Florida" with Jim DeFede.
>>Welcome to "Facing South Florida."
I'm Jim DeFede, and we are less than 60 days
until the midterm election.
Last week, I was in Sarasota
and had a chance to sit down with State Senator Joe Gruters,
the Chairman of the Florida Republican Party.
As you will see, he is feeling quite confident.
>>Well, I think on the Republican side,
I think we're locked and loaded.
I think we're gonna win a lot of races.
I think we're in the best position we've ever been,
largely because of the leadership
of our great governor Ron DeSantis.
I mean, I think around the country,
people have rallied around him.
Certainly here in the state, Republicans, Independents,
people wanna fighter that's willing to stand up,
and go to bat for them.
And that's exactly what he's done.
He's kept the state open, he's kept us free,
and the results speak for themselves.
Look at voter registration,
we went from a negative 350,000 voter registration deficit
when the governor took office.
And today we're I think, you know, 250,000 voters ahead.
I mean, it's a monumental shift,
when you look at how those numbers,
have moved cycle by cycle.
>>And why do you think that shift occurred?
How much of that was the work that the party put in,
the Republican Party put in,
versus how much neglect the Democratic Party,
at the same time did over the past two or three years?
I mean, it takes two sometimes to make a swing that big.
>>Well, I will tell you
that I think we're extremely fortunate,
because I think the Florida Democrat Party
has been struggling over the last couple of years.
And when you have a governor who's willing to invest
and make the commitment, to put that as a priority.
You know, he went out and raised a couple million dollars
specifically to help us focus on voter registration.
>>One issue that we've talked about in the past is abortion.
Democrats believe that that's a motivating factor
for their candidates that you know,
when you look at what's happened in Kansas,
some of the special elections that have taken place
in New York, and other districts,
that the turnout among Democrats on the issue of choice
has made the difference in a lot of races.
And the question is do you think
that that's gonna be a factor here?
>>I don't think it's gonna be a factor.
I think the Democrats wanna make it
the primary issue of a campaign,
but what we've seen here in Florida
is common sense, reasonable legislation.
Like just last cycle, we moved it to a 15-week ban.
And I think that that's, you don't hear any prominent
elected official across the country coming out
and saying they want anything else.
I think they wanna see how this law plays out.
I think people are really concerned
about kitchen table issues, the inflation,
the high gas prices, being able to afford housing,
being able to make sure you send your kids
to the the best school possible.
Those are the issues that are gonna win the day.
And that's why the governor wins out,
because don't forget when the Democrats
try to lock everything down,
try to shut kids outta school,
it was the governor that stood up and said,
"Hey enough, we're gonna keep these schools open."
>>Wait, wait, wait a second.
Wait a second.
Let's not rewrite history entirely.
I do seem to remember Governor DeSantis
being the person who actually shut down the state.
Did he not?
>>That was a temporary thing.
I think it lasted a couple of weeks, maybe two weeks.
But he put us back on the right track
in school specifically.
Because I will tell you as a parent with three young kids,
being able to juggle with my wife and I, we both work.
It's very tough juggling to having the at-home school,
during that whole COVID pandemic.
We were super worried that we weren't gonna have the ability
to send our kids back to school,
that allowed us both to go back to work.
And it was the governor that came in and said,
"The schools are gonna open up.
They're gonna open up."
And that has made Florida be the best state in the country,
because everything revolves around that.
If the parents have to stay home,
it makes it so they can't work.
It makes it, there's nobody's working out in the workforce.
And it shut down in all these different states.
And it's destroyed people's businesses all over the place.
Here in Florida, we have a thriving economy.
We have one of the best education systems
in the country.
And it is, the governor deserves a lot of credit over that.
>>Well, let's come back to that.
But I wanna stay with abortion for a second,
'cause we moved past it quickly,
because you said you don't hear
any prominent elected officials
talking about changing anything
other than where the law is now the 15, at 15 weeks.
I think that's because nobody wants to say
what the position will be before election day,
for fear of getting hit.
Are you willing to say right now, committing,
that you believe 100%, the Florida legislature
will not make any moves to lower it
below 15 weeks next session?
>>That's a very broad question.
I will say I'm only one member.
I don't think anything else will move
this particular session.
>>Are you really saying that you don't believe
that there's gonna be new legislation to lower it,
to a fetal heartbeat bill, a six-week bill,
something more along like that line?
>>I think there may be some type of legislation push,
but I highly doubt that anything gets passed
in the next cycle.
I would say in next two years,
I think it's probably gonna be relatively calm,
and we're gonna let this law play out,
the one that we just passed.
>>But if I had asked that question to you a year ago,
and I actually think I did ask you that question a year ago,
you would've said the same thing about last session.
You would've said that you didn't think
that there was gonna be an abortion issue
raised in an election year,
because I remember you and I talking,
and you said the one issue that could upend the election
is if we get too out there on abortion.
And so you predicted that there would be no issues
on abortion that would pass this last session.
So it did, so your track record's not great on that.
>>Well, let tell you, I wanna first say I am pro-life.
You know, I would support any type of heartbeat bill
that came along.
I just don't think that the majority of my colleagues
would go ahead and support a bill
that would limit it any more than what it is right now,
at least for the foreseeable future.
