccine policies have been well chronicled, but ProPublica wanted to take a broader look at how the changes might affect Americans’ health in the years to come.

We found that long-forgotten plagues have roared back, killing and maiming children in parts of the world where access to vaccines or trust in them faltered. What seemed like subtle changes to a country’s vaccine policies had disastrous consequences years later.

Even in places that offer highly advanced health care, doctors have felt impotent trying to undo the damage when these horrors return. Modern medicine can’t reverse paralysis from polio. Surgeons can intervene when a baby is born blind, deaf and with heart defects after being exposed to rubella in the womb, but the child is still likely to face a life shaped by disability.

ProPublica reviewed hundreds of studies on vaccines and outbreaks of the diseases they prevent and interviewed more than three dozen people who have worked on U.S. immunization programs here and abroad, dating back to the days of smallpox. Some had never spoken publicly about their experiences.

They shared a pit-of-the-stomach dread that American children will end up fighting for their lives against infections that have long been preventable.

“I think there always was a worst-case scenario,” said Dr. Melinda Wharton, who retired last September after more than three decades leading immunization programs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “I don’t think I imagined it could or would be this bad.”

This week, Kennedy’s agency indicated it planned to appeal a federal court ruling that halted, at least temporarily, some of his changes. Among those was the decision to drop six diseases from the routine childhood immunization schedule.

HHS declined to make Kennedy available for an interview. In an emailed response to detailed questions, HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said that the agency has not limited access to or insurance coverage for vaccines. During the prior administration, federal health agencies “told the public that questioning vaccine policy was off limits,” Nixon said. “That posture contributed to a collapse in trust in U.S. health care.”

“Secretary Kennedy believes that trust is rebuilt through an open review of safety data, the willingness to ask the hard questions, and ensuring the American people have all emerging information as soon as we know it,” he said.

Vaccination rates have fallen in large swaths of the country. Resentful of how government institutions responded to the COVID-19 pandemic, many Americans lost trust in public health leaders. Antivaccine activists spread misinformation and recast the once-fringe practice of refusing shots as an exercise in “medical freedom.”

Now the U.S. is experiencing a surge in measles not seen in three decades. There have been more than 3,600 cases across 46 states and three deaths since January last year. The virus spread so fast in South Carolina this year that some medical teams had to examine infected patients in their cars to protect vulnerable people in their waiting rooms, like they did during the worst days of COVID-19.

Measles, among the most contagious diseases, is typically the first to infect undervaccinated communities and serves as a warning that other scourges will follow.

That’s what happened in New York City where antivaccine forces distributed illustrated handouts that seeded fear in Orthodox Jewish communities. Ratner saw a direct line between a loss of trust and the sick children in his ICU — first with measles in 2018 and 2019, then with Hib a few years later.

Now the villainization of vaccines isn’t coming from pamphlets passed out on a Brooklyn street corner. It’s coming from the highest health offices in the U.S. government.

“I’m worried,” Ratner said, “that we’re going back to a time where people die in childhood.”

The U.S. has been a leader on vaccination since the nation’s founding.

During the Revolutionary War, George Washington ordered troops to be inoculated against smallpox, which had ravaged the Continental Army and was scaring away recruits. Washington knew the perils of the disease: His face was pocked with scars from his own teenage infection.

The inoculation, the country’s first immunization mandate, took a primitive form. A sore from a smallpox patient was lanced, then the pus was inserted under a healthy person’s skin. Though some people died, the resulting infection was, for the vast majority, milder than the type caught in a bunkhouse or on a battlefield.

Washington gave the order in February 1777, “keeping the matter as secret as possible” so that the British wouldn’t attack his bedridden troops during their monthlong recovery. Had he not carried out the inoculation, many historians have concluded, the British may have won.

Nearly two centuries later, in the throes of the Cold War, CDC scientists teamed up with their counterparts from America’s archenemy, the Soviet Union, to wipe smallpox from the planet. They worked through the World Health Organization to track the virus in cities, rainforests and war zones, vaccinating those at risk. Four U.S. presidents, Democrats and Republicans, backed the work until the disease that had haunted humans since the days of the pharaohs was gone.

Vaccines, for decades, weren’t politically divisive. They were so uncontroversial that McDonald’s restaurants in the 1990s put the childhood immunization schedule on their tray liners.

When the nation’s immunization program was in trouble in the 1980s, Republicans and Democrats stepped in to save it.

Vaccine makers were abandoning the U.S. market after a flood of lawsuits alleged that the shot used at the time to protect children from diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough caused profoundly disabling seizures. Scientists later discovered genetic causes of some of the most devastating forms of epilepsy, but parents who sued back then won big verdicts and settlements.

At one point pediatricians could only buy that shot from a single company, and there were shortages. The U.S. also was down to just one manufacturer for the measles-mumps-rubella shot and one for the polio vaccine.

“If there is a fire tomorrow in the plant where the polio vaccine is manufactured, what would happen?” Rep. Henry Waxman asked the CDC director during a 1984 House subcommittee hearing.

“We would have a shortage,” the director answered.

An exasperated Waxman shot back: “Are we going to then start putting money into iron lungs for polio victims?”

A liberal Democrat from California, Waxman for years worked with Sen. Paula Hawkins, a conservative Florida Republican, on legislation that stopped the exodus of vaccine makers by limiting their liability. Launched in 1988, the federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program pays people who suffer rare but serious side effects, using money from a special tax on certain shots. The program maintains a table of injuries that are eligible for quicker payouts, and a dedicated vaccine court rules on cases involving health problems not listed on the table.

Those who don’t like what they are offered can still sue vaccine makers in traditional civil courts, but a Supreme Court ruling significantly limited the types of cases that can win there.

Just as the compensation program was getting off the ground, measles laid bare a different weakness in the immunization system. The disease tore through American cities, hitting Black and Hispanic preschoolers especially hard. Between 1989 and 1991, there were more than 55,000 cases and 123 deaths.

In June 1991, President George H.W. Bush, a Republican, stepped into the White House Rose Garden with a message for “every parent everywhere in America”: “Please, make sure your child is immunized.”

He announced that a special team of health officials was investigating why so many kids were missing their shots.

“While some say each generation repeats the mistakes of the last, no generation in America should suffer the plagues of the past,” Bush said.

The problem was access. Parents couldn’t afford the vaccines given at pediatricians’ offices. Bush’s successor, President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, ushered in a program that to this day offers free shots through local doctors to more than half of American kids.

Vaccination rates climbed, and measles cases dropped precipitously. By 2000, the U.S. had stopped local spread of the virus so well that global health authorities declared it eliminated here.

Having made progress at home, the U.S. government championed the use of vaccines abroad. Dr. Susan Reef, who had trained in the CDC disease-detective program made famous by Kate Winslet’s character in the movie “Contagion,” crisscrossed the globe showing health officials how they could save babies from birth defects and early death by introducing the rubella vaccine.

Also known as German measles, rubella is usually mild in kids and adults. When people get infected very early in pregnancy, though, they face up to a 90% chance of giving birth to a baby with congenital rubella syndrome. About a third of those infants die before their first birthday. Most survivors have deafness, blindness, heart defects or intellectual disabilities. Before the vaccine, a U.S. epidemic in the mid-1960s led to 20,000 babies born with the syndrome.

Reef and her CDC colleagues helped foreign health authorities set up surveillance systems that identified newborns with congenital rubella syndrome.

During a 2011 rubella epidemic in Vietnam, Reef spotted a cluster of tiny bassinets in a Ho Chi Minh City intensive care unit. The babies’ eyes had cataracts, a sign of vision loss. She knew that most would have trouble hearing, if they could hear at all. A collaborator from the WHO told Reef that at least one of the infants had been abandoned by his family.

Doctors had isolated the contagious newborns to prevent the spread of rubella, a sign the country’s surveillance system was working. But the scene of this preventable suffering, Reef said, “broke my heart.”

Vietnam launched a national rubella immunization program a few years later.

When Reef’s work began, less than half the world’s countries had introduced a rubella shot. When she retired in 2022 after a 30-year career at the CDC, all but 19 had.

For half a century, one idea lay at the core of all U.S. immunization programs: Let down your guard and the diseases will return.

Dr. Chuck Vitek saw this happen as he walked the worn linoleum floors of Russian infectious disease hospitals in the mid-1990s.

Throughout that decade, a massive epidemic of diphtheria raged across the countries of the former Soviet Union. The CDC repeatedly deployed Vitek to help health authorities contain this ancient contagion, once widely known as the “strangling angel of children.”

Diphtheria’s name is drawn from the Greek word for leather because tissue destroyed by the diphtheria toxin builds up in the back of the throat like a piece of hide, sealing off a swollen airway. Many parents had to watch their children suffocate. For those who escape asphyxiation, the toxin can damage the heart and nerves. Patients who seem better can drop dead weeks later.

At one hospital, Vitek peered into the mouth of a sick Russian teenager and saw the thick greyish-white membrane covering a third of his throat. Doctors had administered antitoxin promptly, so his windpipe wasn’t blocked. But, pale and weak, the boy faced a terrible wait. Had diphtheria ruined his heart?

Vitek had to leave before it was clear whether the child would survive. But one detail from his medical history stood out above all others: The teen had not been vaccinated.

“It was sad because it was something that would have easily been prevented with vaccination,” Vitek recalled.

Vitek was another graduate of the CDC’s disease-detective program. A big part of his assignment was to investigate why diphtheria had come back. One obvious problem was access; the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 disrupted vaccine supplies. But that wasn’t the whole answer.

The unvaccinated Russian boy offered a clue to the rest.

The Soviets had been big believers in immunization. Diphtheria shots for kids had been free — and mandatory — since the 1950s.

When diphtheria seemed like a problem of the past, though, the Soviet Union eased up. Concerns about fevers and other possible side effects from the shot used back then overshadowed fears of the disease. In the 1980s, Soviet health authorities created alternative immunization schedules with lower-dose diphtheria shots and fewer total injections, and they directed pediatricians to put off vaccination if a child had one of a long list of health issues. “If a kid had a runny nose, a stomachache, almost anything,” Vitek said, doctors would skip the shot that day. “They wouldn’t make an effort to catch them up.”

Antivaccine activists tapped into the deep mistrust of government institutions in the years leading up to the collapse of the Soviet Union. One 1988 column in a Moscow newspaper suggested that Soviet officials knew the shot could be harmful — even deadly — but kept this secret. (In focus groups held years later, parents vividly recalled how news stories made them afraid of immunizations, Vitek and a colleague found.)

By 1990, only 60% of infants in Soviet Russia had received all three full-strength diphtheria shots before their first birthday.

The disease found a foothold. Before the epidemic was over, more than 157,000 people were infected and 5,000 died, mostly in Russia.

Health officials in Russia ended the policies that left their people vulnerable and held mandatory mass vaccination campaigns.

“It was an extra dose across the entire population,” Vitek recalled.

It took years to end the epidemic.

Japan had a similar struggle with rubella.

When health authorities introduced a rubella shot in the 1970s, they took an approach that weighed who was most at risk, targeting future mothers by giving the shot only to junior high girls. The boys of this era were passed over and remained susceptible as they grew up. Rubella researchers refer to them as “the lost generation.”

In 1989, Japan changed course and began vaccinating young boys and girls with a shot that combined protection for rubella, measles and mumps. But doctors quickly discovered that the mumps component — different from the U.S. version — sometimes caused a type of meningitis. Mistrust spread as health officials downplayed the risk at first, then yanked the combined vaccines in favor of standalone shots.

Japan in 1994 dropped its strict immunization mandates. Health authorities continued to recommend shots, but vaccination became a matter of personal choice, and a lack of trust shadowed the immunization program for years. One study showed Japan’s confidence in vaccines was among the lowest in the world.

Time and again, rubella circulated in the men who were never offered the shots as boys, then spread to pregnant women who hadn’t been fully vaccinated. Babies were born with the type of devastating birth defects that Reef saw in the ICU in Vietnam. Japan’s epidemic from 2012 to 2014 was so bad that researchers discovered a temporary drop in the country’s fertility rates that coincided with a spike in Google searches for the Japanese word for rubella.

Serious misgivings about vaccination in one part of the world can have far-reaching consequences. Twenty countries that thought their days of paralytic polio were behind them saw the dreaded disease return in the 2000s. The virus was traced to Nigeria, where religious and political leaders in some areas had boycotted polio immunization campaigns amid false rumors that the shots had been tainted to make Muslim girls infertile.

Organizers of the boycott feared the vaccine more than the disease.

The governor of one northern Nigerian state told the Associated Press in 2004: “It is a lesser of two evils to sacrifice two, three, four, five, even 10 children [to polio] than allow hundreds or thousands or possibly millions of girl-children likely to be rendered infertile.”

Polio roared back in Nigeria, leaving more than 2,500 children disabled. It spread around the world for years, paralyzing kids as far away as Indonesia.

When Kennedy became America’s top health official last year, no other leader at the CDC had more experience preventing death and disability with vaccines than Dr. Melinda Wharton.

