RPOF Newsletter – Chairmans message

Chairman’s Message Huge Election Day Republicans thump Democrats in Florida and nationwide Voters in Florida and across the nation soundly rejected the freedom-stealing, open-border, America-last agenda of the Democrats and the Biden administration during Tuesday’s off-year elections. Governor DeSantis described Tuesday as a wave building for 2022 that will be bigger than 2010. Republicans in Florida won several key municipal races across the state, including multiple mayoral contests such as Steve Bovo in Hialeah. In Virginia, a blue state that went for Biden by 10 points just one year ago, Republican Glenn Youngkin defeated long-time Democrat establishment figure Terry McCauliffe for governor. Republicans swept all the statewide races in Virginia and flipped the state house. And the Republican challenger shockingly came within a whisker of winning the governor’s race in New Jersey, which went for Biden by 16 points. Republicans also flipped seats in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, Texas and New Hampshire. It was a very good night and portends well for slamming the door on the Democrats’ radical agenda.   Election integrity set for the 2022 Legislative Session   Governor DeSantis announced a new legislative proposal Wednesday for the 2022 session that begins in January that will further strengthen Florida’s election integrity. “We are excited to say that next legislative session we are proposing another package of election integrity reforms that will make Florida the number one state for elections,” Governor DeSantis said. “I am excited that with this legislation, our state will be able to enforce election violations, combat voter fraud and make sure violators are held accountable. If potential violators know they will be held accountable, they will be much less likely to engage in improper conduct in the first place.” Governor DeSantis called on the Legislature to take four additional steps to safeguard our elections: Establish an Office of Election Crimes and Security within the Department of State to investigate election crimes and fraud; Elevate the crime of ballot harvesting to a third-degree felony, recognizing that this offense is a serious attack on democracy; Require timelines for supervisors of elections to clean the voter rolls of ineligible voters; and Prohibit unsecure drop box locations in Florida.   Read more here: https://www.flgov.com/2021/11/03/governor-ron-desantis-announces-legislative-proposal-to-protect-floridas-election-integrity/ Watch the Governor’s press conference here: https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=1614182528931181   “A recession is when your neighbor loses his job; a depression is when you lose yours; a recovery is when Dr. Fauci loses his.” – Governor DeSantis Special Session Update: Protections against vaccine status discrimination Governor DeSantis announced that the Special Session to provide protections for Floridians who could lose their jobs due to vaccine mandates will begin on November 15, 2021, and go no later than November 19, 2021. “Your right to earn a living should not be contingent upon COVID shots,” Governor DeSantis said. “We have somehow gone from 15 days to slow the spread to 3 jabs to keep your job. In Florida, we believe that the decision whether or not to get a COVID shot is a choice based on individual circumstances, so we are litigating against the Biden Administration and will be passing legislation in this Special Session to protect Florida jobs and protect parents’ rights when it comes to masking and quarantines.” He added: “The health, education, and wellbeing of our children are primarily the responsibility of parents. As long as I am Governor, parents in Florida will play a strong role in determining what their kids are learning and how they’re treated in school.” Here are some of the elements Governor DeSantis is calling on the Legislature to consider in the Special Session: Protect employees against unfair discrimination on the basis of COVID-19 vaccination status and ensure robust enforcement for this protection; Ensure that educational institutions and government entities are prohibited from unfairly discriminating against employees, students, and residents on the basis of COVID-19 vaccination status; Clarify that the Parents’ Bill of Rights, Chapter 1014, Florida Statutes, vests the decision on masking with parents, not government entities, and that schools must comply with Department of Health rules that govern student health, including rules that ensure healthy students can remain in school; Repeal the authority for the State Health Officer to order forced injections or vaccinations under Section 381.00315, Florida Statutes, originally enacted in 2002; and Read more here: https://www.flgov.com/2021/10/29/governor-ron-desantis-announces-date-of-special-session-to-protect-florida-jobs/ Florida Less than a week after Governor DeSantis announced Florida is suing the Biden Administration for unlawfully requiring mandatory injections for federal