The moment Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis makes his 2024 presidential bid official, he’ll immediately become one of the leading contenders to be the next president of the United States.
As one of the Republican Party’s most sharp-elbowed culture warriors, he’s become a Fox News darling by attacking everyone and everything from asylum-seekers to LGBTQ+ people to Advanced Placement African American history.
But while DeSantis has made himself a right-wing star by “owning the libs,” far less well known is the story of DeSantis’s actual record as governor and representative — as well as the wealthy corporate interests and political machine behind his rise in Florida politics.
That’s why, at The Intercept, we’re determined to find out: What doesn’t Ron DeSantis want the American people to know about him?
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What we’ve uncovered so far on Ron DeSantis is disturbing.
One example: In apparent service to the developers in charge of The Villages retirement community, DeSantis personally fired two county commissioners, while his machine sent one 72-year-old man to jail.
Our D.C. bureau chief, Ryan Grim, exposed the lengths DeSantis and his henchmen will go to protect moneyed interests: indicting two county commissioners on bogus felony charges and imprisoning one of them for 75 days. “It was a set-up,” said the wife of the commissioner who was jailed.
In another investigation, The Intercept uncovered how DeSantis campaign donors were rewarded with tens of millions of dollars in state contracts. And when DeSantis sent immigrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard just to “troll the libs,” we revealed the $615,000 in taxpayer money that went to a major Republican campaign donor to charter the flights.
The Intercept isn’t ignoring the missiles DeSantis is launching in the culture war or the devastating impact they’re having on people’s lives. Intercept columnist Natasha Lennard has doggedly covered his assault on public education and attacks on gender-affirming care for trans youth.
Ron DeSantis is clearly on the short list of the people most likely to become the next president of the United States. The American people need to know the truth behind DeSantis’s record and the political machine that elevated him to the highest tier of American politics — and The Intercept is on the story.