It was Wharton who had sent Vitek to Russia to figure out why diphtheria returned. And it was Wharton who started Reef on her quest to vanquish congenital rubella syndrome. Like them, she had trained as a disease detective.

In her 39 years at the CDC, Wharton had seen activists try to persuade Americans that the shots they were giving their babies were scarier than the diseases those shots prevented. In 2021, Kennedy had written in a book that measles — a virus the CDC says kills nearly 1 to 3 of every 1,000 children who contract it — wasn’t the menace that the government proclaimed.

“Measles outbreaks have been fabricated to create fear that in turn forces government officials to ‘do something,’” he wrote. “They then inflict unnecessary and risky vaccines on millions of children for the sole purpose of fattening industry profits.”

During his confirmation hearings, Kennedy told senators he isn’t antivaccine. “I am pro-safety,” he said. “I worked for years to raise awareness about the mercury and toxic chemicals in fish, and nobody called me anti-fish.”

In his early days as the nation’s top health leader, HHS dismissed thousands of Wharton’s colleagues, ended vaccine promotions during an especially deadly flu season and buried a CDC measles forecast that stressed the need for immunization.

Wharton set five empty cardboard boxes on her filing cabinet in case she needed to pack up quickly.

In recent years she managed the committee of outside experts that recommends which shots Americans should get and when. Few people had ever heard of her obscure corner of the federal health bureaucracy.

But Kennedy knew it well. He understood that Congress had given these advisers the power to determine which shots were free for more than half of American kids and which ones insurers must pay for. Many states used the committee’s recommendations to set vaccine mandates for kids attending school.

Kennedy for years complained the panel had been captured by Big Pharma. On June 9, his chief of staff at the CDC removed Wharton from her role managing the committee. Just as that news was sinking in, Wharton’s phone lit up with messages from the committee’s members. Kennedy had announced in a Wall Street Journal column that he was replacing all of them. “A clean sweep is needed to re-establish public confidence in vaccine science,” he wrote.

Kennedy stacked the new committee with many vaccine skeptics who quickly delved into his longstanding grievances about America’s immunization system. Webcasts of the meetings became a megaphone for mistrust. Some devolved into shouting matches as doctors from medical societies pushed back against misinformation.

One of Kennedy’s new appointees, Retsef Levi, a professor of operations management at the MIT Sloan School of Management, suggested that vaccinating a baby was like flying on an airplane that hadn’t been rigorously tested. “I suggest to parents to be very, very suspicious when people tell them that something is safe, especially a vaccine,” he said.

In an emailed response to questions from ProPublica, Levi said that vaccines have benefits and risks “often personalized to the individual’s health status, risk factors, and preferences.” Being transparent about those benefits and risks, including being honest about what is known and not known, increases public confidence in vaccination programs, he said.

The chair of the committee, Dr. Kirk Milhoan, told the “Why Should I Trust You?” podcast he wasn’t afraid to reconsider whether the polio shot is needed any longer. In an email to ProPublica, Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologist, said that the committee is required to review vaccines every seven years “to optimize effectiveness and to reevaluate possible long term risks.”

Like Kennedy, Milhoan doesn’t think vaccines have been appropriately tested for safety. In the podcast, he said American parents deserve to know the risks so they can decide whether they’re more concerned about the disease or the potential for side effects from the shot.

“What we are doing is returning individual autonomy to the first order, not public health,” he added.

Since she retired last year, Wharton has tuned in to the meetings she used to run, but at times they were too painful to watch. The new committee at one point sought advice from a former president of the antivaccination group Kennedy founded, while a CDC compilation of evidence that ran counter to her presentation was quietly removed from the panel’s website. For insight on the childhood schedule, the panel listened to a 90-minute talk by a Kennedy ally, a vaccine-injury attorney who once petitioned the government to withdraw approval of the polio shot for infants and toddlers.

In January, the acting CDC director trimmed the childhood immunization schedule so that it recommended routine protection for 11 diseases rather than 17. Six shots that had been universal would now fall into a category that essentially means “talk to your doctor and decide for yourself,” with guidance for certain shots based on risk.

“The idea that it’s increasingly acceptable to put children at risk for these kinds of things is really just terrible,” Wharton said. “To have it be the official position of the federal government, it’s very frightening.”

Nixon, the HHS spokesperson, defended the slimmed-down schedule, saying it would “maintain robust protection against diseases that cause serious morbidity or mortality to children while aligning the U.S. with peer nations.”

As for the committee, Nixon said Kennedy’s appointees are “committed to rigorous review and independent thinking.”

“Restoring confidence requires advisory bodies that are willing to ask hard questions, not simply reaffirm prior consensus and rubber stamp recommendations,” he said. “Disagreement at public meetings is a healthy scientific debate and the way to overcome groupthink.”

The American Academy of Pediatrics, which for decades had collaborated with the committee on the childhood vaccine schedule, boycotted the panel’s meetings and sued to block many of Kennedy’s moves.

On Monday, a federal judge sided with the academy, finding that for an advisory committee dedicated to using vaccines to control preventable diseases, more than half of the new members “appear distinctly unqualified.” While he considers the case, the judge, for now, put on hold Kennedy’s appointments to the panel as well as the CDC’s changes to the childhood vaccine schedule.

The ruling is a setback for Kennedy, but the Trump administration has foreshadowed other changes that could affect Americans’ access to shots.

In September, President Donald Trump stepped up to the microphone in the White House’s Roosevelt Room with a major announcement about his administration’s efforts to counter the rise of autism. Flanked by Kennedy and other top health officials, the president urged pregnant women not to take acetaminophen, the pain reliever often sold as Tylenol. This news ricocheted around the globe.

But less attention was given to other bombshells dropped about vaccines that day. The president complained that pediatricians were giving so many shots, they were treating America’s children like horses.

“They pump so much stuff into those beautiful little babies, it’s a disgrace,” he said.

Without explaining how, Trump said his administration was going to get aluminum removed from vaccines. “Who the hell wants that pumped into a body?” he said.

Aluminum has been used in shots since the 1930s to boost immune response. It is an essential ingredient in vaccines for nine diseases, including diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, human papillomavirus (a cause of cervical cancer), one version of the Hib vaccine, and many of the combination shots babies receive. Kennedy has long questioned its safety.

A CDC-sponsored study found an association between aluminum in shots and asthma in young kids. But the researchers, citing limitations in their analysis, wrote that “these findings do not constitute strong evidence for questioning the safety of aluminum in vaccines.” A larger study by Danish government researchers subsequently found aluminum in shots did not increase the risk of autism, asthma, autoimmune diseases or dozens of other conditions. Kennedy criticized the methodology and tried unsuccessfully to get the Danish study retracted.

If the federal government were to ban aluminum in vaccines, companies would have to reformulate them and, possibly, launch costly clinical trials. Nearly all the shots American kids get are made by a handful of pharmaceutical giants. The market is fragile enough that if any were to balk and stop making these vaccines, families could face shortages or lose access altogether.

The fate of the measles-mumps-rubella shot, which does not contain aluminum, is also up in the air. At the White House autism press conference, Trump, without offering evidence, said he had heard bad things about that shot, which has been used here since 1971. Researchers around the world repeatedly have found it does not cause autism.

Nevertheless, the president implored parents to insist on separate shots for measles, mumps and rubella — “separate, separate, separate,” he repeated.

But there are no FDA-approved standalone shots for measles, mumps or rubella. Facing a year with the most American measles cases in a generation, the president had suggested that there’s a problem with the only surefire prevention available and told parents to demand shots that don’t exist here.

In an X post, the acting CDC director at that time called on manufacturers to develop them.

A White House spokesperson did not answer questions about the president’s plans.

“The Trump administration is committed to a nuanced, nimble, and multi-faceted approach to restore Gold Standard Science as the guiding principle of our health policymaking without compromising access to or coverage of any lifesaving treatment, including vaccines,” Kush Desai wrote in an email. “Until unveiled by the Administration, discussion about potential new policies or their second order effects is pointless speculation.”

The federal court ruling that paused January’s revisions to the childhood vaccination schedule doesn’t stop Kennedy from making similar changes in the future, as long as he follows the proper procedures. While moving shots to the talk-to-your-doctor category may seem harmless, it could affect access down the line.

The injury compensation program that Congress created to prevent manufacturers from fleeing the U.S. market in the 1980s only covers immunizations the CDC recommends for “routine administration” to children or pregnant women. That leaves shots in other categories open to legal challenges by vaccine injury lawyers, renewing the specter of big legal verdicts that previously prompted vaccine makers to bolt.

Kennedy has long railed against the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, arguing it’s a gift to the pharmaceutical industry that removes any incentive to make safe products. Before he became HHS secretary, Kennedy referred plaintiffs to a law firm suing a vaccine maker in exchange for a cut of its fees if they won, federal financial disclosures show.

Last year, he hired a vaccine injury lawyer to help him overhaul the compensation program and expand who can receive payments. In September, that attorney said he and Kennedy were considering ways to add symptoms of autism to the program’s injury table for quick payouts.

So many studies — performed in different parts of the world and involving more than a million people — have found no link between vaccines and autism that this has become scientific consensus. (Scientists have found serious methodological flaws in papers that have claimed such a link.) The compensation program’s vaccine court spent years in the 2000s trying cases that alleged shots caused autism and found they didn’t. ProPublica asked HHS whether Kennedy planned to add symptoms of autism to the program’s injury table, but the agency did not answer.

Given how prevalent autism is, a change like this could exhaust the compensation fund. If the program collapses and the legal protections go away, manufacturers may stop selling shots here like they did in the 1980s.

Then, even Americans who still trust vaccines couldn’t get them.

Diseases that have been wiped out in the U.S. are still found in other parts of the world.

Polio is endemic in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and this month the CDC warned American travelers that the virus has been circulating in 28 additional countries, including Israel and the United Kingdom. In 2022, a young unvaccinated man in New York was paralyzed by the virus.

That same year, an outbreak of diphtheria began in Western Europe, its largest rise in cases in 70 years. Health authorities investigating the infection of an unvaccinated German boy in 2024 discovered that the toxic strain of the diphtheria bacteria had spread over two years from newly arrived migrants to homeless Germans, then to the child and his mother, who had no known contact with either group.

The 10-year-old was admitted to a hospital in the historic city of Potsdam. Like Ratner encountering his first patient with Hib, the German doctors had never seen diphtheria before.

“It was taught as history,” said Dr. Bernhard Kosak, head of pediatric emergency medicine and critical care there.

Treated with antitoxin and antibiotics, the child was transferred to the big teaching hospital in Berlin where a ventilator helped him breathe. But the marvels of modern intensive-care medicine couldn’t undo the damage from this ancient toxin. The boy died in January last year.

Diseases can follow the contours of global travel. In just the first few months of last year, the CDC found, people infected with measles arrived in the U.S. from Canada, Vietnam, Mexico, Pakistan, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Australia, Guinea, the Netherlands, Somalia, Spain and Uganda.

The Trump administration has walked away from long-standing international alliances that helped the U.S. beat back scourges in other countries. The president withdrew the U.S. from the WHO. And Kennedy backed out of the government’s promise to give $1.6 billion to Gavi, the global vaccine aid group the U.S. has funded for decades. He accused the organization of neglecting vaccine safety.

“Secretary Kennedy has made clear that American public health dollars going abroad must be spent wisely,” Nixon, the HHS spokesperson, said. “That means reviewing funding commitments and ensuring programs meet safety and effectiveness standards. Protecting Americans at home remains our first obligation.”

Reef, the former CDC doctor who had witnessed newborns suffering from congenital rubella syndrome in Vietnam, is devastated by the pullback.

“It makes me very very sad,” she said, then paused for a long time. “Very very sad. I can’t explain to you what it feels like to see all your hard work going by the wayside.”

In retirement, she remains part of the group of experts that helps governments decide when to introduce the rubella vaccine and also serves on four WHO committees that determine whether nations have eliminated rubella or measles.

When countries launch rubella vaccination campaigns for the first time, they can’t just target babies or the virus shifts to older groups and can infect those who are pregnant. To avoid this, Gavi for many years supported immunizing all children from 9 months old up to age 15 when countries first introduce the shot, which offers protection not just for rubella but also for measles.

But facing a massive hole in its budget, Gavi’s board in December decided in the future to save money by only guaranteeing that vaccine up to age 10 when a country first debuts it. Modeling predicts the change could result in 72,000 additional deaths from measles and congenital rubella syndrome, according to the Gavi board’s records.

A Gavi spokesperson acknowledged that the shift creates a greater risk of congenital rubella but said that the organization had to figure out how to protect as many people as it could with far less money. Countries that want to offer the vaccine to older kids, she noted, can draw from a different pot of Gavi money, but that will leave those places with less funding for other shots.

Fallout from the budget cuts goes well beyond rubella. “The bottom line is that, over the next five years, we expect to be able to prevent 600,000 future deaths less than if we were fully funded,” the spokesperson said.