And I think that we've had,
I think Kathleen Passidomo,
our incoming Senate President,
I think she talked about this issue while she visited me,
while she was talking about an event
here in my hometown community.
I think it's gonna be tough to pass
any other type of legislation at this point.
I'm not saying it won't happen in the future,
but I think that my colleagues are happy
with the status quo as it is right now.
>>See, that gets to a really interesting question.
And you made reference to it earlier
with regards to the governor.
And I think it's fascinating to me,
that the legislature has its views of things.
Like if you had asked about redistricting,
legislature, the Senate had its own plan
when it came to redistricting.
Whether it was on the so-called, Don't Say Gay Bill,
the Parental Rights Bill, abortion,
all of these things the Senate
is usually a little bit more moderate on.
And yet what we found was,
when the governor says, "No I want this,"
suddenly everyone jumps in line.
What's to prevent the governor from suddenly deciding
after he's reelected, after he is safely reelected,
I want a heartbeat bill.
>>Because I think he would've been championing that before.
And I've never seen him champion specifically,
the Heartbeat Bill.
I think he champions the life cause.
I think that Florida's in such a great place.
I think we got a lot of members.
I think the governor, he's level-headed.
I think we wanna do the right thing for the state.
And listen at the end of the day,
I think, like I said I'm as pro-life as they come,
from the the moment you're born to natural death.
However, I think it would take a Herculean effort I believe,
to pass additional abortion legislation this cycle.
I'm not saying it's not gonna be proposed,
but I just don't anticipate anything else further happening.
>>How fearful are Florida legislators, senators,
house members, yourself of the governor?
Because he wields a big stick.
>>He wields a big stick, but that's why people love him,
because the guys willing to fight in the face of adversity,
into the face of criticism.
Most politicians go up to Tallahassee, get elected,
and they wave the white flag
the minute there's a danger zone.
This guy has literally led the fight on all these issues.
You're right, he's not willing to back down.
He says he wants to do what he thinks is right all the time.
And that's why his poll numbers are off the charts.
That's why he has 130 million dollars in the bank.
People love this guy because of the leadership that he shows
and the backbone that he has, and his willingness to step up
to the plate over and over again.
I will tell you that at least
I've been in the legislature for six years,
and we passed more conservative bills in the last two years.
>>Can you identify one serious piece of legislation,
one serious thing that the governor wanted,
that the legislature said, "Nope, that's too much."
>>I think that he was really,
I think there were several bills that maybe not him himself
gotten necessarily involved with,
but I think, maybe his overall staff.
I think one of those bills was the paycheck bill
for the unions.
I think that he wanted to see some type of reform there.
That never moved.
That may have moved in the House, not in the Senate.
I think it was one of those things at the end.
But at the end of the day,
what happens is the reason why we're so successful
here in Florida is you have yes, the House,
the Senate and the Governor.
They all have to agree
to make something a law at the end of the day.
And I think what they've done
is they've had an open communication.
You've had strong conservative leaders.
And as a result, a lot of these issues get,
you know settled and we come to an agreement.
So they may not- >>Usually-
But usually the agreement is okay governor,
we'll give you what you want, isn't it?
>>I would say that not necessarily,
he gets what he wants,
but it may not be in the version that he wants.
I would say that the that's why you have the process,
it's- >>Redistricting,
he got what he wanted.
>>Debating, redistricting, there's no question.
And listen, I'm glad he made that fight.
As a Senator, you know the question
that people always ask me,
well why didn't you fight the maps?
Well, people have to understand the process,
that the Senate went through a couple years ago,
when all the maps were thrown out,
I didn't really play a process.
The only role that I had in redistricting
was voting for what our redistricting chairman said
was constitutionally the sufficient map.
And so I voted, yes.
And when he came on, when it was vetoed,
the governor's map came in.
That chairman, Ray Rodrigues,
incredible, incredible human being,
super nice guy, incredibly smart.
The question was asked, are these maps constitutional?
He said, yes, we voted yes.
And it was it.
But at the end of the day,
we're gonna probably pick up three seats as a result.
>>Right, you're gonna pick up three seats,
but you're also going to have the public perception,
the public belief, that the way you got that
was by eliminating two African American access districts.
So you're going to cut African American representation
from the congressional delegation,
as a result of giving the governor what he wanted.
Under the maps you initially voted for,
that was not the case.
The governor said, that's not good enough for me.
I want this, he got it.
And now we're gonna have
two fewer African Americans in Congress.
>>What the governor said,
was that map was not constitutional
based on what the Supreme Court said
six years ago, or whenever those cases were.
He said, based on the criteria that the Senate used,
that map was not constitutional.
You couldn't use some of these things.
So that's why he developed his own map, and it passed.
>>So was the map,
so was the original map that you voted on,
that Ray Rodrigues, who you respect,
said was constitutional, the original map
that would've kept those African American seats.
Do you sit here now believing
that that was an unconstitutional thing you voted for?
>>No, I still think that the map was constitutional.
I think the governor's map was constitutional.
And I think by the end of the day,
the governor made his point.
And he won and listen, I will tell you
putting on my party hat,
I'm glad that the governor made that fight,
because in our quest to get rid of Nancy Pelosi,
as Speaker of the House, the United States House,
we are making a difference here in Florida.
And you know why?
Only one person could take credit.