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DeSantis Targets Crist’s Support for Vaccine Passports

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Republicans have struggled to regain the momentum that GOP 2022 midterms primary candidates had in March when inflation, the border crisis, and crime had Democrats reeling in anticipation of a red wave in November.

Republicans were confident of winning at least a narrow majority in the U.S. Senate, as much as a 25-35 seat hammer-lock in the U.S. House, and also boosting the number of GOP governors to at least 30 this fall.

Those spring aspirations have since been tempered by a summer surge in enthusiasm among Democrat voters in the wake of June’s U.S. Supreme Court’s repeal of Roe v. Wade, slackening inflation, and a concerted effort in campaign rhetoric and White House messaging to identify former President Donald Trump and his supporters as threats to democracy.

The Republican National Committee (RNC) is offering GOP candidates a way to recapture the narrative by reminding voters about how Democrats responded during the 2020-21 pandemic. The tactic is being used in three Florida races, including Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ re-election campaign against challenger Rep. Charlie Crist (D-Tampa).

A refocus on lockdowns, shutdowns, economic upheaval, and the angst that fueled the speculative red wave to begin with could also be effective stump points in the final weeks, the RNC maintains, especially when offenders’ own stances and statements can be used against them. That is especially true when it comes to Crist, a 30-year career public official with plenty of verbiage to vet.

In a Sept. 13 Twitter post, the DeSantis War Room linked to a May 14, 2021 ‘Good Morning America’ clip. On it, Crist, who just announced he was running for governor, was interviewed by ABC co-hosts Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes.

When Robach asked Crist, “Where do you stand on vaccine passports and businesses?” he immediately responded: “We should have vaccine passports. I think that’s important.”

He went on to recount meetings with “some” of Florida’s $8 billion cruise line industry CEOs who did not want to risk going to sea without assurances that all—passengers and crew—were vaccinated.

“I mean, you know,” Crist said, “if you talk about having 98 percent [vaccinated] and you have 2 percent on the ship that are not vaccinated, you could suffer an outbreak. It would decimate the industry …”

DeSantis, conversely and with great publicity, prohibited schools, businesses, and government agencies from requiring people to show proof of a COVID-19 vaccination, refused to restrict businesses or close schools completely during the pandemic, and issued orders against mask and vaccine mandates. He has engaged in high-profile public health policy battles with the Biden administration and school boards and is widely regarded as the leading non-Trump Republican presidential candidate.

The RNC is also targeting two Florida Democrats running for Congress with their own “lockdown Lib” words.

The RNC posted a March 21, 2020 Twitter post by state Sen. Annette Taddeo (D-Miami) directed at DeSantis, “Please. Lockdown. Florida. Now.”

Taddeo is challenging freshman Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) in a competitive South Florida district.

The RNC posted an August 2021 Twitter post by three-term incumbent Rep. Darren Soto (D-Fla.) urging school boards, city councils, and county commissions to defy DeSantis’ ban on mask mandates.

Republican Scotty Moore is taking on the favored Soto in a Central Florida race made a bit more competitive for a Republican candidate by post-Census redistricting.

“The original Lockdown Libs, Florida Democrats, played politics with the jobs, educations and livelihoods of Floridians. Voters will remember that in November,” RNC Spokeswoman Julia Friedland predicted in a statement warning Democrats that “Floridians kept the receipts” from their failed policies.

First-term incumbent Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) reiterated that should be the message Republicans rally to in the last eight weeks before Nov. 8.

“Republicans kept your schools, businesses, churches, and state open. Democrats kept liquor stores, strip clubs, the French Laundry, and personal salons OPEN, but everything you needed CLOSED. VOTE GOP!” Donalds said is a Twitter post.

John Haughey

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John Haughey has been a working journalist since 1978 with an extensive background in local government, state legislatures, and growth and development. A graduate of the University of Wyoming, he is a Navy veteran who fought fires at sea during three deployments aboard USS Constellation. He’s been a reporter for daily newspapers in California, Washington, Wyoming, New York, and Florida; a staff writer for Manhattan-based business trade publications.



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