Addressing Kennedy’s criticism, the spokesperson added, “Gavi’s utmost concern is the health and safety of children. Our approach to vaccine safety is guided entirely by global scientific consensus.”

The spread of measles in the U.S. warns of future rubella outbreaks. Since the rubella shot here is given in combination with the vaccine for measles and mumps, parents who turn down measles vaccines leave their kids vulnerable to rubella, too. It could take 20 years before birth defects from rubella become common again. Unvaccinated children have to grow old enough to become pregnant. The long lag time can give a false sense of security.

But, Reef warned, “when it comes back, it will come back with a vengeance. We will see babies being born who are blind, deaf and have heart disease.”

The world is ill prepared for a major resurgence in diphtheria. Antitoxin, made from the blood of horses, has to be given immediately. Yet supplies are scarce, and not many companies sell it. Dozens of kids in Pakistan died in 2024 because doctors there couldn’t get it in time.

Vitek, the CDC doctor who fought diphtheria in Russia, helped obtain permission for the CDC to keep an emergency stash of antitoxin for Americans after the only manufacturer with FDA approval stopped making it. The U.S. medical system still relies on an emergency supply controlled by the CDC.

ProPublica asked the CDC and HHS how many diphtheria patients the government’s current supply could treat, but neither agency would say. (“The CDC vigilantly monitors disease trends, maintains emergency stockpiles, and supports outbreak response at home and abroad,” Nixon said.)

Vitek retired in July after 33 years with the CDC, but he still worries how diseases that seem vanquished can reappear if people can’t or won’t get shots.

The unvaccinated parts of America could find themselves, like Germany, one unwitting traveler away from an outbreak of a horror from the history books.

“Once it gets reintroduced, your kid could get sick or die, even with modern medicine,” Vitek warned. And diphtheria, he noted, “it’s a terrible way to die.”

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The reporter on this story, Patricia Callahan, is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter exploring how federal policies affect the health of vulnerable people. This story was reprinted with ProPublica’s permission.

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom dedicated to nonpartisan, evidence-based journalism that holds power accountable. Founded in 2008 to address the decline in investigative reporting, ProPublica has spent over 15 years uncovering injustice, corruption, and abuse of power — work that is slow, expensive and more critical than ever to our democracy. Sign up to receive stories as soon as they’re published. And you can help ProPublica’s mission by donating here:

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By Martin Dyckman

Florida Trident

Herbert Block, The Washington Post’s legendary political cartoonist, advocated tirelessly for government in the sunshine. The first page of his 1957 anthology, HERBLOCK’s Special for Today, depicted two bureaucrats discussing a stack of documents in a government office. One is reaching for a set of rubber stamps on his desk.

“Well,” he says to the other, “We certainly botched this job. What’ll we stamp it – ‘Secret’ or ‘Top Secret?’”

Florida has – or used to have – the nation’s strongest government-in-the-sunshine laws. The Legislature has riddled them with more than a thousand exemptions. And now, officials don’t even need that form of rubber stamp to conceal whatever they choose to keep secret.

More and more, they’re simply ignoring the law. Requests for public documents can go unanswered for weeks, months, even years. When they do bother to reply, they may pose prohibitive charges for copying the material.

An ABC News inquiry into the Florida prison system is still waiting three years later for the desk calendar of the secretary of corrections.

The Lee County Port Authority told a private citizen there would be a $391,000 charge for a set of documents.

“The default position is now ignore, delay, deny,” says Bobby Block, director of the Florida First Amendment Foundation.

Block says secretive officials are exploiting the weakened finances of the news media, their advertising revenues having been hollowed out by the internet. It can be costly to sue for public records, so litigation is less likely. Reimbursement isn’t guaranteed.

Darkness is descending in other states also, Block said, and it’s spreading in the federal government, where delay has become a default, too.

The Federal Freedom of Information Act was modeled on Florida’s, but FOIA requests to U.S. agencies are going unmet due to President Trump’s vast layoffs and firings. A Washington Post op-ed Saturday took note of 26 lawsuits, involving 13 agencies, in which government attorneys have replied that there were too few remaining FOI officers to provide timely disclosure.

Florida’s regular legislative session concluded last week without enacting a potent public records reform bill (CS/HB 437) that the House had approved 111-0. It contained enforceable deadlines, limits on costs and meaningful financial penalties for scofflaws. It died on adjournment in the Senate, where the leadership had put it in three committees that were not meant to take it up.

It’s not clear whether that owed more to the mutual dislike between the two chambers, to the institutional opposition of the Florida Sheriffs Association and other public officials, or to the influence of Gov. Ron DeSantis, the most secretive chief executive in Florida’s modern history.

The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Alex Andrade, R-Pensacola, had exposed how DeSantis’ chief of staff – who’s now Florida’s attorney general – laundered $10 million in Medicaid money into DeSantis’ political advertising campaign against a 2024 recreational marijuana initiative. There appears to be a grand jury report on that which has yet to be released. One of Florida’s “shade” laws allows someone who’s not indicted to contest a grand jury’s criticism.

The importance of public records to public integrity underlay a key element of Gov. Reubin Askew’s 1976 “Sunshine Amendment” initiative, an ethics code that, among other things, requires public officials to disclose their personal finances. He saw that reporting as preventing misdeeds more than exposing them.

Government in the Sunshine isn’t just for the media. It’s for everyone. Citizens need it to keep their local governments honest. But they’re even more likely than the media to be met with resistance to public record requests and even less able to afford the fees.

Not many years after that Herblock cartoon, President Lyndon Johnson’s administration had stamped “Top Secret” on what came to be known as the Pentagon Papers, a 7,000-page Defense Department history of one of the all-time botched jobs, the U.S. involvement in Vietnam.

It told, among other things, how Johnson and other officials had persistently misled the nation deeper into an unwinnable war that cost 58,281 American lives.

Daniel Ellsberg, one of the authors, disclosed much of it to the media in 1971 but it took 40 more years for the documents to be completely declassified for the public.

That was one of the great examples, among countless others, why sunshine is indispensable. In 2010, Lucy Morgan of the St. Petersburg Times uncovered gross irregularities in the construction of a $48 million, lavishly furnished new courthouse for the First District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee, on a suburban site conveniently near the home of its chief judge, Paul Hawkes.

“How did it get funded?” Morgan wrote. “Like many things that gain life in Tallahassee, the courthouse grew out of a last-minute amendment on the last day of a legislative session. The funding for the courthouse was buried in the middle of a 142-page transportation bill, approved the last day of the 2007 session.”

Her exposé led to a Judicial Qualifications Commission investigation of Hawkes and to his resignation from the bench. Ironically, he had been the good-guy plaintiff in a landmark lawsuit that led to a 1992 constitutional amendment guaranteeing access to government records and meetings.

The South Florida Sun Sentinel won a Pulitzer Prize for its 2012 investigation of habitual high speeding by some 800 scofflaw police officers, most of whom were off duty. Reporter Sally Kestin and Database Editor John Maines used 1.1 million toll records from Florida’s SunPass system to compute the travel times of 3,900 police transponders.

They revealed not only a small army of lawbreaking cops but also 320 crashes that had killed or maimed at least 21 people. Only one officer had been jailed. Cops routinely “badged their way” out of tickets.

But today, reporters curious about where a city’s cops live would be stymied by a law that conceals anything that might tell where they or their families reside. The law has been expanded to exempt home addresses of thousands of public officials and employees, many of whom have no plausible need for such security.

In 2025, legislative investigators found the $10 million that had been diverted from a Medicaid overbilling settlement into DeSantis’ campaign against the recreational marijuana initiative. Digging deeper, the Tampa Bay Times plumbed the state’s accounting system and found that a total of $36.2 million in public funds had been laundered into those ads. Nearly half of the spending had not been posted, as required, to the state’s contracting database.

Reporters tracked the money “by tracing 29-digit account codes and 6-digit object codes across three state databases,” the newspaper reported. The precise amounts were unavailable because the administration has not turned over such documents as invoices and work products.

Documents have also gone missing from the database pertaining to the $608 million DeSantis spent just to open Alligator Alcatraz, his immigrant prison in the Everglades, that is costing $1.2 million a day just to run.

A lawsuit filed by Friends of the Everglades disgorged the state’s request for a $1.49 billion grant from the federal government, which may or may not be forthcoming. The First Amendment Foundation was told the Department of Emergency Management was allowing contractors – most of them were chosen without bidding competition – to redact their documents to protect “propriety information.”

In 2023, while he was seeking the Republican presidential nomination, DeSantis had the Legislature make his travel records secret, purportedly for security.

It left Florida in the dark about how public funds might be subsidizing his political ambitions. The governor’s visitor log, a public record for decades, has vanished as well, the better to conceal who’s lobbying him.

Florida law and the Constitution provide for virtually all records and meetings to be public but allow for exemptions enacted by a specific law limited to one subject and passed by a two-thirds majority in each house. Such laws must “sunset” after five years, meaning they must be renewed or allowed to die. The Constitution also requires the Legislature to state a “sufficiently compelling” reason to override the public’s right of access.

Trouble is, the Legislature has had no trouble finding excuses to enact and renew an ever-lengthening list of exemptions. There are now more than a thousand major ones. This year’s session carved out two new enormous exemptions.

One seals records identifying crime victims. There is an implied exemption for court records, given that the U.S. Constitution guarantees the right of defendants to confront their accusers. The other loophole provides up to 63 days of darkness for the identities of police officers who claim to be crime victims themselves. That’s what police customarily allege after they have killed or beaten someone.

That bill, CS/HB 1113, overturned a state Supreme Court opinion that had sensibly interpreted the 2018 victims’ rights constitutional amendment known as “Marsy’s Law.” Despite the severe damage to the public records law, there were no votes against the bill in the House and only three in the Senate. DeSantis is not likely to veto it.

The session’s data center bill also granted shade to applicants, allowing them to request up to a year’s confidentiality – time enough to steal a march on citizens’ objections. The Senate wanted prompt disclosure but the House got its way by waiting until the next-to-last day to send the bill back with a harmful amendment.

A Legislature that believed as much in open government as Florida lawmakers once did would have done none of that. And it would have enacted Andrade’s bill.

There has never been a statewide audit of public records compliance. A responsible legislature should want that too.

Leave a comment

Disclosure: The author of this article is a current member of the Sun Sentinel’s editorial board and a retired editorial writer for the Tampa Bay (formerly St. Petersburg) Times.

About the author: Martin Dyckman retired in 2006 from the St. Petersburg Times, where he wrote primarily about government and politics for 46 years as a reporter, state capital bureau chief and editorial writer. He lives in Asheville, NC, where he continues to observe Florida politics and writes editorials.

This story was reprinted with permission of Florida Trident, a publication of the Florida Center for Government Accountability. You can support the center’s work by donating here:

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Personal Note:

I had the privilege of working with both Martin Dyckman and Lucy Morgan many years ago at the St. Petersburg Times. As a young assistant metro editor, one of my jobs was to edit Dyckman’s stories that he sent to our St. Petersburg office from his bureau in Tallahassee. This is decades ago, and at the time, we used a teletype machine to transmit stories. Dyckman was a famously fast typist. He is the only reporter I ever knew who could start writing on a teletype so rapidly that the machine never caught up with him. This isn’t just manual dexterity. He was composing his stories in his head and writing faster than the fastest machine of the era. And he did it flawlessly. Guy was—and still is—a legend.

— J.C. Bruce

Onward thru the fog

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed if you are a rational person living in the Free State of Florida, but there are plenty of smart, reasonable people just like you here. The purpose of this newsletter and the Tropic Press website is to provide a source of news and commentary that shines a light through this irrational fog. That includes both original reporting and shared stories such as this one today from the Florida Trident.

Thank you for your support as a subscriber. It is invaluable. This is especially so for those of you who have chosen to upgrade to paid subscriptions. Your contributions are making this possible.

Subscribe now

Sharing is caring

As this newsletter was written, Tropic Press was reaching more than 750,000 subscribers in Florida and elsewhere. With mid-term elections on the horizon, the more people we reach, the more effective we can be in helping turn this country around. You can play a vital role in that effort by sharing this newsletter with friends. If you are reading this as an email, simply forward it. Or you can use the link below. Thanks.

Share Tropic Press: J.C. Bruce

Time to take back our state

The upcoming midterm elections provide a generational opportunity to change the complexion of Florida’s political makeup. But for that to happen, Republican incumbents in the Legislature must face Democrats on the ballot. Currently, there are far too many seats where Republicans stand to run unopposed. Here’s how we can fix that:

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By Liv Caputo

Florida Phoenix

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, a top Republican and favorite of Gov. Ron DeSantis, doubled down this week by again calling for an end to deportations of undocumented immigrants who “add to society.”

“Those people who are adding to the American dream, enjoying the American dream, that came here illegally but they’re doing good, and they’re not a drag on society — in fact they’re helping society — we need to find a path for them,” Judd said Tuesday during a press conference.

