Ron DeSantis and his hate-filled agenda, which of course is also being pushed by the Republicans
in the Florida State House. They have solid control of this state and have for many decades
now. But this agenda of hate is costing the state economy here in Florida. Billions of
dollars already. Here's what's happening. Two conventions. Two conventions that were
supposed to bring in literally thousands and thousands and thousands of tourists to the
state of Florida have canceled. There was a women's technological leadership conference
that was supposed to bring in 16,000 people due to Florida's, uh, uh, mainly the six week
abortion ban. But also they mentioned every other hate-filled piece of legislation that
DeSantis has signed. So they've pulled out a nurse's convention, has pulled out of this
state robbing us of thousands of people spending probably thousands of dollars. And of course,
we cannot forget the fact that Disney shut down a multi-billion dollar planned project
that would've bought, uh, brought a couple thousand high-paying jobs to the state of
Florida.
So we are being robbed of future economic activity, and it's 100% because of Ron DeSantis
policies. The abortion ban the book banning the banning of critical race theory, even
though they can't define it, the attacks on Disney, the attacks on the L G B T Q community
that they have now put into legislation, legislation that by the way, is not faring so well in
the court system. But it doesn't matter because the damage is already done, not just economically,
but personally to so many people here in this state. They are being targeted and the rest
of the country is essentially voting with their dollars saying, we're not coming. We
are not coming down to Florida where tourism is the number one industry in this state.
If we lose tourism, we lose everything, folks. Oh, one or two conventions canceling. That's
not a big deal. Yes it is. When that is the lifeblood of this state, when it becomes national
news, which it is, other conventions will follow suit, they will also leave the state.
And if that's not bad enough, how about rhon DeSantis, anti-immigrant legislation that
is leaving construction sites unfinished. Immigrants are fleeing the state to the point
where last week Republicans gathered their business leaders in a little secret meeting
and begged them to beg their immigrant workers to not leave the state. That's on videotape.
By the way, Thomas Kennedy, a great journalist down here in Florida, caught that on tape
and shared it with the world.
But Florida's economy is already reeling from the hate agenda of Ron DeSantis. Like these
are not far off threats. We're not talking about losing a convention two years from now.
We're talking about economic stagnation today because of that anti-immigrant legislation.
All of these things are happening in Florida. Our economy is being intentionally destroyed
by DeSantis because of his hate and the hate of every single Republican serving in our
state legislature. None of them have their hands clean on this. They think they're appealing
to their Republican base, and they are. But here's the problem. Eventually, and by eventually,
I mean within this year, those are the folks that are gonna start getting hit in the pocketbooks.
Those are the folks that are gonna start losing revenue, right? They're little fishing business,
they're charter boat business, they're little locally owned hotels, they're small business.
All of it is going to take a massive hit because of these Republican policies that are forcing
people out of the state of Florida. And once those people start seeing those economic impacts
for themselves on their personal income, that's when things blow up for these Republicans
down here in Florida. And I can promise you that day is not that far away.