“The reason for that is simple: You’re doing what’s right.”

(Editor’s Note: Immigrants also comprise a substantial percentage of Florida’s crucial workforce. See the note following this article.)

He spoke to reporters a day after he and six other law enforcement officers on the Florida Immigration Enforcement Council publicly mulled drafting a letter to President Donald Trump, the U.S. House Speaker, and the Senate majority leader to urge reserving deportation to violent criminals.

Following the meeting, Judd said other sheriffs around the state called him to say, “That’s exactly the common sense we want.” He added that every law enforcement officer on the council — minus Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters, who was absent and repudiates his colleagues. position — agreed that a “path forward” needs to be carved out.

DeSantis created the council last year to advise on Florida’s undocumented immigration policies. It comprises four sheriffs and four police chiefs appointed by top state GOP leaders.

This conversation among the Republican officers marked a striking shift in Florida’s hardline anti-immigration policies. It also directly contradicted the DeSantis administration’s long-held insistence on deporting all undocumented migrants and Trump’s initial mass deportation platform.

Attorney General James Uthmeier just hours earlier said that everyone illegally in the country needs to be deported because: “If people are here illegally, then they are breaking the law.”

But Judd’s words came amid a Republican reckoning on immigration.

Last week, the White House privately told Republicans to stop talking about mass deportations and instead focus on violent unauthorized migrants. A Politico poll found that 49 percent of Americans found Trump’s mass deportations to be “too aggressive.” The poll came the same month that ICE and Border Patrol agents shot and killed two protesters in Minnesota.

Judd doesn’t see his stance as oppositional to either the governor or the Trump administration, he said Tuesday, and finds it “offensive” to suggest otherwise. He added that it’s up to Congress to address the conflict.

“Quite frankly, Congress gets an F minus, if you can get worse than an F, in dealing with this issue.”

But undocumented immigrants who crossed into the country shouldn’t immediately be adopted into society, Judd said. Instead, they should be civilly fined, forced to learn English, and expected to engage economically and socially in their new communities.

He brought up the “wide open” border under President Joe Biden, and posed a question: If an immigrant was making $1 dollar an hour to roof houses in Mexico, but could make $20 after crossing the border into the United States, wouldn’t they try it?

“And then I go, well, where do I apply [to cross legally]? It’s about a 10-year wait,” Judd said. “Now am I gonna wait 10 years, or am I gonna walk across that open border?”

“It’s a violation of law, they need to be held accountable, it’s not appropriate, but why is it a 10-year wait?”

Leave a comment

Liv Caputo, the reporter on this story, covers immigration for the Florida Phoenix. She’s had her work cited in the New York Times, the Miami Herald, and the New York Post. She worked previously at The Floridian Press and The Florida Standard. A Florida native, she graduated from Florida State University.

Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization. This story is republished with their permission. To support Florida Phoenix, click here:

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Editor’s Note: It’s not just cops pushing back

Florida businesses, especially in the homebuilding, agriculture, and hospitality industries, are reeling from labor shortages as a direct result of the state’s aggressive roundup of undocumented immigrants.

So, when you see law enforcement leaders pushing back, you know they are getting pressure from business leaders.

Here are some numbers to consider:

In Florida, there are an estimated 782,000 undocumented workers currently employed as of early 2026. This workforce represents approximately 6.7 percent to 11 percent of the state’s total labor force, according to a study from Florida State University.

Key Employment Statistics (2026 Estimates)

The following breakdown details the employment status of Florida’s unauthorized population:

• Total Working-Age Population (16+): 1,132,000

• Employed: 782,000 (69 percent employment rate)

• Unemployed (Seeking work): 43,000

• Not in Labor Force: 307,000

Onward thru the fog

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed if you are a rational person living in the Free State of Florida, but there are plenty of smart, reasonable people just like you here. The purpose of this newsletter and the Tropic Press website is to provide a source of news and commentary that shines a light through this irrational fog. That includes both original reporting and shared stories such as this one today.

Thank you for your support as a subscriber. It is invaluable. This is especially so for those of you who have chosen to upgrade to paid subscriptions. Your contributions are making this possible.

J.C. Bruce

Subscribe now

Sharing is caring

As this newsletter was written, Tropic Press was reaching more than 750,000 subscribers in Florida and elsewhere. With mid-term elections on the horizon, the more people we reach, the more effective we can be in helping turn this country around. You can play a vital role in that effort by sharing this newsletter with friends. If you are reading this as an email, simply forward it. Or you can use the link below. Thanks.

Share Tropic Press: J.C. Bruce

Time to take back our state

The upcoming midterm elections provide a generational opportunity to change the complexion of Florida’s political makeup. But for that to happen, Republican incumbents in the Legislature must face Democrats on the ballot. Currently, there are far too many seats where Republicans stand to run unopposed. Here’s how we can fix that:

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By the Florida Phoenix Staff

Florida’s 60-day regular session has ended — without a state budget and just 234 bills passed out of 1,896 filed.

That’s 12 percent.

Although lawmakers will return to Tallahassee in mid-April to hammer out dollar specifics for the 2026-2027 fiscal year — the budget is the only bill the Legislature is legally required to pass each year — signs of dysfunction between chambers were blatant from the beginning.

House Speaker Daniel Perez repeatedly expressed “frustrations” with his Senate counterpart, President Ben Albritton, lobbing shots at Gov. Ron DeSantis (“Whether the governor wants to be petulant and not shake the hand of a partner, that’s on him.”) The governor exacerbated the situation by consistently praising the Senate while putting down the House.

The legislative leaders, too, both Republicans, presided over the extended 105-day session last year. They’ll give up their posts following the November elections. DeSantis is in his final term.

“Everybody’s in their last year, everybody’s in their last weeks, and the big change there’s going to be next year is we’re not going to have the same people with the same grudges coming back to the same place to try to do the same things in the same way,” Sen. Don Gaetz, a Republican from Crestview and former Senate president, said.

“I think all of us can learn from a bad example. And the example is not the governor, or the speaker, or the president. The bad example is a polluted chemistry that does not appear to allow people to work together.”

DeSantis scored some wins with the passage of a state-level SAVE Act, an anti-teacher union bill, and the confirmation of two agency heads affiliated with the Hope Florida Foundation scandal. Other, flashier measures also passed, including renaming the Palm Beach airport the Donald J. Trump International Airport, naming a South Florida roadway “Charlie Kirk Memorial Avenue,” allowing the governor to deem certain organizations “domestic terrorist groups,” and light regulation of AI data centers.

But a priority for the governor, the “medical freedom” bill to repeal vaccine mandates for school children, died, when the House failed to consider the proposal. The Senate passed it anyway.

Speaker Perez saw some of his priority bills pass, including a proposal that increases the amount of money people who are injured by government agencies can receive in compensation. It’s been one of the most hotly contested bills in the Capitol for the past three years.

A quick look at what failed this session

DeSantis made headlines when he proposed eliminating homestead property taxes. And while he spoke about it incessantly leading up to the 2026 session, the governor said the issue should be addressed during a special session. Worth noting though: He never shared any plan to eliminate the taxes.

Undeterred, the House passed a joint resolution that put in motion a possible constitutional amendment that would eliminate non-school related property taxes for homesteaded properties beginning on Jan. 1, 2027. The Senate never proposed or even considered a companion measure.

OTHER PRIORITIES

There was no rebirth this session for Albritton’s Rural Renaissance proposal. This carry-over from the 2025 session never received House consideration.

Albritton on Friday acknowledged, “Sure I wish it had made it.” He continued: “What I learned in this process, for various reason, that was a big piece of legislation and it had a lot of stuff. Sometimes it just takes time, right?”

Conversely, the Senate never considered Perez’s priority to revamp Florida’s wrongful-death litigation landscape by eliminating the so-called “free kill” provision that bans parents of single, childless, adult children aged 25 and older from filing medical malpractice suits. The bill also would have allowed adult children to file wrongful death claims for single parents who died from medical malpractice. DeSantis vetoed identical legislation in 2025.

Along those same lines, bills that would have granted personhood to fetuses and allow would-be parents to sue for wrongful death died too.

HEALTH

Omnibus Medicaid bills meant to implement provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBA) fell casualty to the overall ill will. The bills would have gone beyond what federal law requires, though.

Both bills proposed mandatory Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance employment and training requirements for people up to age 65, which is not required by federal law. And the Senate, working with the DeSantis administration, moved to place Medicaid work requirements on about 111,000 poor, elderly, and disabled people who aren’t required under the OBBA to work.

The House bill also proposed defunding Planned Parenthood, which is allowable under federal law. The Senate bill did not.

EDUCATION

Despite a $4 billion accounting error revealed in a state audit, the Legislature did not pass Gaetz’s bill to increase accountability in the universal school voucher program.

A bill requiring teachers to take an oath to the Florida and U.S. constitutions and to non-partisanship was temporarily postponed in advance of its first Senate committee hearing in the second week of session and never seen again.

Both chambers entertained putting a constitutional amendment on the ballot to reaffirm statutory commitments to freedom of religious expression in schools, but the Senate never took it up on the floor after the House passed it.

The House passed a provision that would have defined how school library materials may be “harmful to minors,” but the Senate didn’t budge, killing the measure for a second consecutive year.

What did pass this session?

There’s usually an unexpected issue that emerges during legislative sessions. This year, it was the AIDS Drug Assistance Program, which faces a deficit of as much as $120 million.

To prevent the Department of Health from eliminating as many as 16,000 people from the program, which it moved to do without advising lawmakers, the Legislature agreed to appropriate nearly $31 million to keep the agency from making cuts through June 30.

The Legislature gave final approval to Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson’s legislative wish list, also known as the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services bill.

Following an involved committee path in each chamber, the most controversial provision, allowing lawsuits for food libel, was amended out before final passage.

That doesn’t mean the bill is without controversy; it still includes a provision allowing sales of state conservation lands for agriculture and language addressing commercial drivers licenses and door-to-door sales.

NET ZERO

The chambers were able to come together to pass legislation banning government entities from enacting, enforcing, or instituting by resolution, ordinance, rule, code, or policy any net zero policies to reduce greenhouse emissions. The emissions are the primary driver of climate change.

The measure follows a 2024 bill declaring that the state no longer be required to consider climate change when crafting energy policy.

DEI

The Legislature approved legislation to ban local governments from funding, promoting, or taking official actions related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

The bill says locally elected officials who violate the ban on DEI “commit” misfeasance or malfeasance in office. If signed into law as expected, the bill would allow the governor to remove local government officials from office if they violate the law. It allows a resident to sue a local government official for violating the law. If successful, the resident could recoup their attorneys’ fees.

Florida Phoenix staff writers Liv Caputo, Mitch Perry, Christine Sexton, and Jay Waagmeester contributed to this story, which was republished here on Tropic Press with permission of Florida Phoenix.

Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization. This story is republished with their permission. To support Florida Phoenix, click here:

DONATE

Onward thru the fog

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed if you are a rational person living in the Free State of Florida, but there are plenty of smart, reasonable people just like you here. The purpose of this newsletter and the Tropic Press website is to provide a source of news and commentary that shines a light through this irrational fog. That includes both original reporting and shared stories such as this one today.

Thank you for your support as a subscriber. It is invaluable. This is especially so for those of you who have chosen to upgrade to paid subscriptions. Your contributions are making this possible.

J.C. Bruce

Subscribe now

Sharing is caring

As this newsletter was written, Tropic Press was reaching more than 750,000 subscribers in Florida and elsewhere. With mid-term elections on the horizon, the more people we reach, the more effective we can be in helping turn this country around. You can play a vital role in that effort by sharing this newsletter with friends. If you are reading this as an email, simply forward it. Or you can use the link below. Thanks.

Share Tropic Press: J.C. Bruce

Time to take back our state

The upcoming midterm elections provide a generational opportunity to change the complexion of Florida’s political makeup. But for that to happen, Republican incumbents in the Legislature must face Democrats on the ballot. Currently, there are far too many seats where Republicans stand to run unopposed. Here’s how we can fix that:

More Information

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By Mitch Perry

Florida Phoenix

The Florida Legislature has approved a bill (HB 991) that will require proof of U.S. citizenship to vote, similar to federal legislation being advocated for by President Trump and Republicans in Congress.

It also will remove student IDs from being an acceptable form of identification at the polls.

The GOP-controlled Florida House approved the measure Thursday evening, 77-28. The vote came hours after the Senate approved the measure, mostly along party lines, 27-12.

Miami Republican Alexis Calatayud joined all the Democrats in opposing the measure, and independent Jason Pizzo joined the Republicans in supporting it. The bill will head to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ desk and he is expected to sign it into law. However, it will not go into effect until January 2027 — following November’s midterm elections.

It’s already illegal for non-citizens to vote in Florida and, in 2020, the prohibition was enshrined into the Florida Constitution. But Republicans say the new measure will ensure “voter integrity.”

“Yes, we have safe elections in Florida, but they don’t stay safe and secure if we don’t pay attention to the large gaps that exist where we can address additional fraud,” said Sen. Erin Grall, R-Vero Beach, who sponsored the measure in the Senate.

In 2025, the state found 198 “likely noncitizens who illegally registered and/or voted in Florida” out of the more than 13 million people on its voter rolls, according to a January 2026 report from the state’s Office of Election Crimes and Security. The office referred 170 of them to state and federal law enforcement for further investigation and prosecution. The remaining 28 individuals it referred to the Division of Elections for list maintenance.

The bill says that the U.S. citizenship status of every Florida voter would need to be verified through the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles records before their voter registration is considered valid.

Applicants would need to prove their citizenship by providing one of the following:

• A REAL ID-compliant driver’s license.

• A U.S. birth certificate.

• A current and valid U.S. passport.

• A Consular Report of Birth Abroad from the U.S. Department of State.

• A naturalization certificate, certificate of citizenship, certificate number, or an alien registration number issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

• A current and valid photo identification issued by the federal government or from Florida that indicates U.S. citizenship.

• An order from a federal court granting U.S. citizenship.

The bill’s supporters note that it would not affect voters who have already had their citizenship verified when they received a Florida driver’s license compliant with REAL ID standards.

How many eligible voters will this new law affect?

Critics say this hurts voters who lack those acceptable forms of ID.

“This legislation assumes voters have easy access to original and/or certified documents, but research conducted in 2023 by the Brennan Center for Justice indicates that more than 9% of American citizens of voting age don’t have their proof of citizenship readily available,” said League of Women Voters of Florida President Jessica Lowe-Minor in a written statement. “Only half of Americans have a passport, and a majority of married women are unlikely to have a birth certificate in their current legal name.”

During debate on the House floor last month, Rep. Ashley Gantt, D-Miami, introduced an amendment that she said would address people like her aunt, born at home in South Carolina during the Jim Crow era and never issued a birth certificate.

“As written, the bill will block eligible U.S. citizens from registering to vote and remove longtime voters from the rolls. This is reality, not conjecture,” she said.

Critics also note that after a similar law in Kansas was stuck down by the courts, it was revealed in litigation that the legislation blocked voter registrations of more than 31,000 U.S. citizens who were otherwise eligible to vote.

Sen. Kristen Arrington, D-Kissimmee, said the most troubling aspect of the bill is that it wasn’t clear how many voters would be harmed. During a Senate floor debate Wednesday, Grall did cite statistics from the state from January that said 20.6 million people in Florida hold a REAL-ID-compliant driver’s license and 872,408 who did not.

Student IDs will no longer be acceptable

The Senate added an amendment previously passed in the House to remove certain forms of identification from being acceptable. Most controversially, student IDs will no longer be work — nor will retirement center IDs, neighborhood association IDs, military IDs, or debit or credit cards.

Sen. Shevrin Jones, D-Miami Gardens, filed an amendment (later voted down) to continue to allow student and retirement IDs to be acceptable. He said the exclusionary provision of the bill will have a “chilling effect” on the youth vote.

“When did students become the enemy?” asked Sen. LaVon Bracy Davis, D-Ocoee. “I can imagine a long line of students go to vote and they have their student IDs and they get turned away. They’re not coming back. They’re not going to fix it.”

But Republicans countered that a student ID does not indicate citizenship.

“We want people who are legal to vote, we want citizens to be able to vote,” said Sen. Ralph Massullo, R-Lecanto. “We don’t just want just someone that might have an ID for whatever reason and maybe their ID doesn’t necessarily identify that they’re a citizen of this state.”

Heated debate

An amendment requiring a candidate running for office to state in writing whether he or she holds dual citizen sparked intense pushback from House Democrats on the floor Thursday night.

“Dual citizenship doesn’t make somebody anymore or less loyal to this country,” said Rep. Christine Hunschofsky, D-Parkland.

“A lot of other things in my opinion would make people more or less loyal to this country, and it’s disturbing that out of all the things we could have chosen to add as a qualification, that this was the one that was so desperately important right now, especially at a time when our president mentions removing the U.S. citizenship from naturalized citizens.”

The bill also requires the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, starting in 2027, to include legal status on any new or renewed driver’s license or identification card.

The measure requires federal candidates in the state to disclose on their qualifying forms whether they intend to trade stocks if elected, and prohibits anyone from running if they changed their legal name in the 365 days before the qualifying deadline. The law would not apply to people who have changed their names after marriage, divorce, or adoption of children.

The measure is similar to the SAVE America Act which has been approved by the U.S. House of Representatives, in that it would require proof of citizenship to vote. The SAVE America Act would also require voter ID, which has been the law in Florida for decades.

The Florida Supervisors of Elections did not take a position on the bill.

Wendy Sartory Link, president of that organization, told the Phoenix, “We did provide some comments to it throughout the process, some of which were incorporated.”

Leave a comment

The reporter on this story, Mitch Perry, has covered politics and government in Florida for more than two decades. Most recently he is the former politics reporter for Bay News 9. He has also worked at Florida Politics, Creative Loafing and WMNF Radio in Tampa. He was also part of the original staff when the Florida Phoenix was created in 2018.

Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization. This story is republished with their permission. To support Florida Phoenix, click here:

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Onward thru the fog

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed if you are a rational person living in the Free State of Florida, but there are plenty of smart, reasonable people just like you here. The purpose of this newsletter and the Tropic Press website is to provide a source of news and commentary that shines a light through this irrational fog. That includes both original reporting and shared stories such as this one today by Mitch Perry.

Thank you for your support as a subscriber. It is invaluable. This is especially so for those of you who have chosen to upgrade to paid subscriptions. Your contributions are making this possible.

J.C. Bruce

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As this newsletter was written, Tropic Press was reaching more than 750,000 subscribers in Florida and elsewhere. With mid-term elections on the horizon, the more people we reach, the more effective we can be in helping turn this country around. You can play a vital role in that effort by sharing this newsletter with friends. If you are reading this as an email, simply forward it. Or you can use the link below. Thanks.

Share Tropic Press: J.C. Bruce

Time to take back our state

The upcoming midterm elections provide a generational opportunity to change the complexion of Florida’s political makeup. But for that to happen, Republican incumbents in the Legislature must face Democrats on the ballot. Currently, there are far too many seats where Republicans stand to run unopposed. Here’s how we can fix that:

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By Mitch Perry

Florida Phoenix

The Florida House has voted final passage to a bill labeled by one Senate Democrat as the “nail in the coffin” for public sector unions in Florida.

The measure (SB 1296) would require that public sector labor unions could only be re-certified if at least 50% of all of the employees in the bargaining unit vote and that the vote itself wins 50% plus-one support. Currently, those unions only need a majority of those who voted.

The final tally in the House was 73-37, with eight Republicans voting with every Democrat to oppose the measure. They were Michelle Salzman, Hillary Cassel, Jim Mooney, Susan Valdés, Omar Blanco, Chuck Brannan, Anne Gerwig, and Karen Gonzalez Pittman. Following its passage, in the Senate last week, it will head to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ desk. He is expected to sign it into law.

“We have example after example where a bargaining unit represents hundreds or thousands of employees and only a handful show up and vote, and vote in favor of continuing the union,” said Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka, R-Fort Myers, who sponsored the bill in the House. “That is a problem, and that is the problem that we are now seeking to solve with this legislation.”

The measure has been fiercely contested by organized labor, which contends it could dramatically weaken or even dissolve unions throughout the state. Under the legislation, public safety unions are exempt from the new requirements. Those unions often support Republicans, while the bill targets unions representing teachers and other government workers considered more supportive of Democrats.

The latest blow to public service unions in Florida

The bill “is the next step in a years-long campaign to eliminate public sector unions in Florida,” declared Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith, D-Orlando, earlier in a committee meeting. Another Senate Democrat, Shevrin Jones of Miami Gardens, referred to it earlier as “the unions’ nail in the coffin.”

Earlier this month, more than 150 public sector workers came to Tallahassee to protest against the bill.

“If this bill is passed, resident physicians would be disenfranchised and unable to advocate for the conditions needed to deliver the care that all Floridians deserve,” said Casey Mohrien, who works as a resident physician in internal medicine and pediatrics at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami. “I look to my lawmakers so that I can continue to focus on my patients and not what’s going on in Tallahassee. Every day I wake up in the morning and I try to do right by my patients. I’m asking them to do the same.”

“I believe that legislators like you want to help working people like me, but I promise that this bill is not going to help us,” said Jodi Fiddia, a bus driver from Ocala, in a committee hearing. “If you want to help other public service workers like me, figure out how to make home ownership easier and more affordable. Whatever it is you choose to do to support public service workers, this bill should not be one of them. Please, because it does not help us, it only hurts us. Please vote no on this bill.”

The bill is the latest anti union measure championed by DeSantis and passed by the Republican-led Legislature.

In 2023, the Legislature passed and DeSantis signed SB 256 into law. That measure requires teacher and other public sector unions (but not those representing police or firefighters) to stop automatically deducting dues from members’ paychecks, and required that union membership has to constitute 60% of a bargaining unit, an increase from the old threshold of 50%.

The passage of that bill into law has resulted in more than 100 public sector bargaining units representing more than 63,000 public employees in Florida being dissolved by the state.

Democrats and organized labor have blasted SB 1296, arguing it flies in the face of most elections, in which the winner is determined by the majority of voters who actually participated.

Persons-Mulicka dismissed that argument, calling it “apples and oranges,” and pointing to similar requirements in Wisconsin and Iowa.

The House vote came five days after the Florida Senate approved its version of the legislation, 20-14, with five Republicans joining all the Democrats in voting “no.” That vote came after the Senate bill sponsor, Jonathan Martin, R-Fort Myers, amended the bill in its last committee to narrowly get it approved on a 12-10 vote. However, once it cleared that committee, he amended it on the floor back to its original language, which led GOP Senator Ileana Garcia to say that in her district, the voters “didn’t want it.”

“We amended it in [the Senate Fiscal Policy Committee],” she said. “We got to a good place. We rolled it back, and now Sen. [Alexis] Calatayud, Sen. [Ana Maria] Rodriguez, and myself, we’re left to give explanations,” she said, referring to two other Miami Republicans.

‘A deaf ear to workers’

Immediately following the vote, the Florida Education Association, the state’s biggest teachers union, said in a statement that it was “unfathomable that lawmakers turned a deaf ear to workers. ”

“After weeks of misinformation and falsehoods that were often presented as hard truths in the public record, politicians voted to strip away the constitutional right of thousands of workers in the state — including nurses, sanitation workers, utility workers, line technicians, certified nursing assistants, doctors and medical residents, city bus drivers, teachers, education staff professionals, higher education faculty and graduate assistants, city and municipal workers, communications workers, and countless other public sector workers who help make Florida safe and prosperous.”

Rep. Persons-Mulicka said the GOP-controlled Legislature has approved pay raises for school teachers over the past six years, but noted that several unions have reached impasses in contract negotiations over salary, blocking those teachers from securing pay raises. She said the right to collectively bargain belongs to the public employees, and not to the unions.

“The unions that are doing their job to represent our hardworking Floridians should be in favor of this bill,” she said. “They should want every union to do a good job. To be held accountable. To stand up and collectively bargain in favor of their members. But what we have seen is unions losing their way across the state. Not all, but many. That they’re putting politics over public employees.”

Leave a comment

The reporter on this story, Mitch Perry, has covered politics and government in Florida for more than two decades. Most recently he is the former politics reporter for Bay News 9. He has also worked at Florida Politics, Creative Loafing and WMNF Radio in Tampa. He was also part of the original staff when the Florida Phoenix was created in 2018.

Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization. This story is republished with their permission. To support Florida Phoenix, click here:

DONATE

Onward thru the fog

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed if you are a rational person living in the Free State of Florida, but there are plenty of smart, reasonable people just like you here. The purpose of this newsletter and the Tropic Press website is to provide a source of news and commentary that shines a light through this irrational fog. That includes both original reporting and shared stories such as this one today by Mitch Perry.

Thank you for your support as a subscriber. It is invaluable. This is especially so for those of you who have chosen to upgrade to paid subscriptions. Your contributions are making this possible.

J.C. Bruce

Subscribe now

Sharing is caring

As this newsletter was written, Tropic Press was reaching more than 750,000 subscribers in Florida and elsewhere. With mid-term elections on the horizon, the more people we reach, the more effective we can be in helping turn this country around. You can play a vital role in that effort by sharing this newsletter with friends. If you are reading this as an email, simply forward it. Or you can use the link below. Thanks.

Share Tropic Press: J.C. Bruce

Time to take back our state

The upcoming midterm elections provide a generational opportunity to change the complexion of Florida’s political makeup. But for that to happen, Republican incumbents in the Legislature must face Democrats on the ballot. Currently, there are far too many seats where Republicans stand to run unopposed. Here’s how we can fix that:

More Information

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By Mitch Perry

Florida Phoenix

The Florida House has approved legislation that would ban local governments from funding, promoting, or taking official actions related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

The House voted mostly along party lines, 77-37, to approve SB 1134. Republican Reps. Chip LaMarca, Hillary Cassel, Will Robinson, Paula Stark, and Jim Mooney joined all of the Democrats in opposing the measure.

The Senate approved the bill last week, and it will now be sent to Gov. Ron DeSantis for consideration.

The measure is sponsored by Rep. Dean Black, R-Jacksonville. He said that, over the past decade, DEI has divided society into competing factions.

“Not only have millions and millions of taxpayer dollars been wasted in the name of DEI, this philosophy has fostered resentment instead of good will; mediocrity instead of merit; and it has divided our society against itself,” Black told House members in introducing the bill.

Black’s bill defines DEI as any effort to “manipulate or otherwise influence the composition of employees with reference to race, color, sex, ethnicity, gender identity, or sexual orientation other than to ensure that hiring is conducted in accordance with state and federal antidiscrimination laws.”

Throughout the committee process in both chambers of the Legislature, Democrats in Tallahassee and locally elected officials across the state have criticized the proposal as including vague and unclear standards about what would be a violation of the law and the penalties attached.

The bill says locally elected officials who violate the ban on DEI “commit” misfeasance or malfeasance in office, which state law says could lead to the governor removing them from office. It also says that a local resident can bring an action in state trial court against a local government official who violates the bill. If found in violation by a court, that local official would have to pay legal damages to that citizen.

Rep. Ashley Gantt, D-Miami, said there were now about 12 carveouts for local governments in the bill, but that didn’t mean officials would be able to understand them. She introduced an amendment providing a description of what DEI is and what would be allowed under the legislation.

Democratic Rep. Christine Hunschofsky from Parkland said the amendment was needed because “it’s very hard to get straight answers from the sponsor.”

“I tried in committee,” she said. “But it could mean that you couldn’t have an immigrant heritage month. It could mean you can’t have a proclamation for Jamaican Independence Day or you could be removed from office. It could mean that you couldn’t celebrate Women’s History Month or Women’s Equality Day or Diwali or Chinese New Year or Easter.”

“This is insane!” she said. “And if we want to talk about wasting tax dollars, I would argue that this discussion is a waste of our tax dollars. If we have to make so many exceptions to the rule, perhaps the rule is the problem.”

Republicans rejected Gantt’s amendment. Another amendment, filed by Rep. Michele Rayner, D-St. Petersburg, would ensure that any local government’s involvement with Pride events would not be in violation of the bill. That too, went down to defeat, as did all of the 10 amendments the Democrats offered.

Among the carveouts listed in the bill are allowing counties to recognize federal and state holidays and special observances; recognizing the individuals and groups honored by state monuments, memorials, and museums, or national monuments and memorials, including recognizing the events and individuals forming the basis for such monuments and memorials.

It would allow local governments to issue event permits in a “content-neutral manner” and provide public safety services.

As was the case last week in the Senate, Democrats expressed strong opinions against the proposal.

“This bill would create major problems,” said Rep. Marie Woodson, D-Hollywood. “It tells our marginalized communities that their struggles do not matter. … By banning DEI initiatives we are closing the door on understanding and compassion, and those are crucial elements for a thriving society.”

The Florida Legislature and Gov. DeSantis have been dismantling DEI programs in Florida for the past four years. In 2022, the Legislature passed and the governor signed legislation restricting how race and gender are taught in schools and discussed in workplace trainings. In 2023, the Legislature banned the state’s public colleges and universities from spending money on DEI programs.

“This bill is dangerous, vague by design, and part of a broader political agenda of censorship and government overreach. Once again, Florida lawmakers have manufactured a sweeping anti-LGBTQ law — legislation intended to bully local governments and have a chilling effect on how they celebrate and support the diverse communities they serve, said Stratton Pollitzer, executive Director of Equality Florida, in a written statement.

“Florida’s LGBTQ community knows all too well how to fight back against unjust laws. Just as we did following the passage of Florida’s notorious ‘Don’t Say Gay or Trans’ law, we will fight every step of the way to limit the impact of this legislation, including in the courts.”

Leave a comment

The reporter on this story, Mitch Perry, has covered politics and government in Florida for more than two decades. Most recently he is the former politics reporter for Bay News 9. He has also worked at Florida Politics, Creative Loafing and WMNF Radio in Tampa. He was also part of the original staff when the Florida Phoenix was created in 2018.

Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization. This story is republished with their permission. To support Florida Phoenix, click here:

DONATE

Onward thru the fog

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed if you are a rational person living in the Free State of Florida, but there are plenty of smart, reasonable people just like you here. The purpose of this newsletter and the Tropic Press website is to provide a source of news and commentary that shines a light through this irrational fog. That includes both original reporting and shared stories such as this one today by Mitch Perry.

Thank you for your support as a subscriber. It is invaluable. This is especially so for those of you who have chosen to upgrade to paid subscriptions. Your contributions are making this possible.

J.C. Bruce

Subscribe now

Sharing is caring

As this newsletter was written, Tropic Press was reaching more than 750,000 subscribers in Florida and elsewhere. With mid-term elections on the horizon, the more people we reach, the more effective we can be in helping turn this country around. You can play a vital role in that effort by sharing this newsletter with friends. If you are reading this as an email, simply forward it. Or you can use the link below. Thanks.

Share Tropic Press: J.C. Bruce

Time to take back our state

The upcoming midterm elections provide a generational opportunity to change the complexion of Florida’s political makeup. But for that to happen, Republican incumbents in the Legislature must face Democrats on the ballot. Currently, there are far too many seats where Republicans stand to run unopposed. Here’s how we can fix that:

More Information

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By Christine Sexton

Florida Phoenix

House Speaker Daniel Perez said out loud this week what everyone inside the Capitol already knew: The Florida Legislature will reach the end of its regular session Friday without having a new state budget ready.

What the Republican legislative leader did not say is what will happen after the clock strikes midnight on the 60th day and whether legislators will just extend their session or shut everything down and come back later to pass a budget.

“We will update you when we have news to share,” Perez told House members.

Perez’s comments contrast with the Senate, where President Ben Albritton has remained relatively quiet as the budget standoff continues.

The budget is the one bill lawmakers must pass each year. There is still a fair amount of time for legislators to work on a new budget, since the state’s fiscal year doesn’t start until July 1. But the House and Senate must first reach an agreement on budget allocations — the amount of money they will spend in key areas such as health care and education.

The House passed a budget that overall is $1.4 billion smaller than the version voted on by the Senate. Once legislative leaders can agree on the overall amounts, they will then turn to figuring out stand-alone budget items. Perez complained last week that they had been unable to reach a deal because the House has a “fundamental disagreement” over spending levels.

While Perez on Monday did not provide enormous clarity on the budget, he did take time to swat down rumblings the House may end its work by mid-week instead of continuing until Friday. Speculation has grown that the House and Senate — which have seen little agreements on multiple major issues outside of the budget — may not pass a lot of important bills so there would be little need to keep working.

“Despite wild rumors to the contrary, I intend for us to continue working until both the House and Senate agree that we have disposed of all pending matters before the Legislature,” said Perez.

The final days of the session can be a bit of a blur, with bills moving quickly as lawmakers make last-ditch efforts to save or kill legislation. But the House and Senate have different rules about what they can consider in the closing days. During the final two days, the House is limited to returning messages — or bills that have previously passed the House and were amended and passed by the Senate — as well as conference reports or resolutions.

There are no conference reports available because budget conferences never started.

Leave a comment

The reporter on this story, Christine Sexton, has spent more than 30 years reporting on Florida health care, insurance policy, and state politics and has covered the state’s last six governors. She lives in Tallahassee.

Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization. This story is republished with their permission. To support Florida Phoenix, click here:

DONATE

Onward thru the fog

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed if you are a rational person living in the Free State of Florida, but there are plenty of smart, reasonable people just like you here. The purpose of this newsletter and the Tropic Press website is to provide a source of news and commentary that shines a light through this irrational fog. That includes both original reporting and shared stories such as this one today by Christine Sexton.

Thank you for your support as a subscriber. It is invaluable. This is especially so for those of you who have chosen to upgrade to paid subscriptions. Your contributions are making this possible.

J.C. Bruce

Subscribe now

Sharing is caring

As this newsletter was written, Tropic Press was reaching more than 750,000 subscribers in Florida and elsewhere. With mid-term elections on the horizon, the more people we reach, the more effective we can be in helping turn this country around. You can play a vital role in that effort by sharing this newsletter with friends. If you are reading this as an email, simply forward it. Or you can use the link below. Thanks.

Share Tropic Press: J.C. Bruce

Time to take back our state

The upcoming midterm elections provide a generational opportunity to change the complexion of Florida’s political makeup. But for that to happen, Republican incumbents in the Legislature must face Democrats on the ballot. Currently, there are far too many seats where Republicans stand to run unopposed. Here’s how we can fix that:

More Information

By Michelle DeMarco

Florida Trident

Legislation that would ban law enforcement and immigration officers from hiding their identities never had much of a chance in the Republican-dominated Florida Legislature.

Sponsored by Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith (D-Orlando) and Rep. Angie Nixon (D-Jacksonville) the “Visible Act” would have prohibited any officer—local, state, or federal—performing immigration enforcement functions from wearing a mask or other face covering unless involved in “a covert, non-public operation, or to guard against hazardous environmental conditions.” Visible identification to include name tags or badge or identification number would also have been required.

The bills, both filed last year, have languished in committee since then, despite the outrage and wave of national protests that followed the shooting deaths of American citizens Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti by masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Minneapolis.

The killings underscored the critical need for the legislation, Smith said in an interview with the Florida Trident earlier this year. “ICE has been terrorizing our communities,” he said, with many immigrants swept up by masked agents and deposited at county jails or shipped off to Alligator Alcatraz, the controversial detention facility hastily constructed by the DeSantis administration in the middle of the Everglades.

“In the wake of the Minnesota shootings, it’s even more urgent we have transparency and accountability to keep our communities safe,” Smith said, adding that despite the Trump Administration’s insistence the immigration raids were solely apprehending the worst criminals, “they’re not. They’re targeting Latinos who have done nothing wrong. The idea that they’re apprehending violent criminals is a complete and total lie.”

The masking of ICE agents began last year, as officials claimed agents and other federal immigration agents were in danger from doxxing. Soon after, the FBI began issuing warnings about individuals impersonating masked agents to carry out crimes, with at least one incident reported in Florida. Even Joe Rogan, an immensely popular and influential podcaster who endorsed Donald Trump for the presidency, appeared earlier this year to be turning against the immigration raids, likening them to Gestapo tactics.

“If you get arrested by a cop, you’re allowed to ask the cop, what is your name and badge number?,” he said. “If you get arrested by an ICE agent, you have no such right. They’re wearing a mask. They don’t have to tell you s—t. That’s a problem. That’s a problem on our city streets, right? Because you could also pretend to be an ICE agent.”

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In Florida, law enforcement generally shuns the wearing of masks and officers are readily identifiable with name tags and badge numbers. During the height of the Covid 19 pandemic, Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods even banned his deputies from wearing face coverings while on duty.

But it is unclear whether Florida law enforcement agencies are permitted to wear masks while on immigration assignments. The Florida Highway Patrol, which has been the most active in immigration enforcement in the state, did not respond to questions posed by the Trident about uniform policies and face coverings. Neither did the Florida Gaming Control Commission, whose agents were spotted with full face coverings during an immigration raid last year reported by TCPalm.

Smith’s bill was partly modeled after legislation signed last September by California Gov. Gavin Newsom, dubbed the “No Secret Police Act,” which prohibits ICE from shielding their faces and concealing their identities. The law, which was scheduled to go into effect Jan. 1, was challenged by the U.S. Department of Justice which claimed it violated the Supremacy Clause. A federal judge struck down the law last month, saying that it was discriminatory against federal agents because it did not apply to all law enforcement in California. Lawmakers are revising it to broaden its applicability and bring it into compliance.

But the Florida bill also draws from the past, and the state’s efforts more than half a century ago to address the fear and intimidation tactics of the Ku Klux Klan by banning the wearing of masks and hoods in public spaces.

Legislation prohibiting the coverings was filed in 1949, the same year in which the newly elected governor of Florida, Fuller Warren, was forced to defend his own past Klan involvement, and the Klan led a motorcade through the streets of Tallahassee.

“I never took part in any of the Klan’s brandings, beatings, whippings, torturing or lynchings,” Gov. Warren said in a March 1949 statement. “I never participated in the Klan’s cowardly attempts to terrify helpless people. I never helped the Klan to stir up hatred against defenseless groups of good American citizens.”

Noting his service in World War II, Warren described the Nazis as “first cousins to Klansmen” and professed his determination to safeguard the citizenry by preventing “this lawless mob” from growing strong again.

But legislation to outlaw the Klan’s hoods and masks was not successful until 1951, a year which would be dubbed “The Florida Terror” because of the sheer number of attempted and successful bombings following passage of the ban, and the Klan’s declaring war on “hate groups” including the NAACP, B’nai B’rith, and the Catholic Church.

While the law would later be partially struck down as too broad by the state Supreme Court and subsequently revised by the legislature in the early 1980s, key provisions of the statute raise questions about its applicability to law enforcement, in particular masked federal immigration agents. It is rarely if ever enforced.

For example, the statutes prohibit a person above the age of 16 from wearing a mask or hood if the intent “by force or threat of force, to injure, intimidate, or interfere with any person because of the person’s exercise of any right secured by federal, state, or local law or to intimidate such person…from exercising any right secured by federal, state, or local law.”

“Florida law is clear that wearing a mask while attempting to intimidate or deprive people of their rights” is illegal, said Alana Greer, a human rights attorney based in Miami. “No one is above the law, including ICE.”

The University of Wisconsin Law School, in a report updated in January, opined that Florida’s law could be used against federal officials in some ways, including the possibility of prosecution.

“If the law’s predicates are met (e.g., that the perpetrator acted ‘with the intent to intimidate, threaten, abuse, or harass’ or to violate someone’s civil rights), agents could have difficulty invoking the protections of either Supremacy Clause Immunity or Intergovernmental Immunity,” the report notes. “These laws may thus allow state officials to prosecute masked federal law enforcement in at least some circumstances without having to enact new legislation.”

But there’s a catch. A provision in the statute also “exempts people engaged in employment where a mask is worn for the purpose of ensuring the physical safety of the wearer…”

Bob Jarvis, a law professor at Nova Southeastern University, said applying the statute is complicated.

If law enforcement has “crossed over the line and become criminal,” then yes, the statute would apply, Jarvis said. But the ban was designed to stop criminals, he said. The revised law “has not been tested in court,” he noted, “and it is unclear whether the legislature did enough” to satisfy the concerns raised when it was first overturned.

“It’s so much simpler to do what California has done,” Jarvis said, by writing a law that says “the police cannot wear masks.” But tapping the existing prohibition would be bending it to fit a situation to which it should not apply. “I don’t see a Florida court saying this applies to cops. ICE doesn’t have any worries in Florida,” he said.

Without Republican support, the “Visible Act” was doomed from the outset. Despite some signs of concern by GOP colleagues over the immigration tactics both federally and at the state level under the DeSantis administration, the numbers for passage just weren’t there, Smith recognized.

“We’re in the super minority here,” Smith said. “We have to lead with our values.”

The 2026 legislative session is scheduled to end March 13.

Leave a comment

The reporter on this story, Michelle DeMarco, is an award-winning investigative reporter who returned to journalism after more than two decades in public service. Contact her at demarco@flcga.org.

This story was reprinted with permission of Florida Trident, a publication of the Florida Center for Government Accountability. You can support the center’s work by donating here:

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Meet me in Fort Myers

The annual Southwest Florida Reading Festival is this weekend, and I will be there on Saturday autographing copies of the books in my Strange Files series of mysterious adventures, most of them set right here in the Gunshine State. If you’re in the neighborhood, stop by.

Reading Festival Details

Onward thru the fog

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed if you are a rational person living in the Free State of Florida, but there are plenty of smart, reasonable people just like you here. The purpose of this newsletter and the Tropic Press website is to provide a source of news and commentary that shines a light through this irrational fog. That includes both original reporting and shared stories such as this one today from Florida Trident reporter Michelle DeMarco.

Thank you for your support as a subscriber. It is invaluable. This is especially so for those of you who have chosen to upgrade to paid subscriptions. Your contributions are making this possible.

J.C. Bruce

Subscribe now

Sharing this, please

As this newsletter was written, Tropic Press was reaching more than 750,000 subscribers in Florida and elsewhere. With mid-term elections on the horizon, the more people we reach, the more effective we can be in helping turn this country around. You can play a vital role in that effort by sharing this newsletter with friends. If you are reading this as an email, simply forward it. Or you can use the link below. Thanks.

Share Tropic Press: J.C. Bruce

More online

Thank you for reading the Tropic Press newsletter. You also have access to the Tropic Press website for additional and previous posts, an archive of posts from our advice columnist, Miss Mingo, occasional guest commentaries, and information about The Strange Files series of mysterious adventures and other books.

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By Laura Cassels

Florida Trident

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – With Florida’s measles outbreak making headlines, the Sunshine State is preparing to welcome millions of college students and families to its beaches, amusement parks and other hotspots for spring break throughout March and April. Doctors worry those visitors may return home with more than tans.

Florida measles (rubeola) cases increased five-fold from January to February, making Florida third-highest in the nation for measles this year, behind South Carolina and Utah, according to state and federal health data. Most of Florida’s 114 confirmed and suspected cases are among college students in Collier County (the county seat is Naples), where cases surged from eight to 83 between Feb. 1 and Feb. 21, when the latest Florida Health Department data was published 11 days ago.

Florida also reported scores of cases of whooping cough (pertussis) and chickenpox (varicella), mostly among children ages 0 to 14, through Feb. 21.

Florida doctors are fighting further erosion of the state’s already porous vaccination regimen against polio, tetanus and other infectious diseases, warning that the comeback of measles could be just the beginning.

“It is deeply concerning that such legislation is moving forward while active disease outbreaks, including measles, are occurring during our high-tourism season, turning Florida’s traditional Spring break month of March into a growing public health concern,” said pediatrician Dr. Rana Alissa, president of the Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, in a call-to-action message this week to chapter members.

In this high-stakes setting, state lawmakers voted earlier this week to send the Florida Senate a bill that guts school-age vaccination requirements, including the MMR shots that prevent measles, by granting a “conscience” exemption for any reason. The bill does not suggest that vaccines are unsafe nor recommend against their use, but is part of a conservative, anti-regulation movement in Florida. Vaccination requirements apply to public and private schools, pre-Ks and daycares. Currently exemptions are granted only for medical and religious reasons.

The bill SB 1756, titled “Medical Freedom,” was approved 14-8 this week in the Senate Rules Committee, its last committee stop before heading to the full Senate. It is sponsored by Sen. Clay Yarborough, a Republican who represents Nassau County and part of Duval County, and is backed by Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo and Gov. Ron DeSantis, who declared their opposition to vaccine mandates in September.

The bill also would make the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin, popular among anti-vaxxers as an unproven remedy for COVID, available from pharmacists without a prescription.

Leave private schools alone

On Tuesday, Sen. Colleen Burton, a Polk County Republican, tried to amend the bill to let private schools choose to disallow “conscience” exemptions, exposing a rift between Republicans who champion “medical freedom” at all costs and others who reflect majority public opinion in favor of mandatory school-age vaccinations with limited exemptions. Burton’s amendment would have carved out a private-school option for pro-vaccine families. She said Yarborough’s bill infringes on the medical freedom of pro-vaccine families of school-age children.

“I believe we should give them a choice,” Burton said. “(Otherwise) they have no choice but to worry about the health of their children when their children go to school. It’s real, and we’re ignoring them, and in Florida, they are the vast majority of the parents.”

Burton’s amendment failed on a split vote, leaving her to vote against Yarborough’s bill, as did two other Republicans on the Rules Committee and all the Democrats. Thirteen Republicans and one independent voted yes on the bill.

Regarding the ivermectin component of Yarborough’s bill, Senate Democratic Leader Lori Berman, representing Palm Beach, argued: “Why are we making an exception for one drug? It’s a prescription drug. If people want it, go to the doctor. Get it the way you’re supposed to get it, through the doctor.”

Faced with multiple questions about the science underlying public policy on infectious diseases, vaccines, and ivermectin, Yarborough consistently said he was not qualified to comment on those but was standing in support of freedom of choice.

“On the science of it, I don’t believe I’d be qualified to give you a full, in-depth, detailed, long answer on that part,” he said. He didn’t offer brief answers either.

Meanwhile, the tourists are coming. Whether news of Florida’s rash of measles, chickenpox and whooping cough dampens their enthusiasm remains to be seen.

Tourism amid measles comeback

Florida destinations can expect roughly 70 million domestic visitors from inside and outside the state in the first six months of the year, which include spring break and the start of summer vacation. That is based on tourism trends reported by Visit Florida, the state’s official tourism marketing organization.

This season, their visits will occur during an outbreak of highly contagious measles (rubeola) that may continue to spread or may decline by the time they get here. The last data published by the Florida Department of Health is from Feb. 21, following a surge of cases starting Feb. 1. Nationally, measles cases in the first two months of 2026 are already half of 2025’s 12-month total, with the nation’s spring and summer travel holidays still ahead. Of the 1,136 measles cases cited nationally by the CDC through Feb. 26, 58 children and adults have been hospitalized.

Measles re-emerged last year as a growing national public-health concern, ending 25 years of the United States being considered measles-free (despite a flare-up in 2019). Through all of 2025, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recorded 2,286 cases of measles, mostly in Texas and South Carolina. The disease killed two children in Texas and one adult in New Mexico, all of them unvaccinated, according to the CDC.

Previous disease outbreaks in Florida have impacted tourism. Outbreaks of Zika in Miami-Dade in 2016-17 may be indicative. (Zika is a virus that can cause fetal brain defects. There is no vaccine to prevent it). While Zika was making people sick, hotel stays declined by 1-2 percent. At its worst, hotel stays fell off 12.5 percent. Such a drop-off statewide would be worth about $530 million in lost revenue, plus the loss of 7,000 jobs, $300 million in paychecks, and $65 million in lost state and local tax revenue, according to an economic analysis published in February by Regional Economic Consulting Group, founded and run by former Florida state economists using official state and federal data and methods.

If Florida vaccination rates continue to fall, the impact on tourism would be recurring, according to the analysis, commissioned by American Families for Vaccines and submitted as evidence in Senate committee hearings.

Currently, Florida requires children who attend private or public schools, pre-kindergarten programs or daycare facilities to be vaccinated against 11 infectious diseases: polio; measles, mumps, and rubella (combined into an MMR shot); chickenpox; diphtheria, tetanus, and acellular pertussis, or whooping cough (combined into a DTaP shot); Haemophilus influenza type b (Hib); hepatitis; and pneumococcal bacteria.

Political standoff?

Yarborough’s vaccination-exemption bill has cleared its last Senate committee. It is now poised to go before the full Senate, though it had not been scheduled as of Wednesday. It was not apparent how the bill could reach the finish line before regular session ends on March 13. But anything could happen if feuding Republicans in the House, the Senate and the governor’s office reach an accord in time.

Also, with time running short, there is a logjam attributed to infighting among Republican leaders in the supermajority that controls the Senate, the House, and the governor’s office.

Through Wednesday evening, with just nine days left in the 60-day regular session, only 20 bills had passed both chambers, despite more than 300 bills passing in one chamber or the other, according to a legislative tally. The president of the Senate is GOP Sen. Ben Albritton, who represents Charlotte, DeSoto and Hardee counties and parts of Lee and Polk counties. The Speaker of the House is GOP Rep. Daniel Perez, who represents part of Miami-Dade.

The House appears to have no appetite for changing vaccine law, having declined to support the one vaccine-related bill – HB 917 – put forward by House member Rep. Jeff Holcomb, a Republican who represents parts of Hernando and Pasco counties. Holcomb also drafted but withdrew a bill to allow purchases of ivermectin without a prescription.

“The Republican leaders in the House and Senate are fighting. The governor is fighting with House leadership. Lots of priority bills are stuck in limbo,” said House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell, of Hillsborough County, at a recent Q&A with reporters.

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The reporter on this story, Laura Cassels, is a veteran Florida journalist and former Capitol Bureau chief who specializes in science, the environment, and the economy.

This story was reprinted with permission of Florida Trident, a publication of the Florida Center for Government Accountability. You can support the center’s work by donating here:

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Meet me in Fort Myers

The annual Southwest Florida Reading Festival is this weekend, and I will be there on Saturday autographing copies of the books in my Strange Files series of mysterious adventures, most of them set right here in the Gunshine State. If you’re in the neighborhood, stop by.

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Onward thru the fog

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed if you are a rational person living in the Free State of Florida, but there are plenty of smart, reasonable people just like you here. The purpose of this newsletter and the Tropic Press website is to provide a source of news and commentary that shines a light through this irrational fog. That includes both original reporting and shared stories such as this one today from Florida Trident reporter Laura Cassels.

Thank you for your support as a subscriber. It is invaluable. This is especially so for those of you who have chosen to upgrade to paid subscriptions. Your contributions are making this possible.

J.C. Bruce

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As this newsletter was written, Tropic Press was reaching more than 750,000 subscribers in Florida and elsewhere. With mid-term elections on the horizon, the more people we reach, the more effective we can be in helping turn this country around. You can play a vital role in that effort by sharing this newsletter with friends. If you are reading this as an email, simply forward it. Or you can use the link below. Thanks.

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By Mitch Perry

Florida Phoenix

Unlike the other states that have engaged in partisan gerrymandering since President Trump called on Texas to do so last summer, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has explicitly declared that is not why he has called for the Legislature to reconvene in Tallahassee in April for a special session to redistrict Florida’s congressional seats.

Cognizant that gerrymandering is banned in the state’s Constitution, the governor has made the case that the Legislature will “be forced to do it because the Supreme Court’s VRA [Voting Rights Act] decision is going to impact the current map. No matter what else, that is going to have to be addressed.”

But what happens if the justices opt not to weigh in on a crucial part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act in the pending case Louisiana vs. Callais by the time the Legislature returns to Tallahassee on April 20 for that special session? The case tests whether Section 2 of the VRA violates the Constitution by discriminating against white voters. The section prohibits voting practices or procedures that discriminate based on race.

“Now that primaries are underway in all of these cases, I think the court is more likely to wait until the end of the term to release this decision, so that it is clear that the decision cannot affect districts for the 2026 midterm elections, that the court’s decision is only post-2026, so 2028 and beyond. So, I don’t expect to get that decision anytime soon,” said Sarah Isgur, editor of SCOTUSblog, speaking on Dan Abram’s Sirius/XM show on Feb. 20.

The U.S. Supreme Court usually delivers its decisions in its biggest cases right before the justices end their term in late June, although they will issue important rulings before then (such as last month, when they issued their decision that the tariffs President Trump issued under the International Economic Emergency Powers Act were illegal).

Justin Levitt, a law professor at Loyola Marymount University who served in the Biden White House as senior policy adviser for democracy and voting rights, said that while it’s impossible to know when the court will rule, he believes the only way we’ll have an answer before the end of June is “if it turns out to be not a big deal.”

“That’s still a possibility — many observers thought that the decisions in Allen v. Milligan (the last big Voting Rights Act decision in 2023) and Moore v. Harper (the case about whether legislatures could ignore their state constitutions when drawing congressional lines) were going to be seismic changes, and when they came, they didn’t really change the law at all,” Levitt told the Phoenix in an email.

“That doesn’t mean that if the case comes after April 20, it’s necessarily a big deal: There could be a big dissent over not doing something big. But I think the timing on a big deal is going to be late in the term,” he said.

What happens if the high court doesn’t rule by April 20?

The governor said in Tampa in December that he didn’t want redistricting to elect more Republicans, because the Legislature is “not allowed to use the partisan data,” indicating he does not want to run afoul of the Florida Fair District Amendments. They say no reapportionment plan or individual district can be drawn “with the intent to favor or disfavor a political party or incumbent.”

So, does that mean that without a Supreme Court decision on the Voting Rights Act by April 20 that the special session on redistricting will be called off?

Not likely, observers say.

“What I think the Legislature and DeSantis can rely on is they’ll argue that based on the Florida Supreme Court’s decision about the 5th Congressional District last year, where they sort of intimated that there might be an opening to challenges in other district layouts, the Legislature could say, ‘Well, we are going to go ahead and, based on that state court ruling, we are going to reconfigure some of these districts,” said Matt Isbell, a data analyst for Democratic campaigns.

The Florida Supreme Court in July upheld the 2022 redrawing of the map authored by DeSantis that reconfigured what had been Florida’s 5th District and erased Black representation in North Florida. That map permitted Republicans to increase their congressional representation from 16 to 20, while decreasing the Democratic numbers from 11 to 8 (the Republicans captured the new congressional seat the state was awarded after the 2020 U.S. Census).

In its written decision in the case known as Black Voters Matter Capacity Building Institute vs. Secretary, Florida Department of State, there was this key passage, written by Chief Justice Carlos Muñiz, hinting how the court could rule on the Fair District Amendments:

“Finally, we conclude by emphasizing that the defendants have not asked us to decide whether every district intentionally drawn to comply with this Court’s interpretation of the Non-Diminishment Clause [of minority voting strength] is necessarily race-predominant and therefore subject to strict scrutiny, even if the district satisfies the FDA’s [Fair District Amendments] race-neutral standards. That issue can wait for another day.”

DeSantis has previously asserted that he believes that Florida’s 20th Congressional District in South Florida is “the most irregularly shaped district on Florida’s map.” Isbell says that could be the seat GOP lawmakers say they need to redistrict based on the state Supreme Court’s ruling, “and then just in the process of re-drawing a couple of districts, they then can conveniently make changes that have a more partisan effect.”

House Speaker Daniel Perez noted the Florida Supreme Court’s opinion when he announced the creation of a select committee on Congressional Redistricting last summer, which met during committee weeks late last year but stopped its work after DeSantis announced the special legislative session on redistricting.

“Here in Florida, our state Supreme Court’s recent decision in Black Voters Matter Capacity Building Institute Inc. v. Secretary, Florida Department of State, raises important and distinct questions about the applicability and interpretation of certain provisions of the so-called ‘Fair Districts’ provisions of the Florida Constitution and their intersection with Federal law,” Perez said.

“Exploring these questions now, at the mid-decade point, would potentially allow us to seek legal guidance from our Supreme Court without the uncertainty associated with deferring those questions until after the next decennial census and reapportionment.”

“My own feeling is they will go to Tallahassee on April 20, they will redraw the maps, the maps will favor Republicans, and Republican leadership will say, ‘Well, you know, we had to get ahead of the curve, because we couldn’t wait for the U.S. Supreme Court,” said Bob Jarvis, a professor of constitutional law at Florida’s Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad College of Law.

In initially making his case for congressional redistricting last year, DeSantis also contended the state was “malapportioned” in the 2020 census, and that he was working with Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier to somehow “correct” that census. He noted in a news release that Florida had gained nearly 2 million new residents since 2019.

But there was no redone census done last year, and so if and when the Legislature does produce congressional maps during the special session, members will rely on data from the 2020 census — and likely the election results in 2022 and 2024 — to figure out how to favor Republicans in the 2026 midterm election in November.

A dummymander?

As far as how those drawings will go, Isbell argues Republicans need to be careful, because he considers the 2022 congressional map to already be a “very, very, very effective Republican gerrymander.”

“This is already a pretty Republican map, and if you start to make it even redder you do risk making it a dummymander perspective, because there’s only so many areas that the Democrats in some of these districts can be moved to and the Republicans can be added,” he said. (A “dummymander” is a play on the term gerrymander, referring to a redrawing that ends up benefiting the opposite party that it was designed to help).

And then there’s whether the Florida House and Senate can come together on newly redrawn congressional maps. The two chambers have been at odds a lot this session on policy priorities, and a clash over competing tax proposals led to a 105-day session last year.

In 2015, the two chambers failed to come to an agreement on a final map, forcing the Florida Supreme Court to create congressional and state Senate districts.

“That was back in an era when Republicans were just feuding with each other, and right now they’re feuding with each other, so right now that becomes the question: Do they do just keep fighting and not coming to an agreement?” said Isbell.

“I do see a map coming together. But I think there’s not a lot of clarity right now because of these of internal divisions on other issues.”

Meanwhile, the Florida Supreme Court on Friday rejected a legal challenge brought by two Florida voters to block DeSantis’ move to redraw the state’s congressional districts.

Leave a comment

The reporter on this story, Mitch Perry, has covered politics and government in Florida for more than two decades. Most recently he is the former politics reporter for Bay News 9. He has also worked at Florida Politics, Creative Loafing and WMNF Radio in Tampa. He was also part of the original staff when the Florida Phoenix was created in 2018.

Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization. This story is republished with their permission. To support Florida Phoenix, click here:

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Onward thru the fog

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed if you are a rational person living in the Free State of Florida, but there are plenty of smart, reasonable people just like you here. The purpose of this newsletter and the Tropic Press website is to provide a source of news and commentary that shines a light through this irrational fog. That includes both original reporting and shared stories such as this one today by Mitch Perry.

Thank you for your support as a subscriber. It is invaluable. This is especially so for those of you who have chosen to upgrade to paid subscriptions. Your contributions are making this possible.

J.C. Bruce

Subscribe now

Sharing is caring

As this newsletter was written, Tropic Press was reaching more than 750,000 subscribers in Florida and elsewhere. With mid-term elections on the horizon, the more people we reach, the more effective we can be in helping turn this country around. You can play a vital role in that effort by sharing this newsletter with friends. If you are reading this as an email, simply forward it. Or you can use the link below. Thanks.

Share Tropic Press: J.C. Bruce

More online

Thank you for reading the Tropic Press newsletter. You also have access to the Tropic Press website for additional and previous posts, an archive of posts from our advice columnist, Miss Mingo, occasional guest commentaries, and information about The Strange Files series of mysterious adventures and other books.

Subscribe now

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Political analyst David Silverberg asks an intriguing question in his most recent post on his Paradise Progressive site:

What would Florida be like under a Gov. Byron Donalds, the current frontrunner to win the Republican nomination?

His answer is disturbing:

For all intents and purposes, under a governor Byron Donalds, the capital of Florida might as well move from Tallahassee to Mar-a-Lago.

As Donalds puts it in his first priority listed on his campaign website: “Enact the Trump Agenda: Byron is committed to implementing President Trump’s agenda to Make America Great Again.”

Make no mistake: Donald Trump will be governor of Florida in all but name. That’s because Donalds has pledged his fealty to Trump so completely, extravagantly, and excessively that the idea of a shred of independence or autonomy or even a stray individual thought is unimaginable.

See his full report here:

David Silverberg

House panel agrees with Senate, drops ‘food libel’ provision from Farm Bill

The Florida House State Affairs Committee, bowing to growing opposition to a proposal to allow food producers to sue critics for libel, caved this week, adopting an amendment spiking the language.

The offending language in HB 433, the Farm Bill, would have authorized producers to sue people or organizations criticizing any food products or processes. That would have expanded a state law now allowing “food libel” actions involving perishable products.

“This provision posed serious concerns about the right of everyday citizens to speak honestly about issues impacting their communities. Protecting our waters depends on the ability to raise concerns openly and without fear of financial retaliation,” Daniel Andrews, CEO of Captains For Clean Water, said in a news release following the House committee vote.

Florida Phoenix has the update on this legislation. Check it out here:

Florida Phoenix

Don’t blame the immigrants

Donald Trump and his sidekick, J.D. Vance, like to point their fingers at immigrants for Europe “losing its identity.”

Not so fast.

Our correspondent in Berlin, Robert Brecha, has a different take.

When I hear Donald Trump or J.D. Vance lament that Europe is becoming “unrecognizable,” I always look around in mild confusion. I have lived in Germany and Italy long enough to know what unrecognizable would actually look like. Trust me: it is not the local Döner shop or the Senegalese street vendor that makes Munich or Milan feel unfamiliar. It is the fact that I can order a “Double Cheeseburger Deluxe” in the shadow of a 14th-century cathedral without switching languages.

See his intriguing look at how the English language—and culture—is the real culprit. His guest commentary is here:

Robert Brecha

Forget ‘affordability’ — Trump retreats to his ‘stolen election’ mantra

As Donald Trump’s numbers sink on almost all fronts, including the economy, and with GOP midterms looking increasingly dire, it’s time for Trump and his cronies to resurrect the most emotionally charged issue for many MAGA voters. It’s time for “stolen election” to take center stage again!

Forget “affordability.” That’s yesterday’s mantra for mobilizing the MAGA voter base. With prices rising and Trump’s tariffs taking their toll, “stolen election” is the revived and already proven mantra to mobilize his voters.

And as deep-red districts turn blue in off-year contests and Trump’s poll numbers weaken further, the betting odds for a continued Trump/MAGA stranglehold on the House and maybe the Senate are slipping each day. What’s worrisome is that Trump may be using his “stolen election” playbook this year as a launching pad for a concerted drive to undermine the entire upcoming midterm election.

Florida pollster Mark Schulman has the numbers. Check out his article here:

Mark Schulman

COMING SATURDAY:

Is it true that the state Legislature is about to add $2 million to the state budget for the development of a “Trump orange?” Miss Mingo has the answer to that and other pressing questions of the moment. Check out her column Saturday.

J.C. Bruce is the founder of Tropic Press, a Florida online news service dedicated to sharing news and commentary relevant to Florida readers, whether it originates in the Sunshine State or elsewhere. Bruce is an award-winning former newspaper editor, journalist and author living in Florida, his native state.

Sharing is caring

As this newsletter was written, Tropic Press was reaching more than 750,000 subscribers in Florida and elsewhere. With mid-term elections on the horizon, the more people we reach, the more effective we can be in helping turn this country around. You can play a vital role in that effort by sharing this newsletter with friends. If you are reading this as an email, simply forward it. Or you can use the link below. Thanks.

Share Tropic Press: J.C. Bruce

More online

Thank you for reading the Tropic Press newsletter. You also have access to the Tropic Press website for additional and previous posts, an archive of posts from our advice columnist, Miss Mingo, occasional guest commentaries, and information about The Strange Files series of mysterious adventures and other books.

Subscribe now