contractors, the Biden Administration quietly updated its guidance. “The backtracking by the Biden administration demonstrates that Florida has been right to stand up for people’s jobs and against federal overreach,” said Governor Ron DeSantis. “We are continuing to fight for Floridians. This edict from the Biden Administration is creating chaos for both workers and businesses, as well as putting livelihoods at risk. In Florida, your right to earn a living should not be contingent upon COVID shots. Federal contractors in Florida should suspend their threats of termination over the Biden mandate.” Governor DeSantis and Attorney General Ashley Moody announced the lawsuit last week against the Biden Administration’s order requiring employees of federal contractors to be vaccinated by December 8, making Florida the first state to bring a comprehensive legal action against the federal contractor vaccine mandate. The lawsuit seeks an immediate end to the unlawful requirement that federal contractors ensure that all employees have received a mandated injection. The lawsuit can be found here. ––––––– Read more here: https://www.flgov.com/2021/11/02/governor-ron-desantis-continues-fight-against-federal-contractor-mandates-following-biden-backpedaling/ Governor DeSantis announced $6 million for the City of Tavares to build a regional workforce training and innovation center in partnership with Lake Technical College. While Lake Technical College currently can enroll 16 students in its programs for diesel systems technology, automotive services, and automotive collision, this new center will allow the college to triple its enrollment to 48 students. This will help Florida meet the demand of more than 67,000 new openings in these occupations over the next eight years. Governor DeSantis has been focused on making Florida the best state in the nation for workforce education by 2030. This year, Governor DeSantis has awarded more than $20 million for workforce training initiatives in Florida. While these are creating immediate jobs, they are also creating skilled workers that are combating the nation’s supply chain crisis. “In Florida, we are stepping up in the midst of the nation’s supply chain woes. Our ports are open and have capacity, we are standing up for businesses, and we are continuing to support the supply chain by training skilled workers across our state,” Governor DeSantis said. Read more here: https://www.flgov.com/2021/10/29/governor-ron-desantis-announces-6-million-award-for-workforce-education-programs-at-lake-technical-college-through-the-florida-job-growth-grant-fund/ Washington, D.C. Newsmax reported Senator Marco Rubio’s stinging denunciation of the Biden Administration. “Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, ridiculed the deviations between then-candidate and now-President Joe Biden, explaining to the National Conservatism Conference on Monday that the reasons for the difference are – if expressed during the campaign – he would not have been elected. “‘I think it’s telling that the agenda promoted by the candidate Joe Biden is very different from the one that’s being pushed by President Joe Biden,’” Rubio said via a livestream video conference to the three-day gathering in Orlando, Florida. “‘Candidate Joe Biden, for example, promised a return of competency and professionalism;  President Joe Biden delivered chaos: Historic calamity on the southern border, humiliating and deadly debacle in Afghanistan, stranded cargo ships off the coast of California, and the skyrocketing prices of literally everything.’” “Rubio was slated to join in person but was affected by the ongoing American Airlines flight cancellations. “He began declaring Biden is governing differently than he campaigned because he knew from the outset his actual ideas were unpopular with the majority of ordinary Americans – as opposed to those managing society on a day-to-day basis. “‘The problem is they have power beyond the numbers,’” Rubio said. “‘They happen to be the people who run our schools and our universities, our tech companies, our large corporations, meetings, boards, the entertainment industry; they are the most generous donors and enthusiastic activists in one of our two major political parties.’” Read more here: https://www.newsmax.com/us/conservative-conference-florida-candidate/2021/11/01/id/1042863/ ––––––– Seeing the shocking results in Tuesday’s elections in Virginia, New Jersey, Florida and elsewhere, Senator Marco Rubio tweeted this truism: “364 days a year a powerful minority tells everyone what they are allowed to believe, do and say. And Election Day is the day the normal majority tells them they are crazy.” ICYMI   The New York Post recently published a column titled: The country needs a dose of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to battle COVID-19 “Florida has the lowest COVID-19 case rate in the country. They did it without vaccine mandates, without mask mandates in school and with no restrictions on businesses. Life simply went on. “Over the summer, when Florida was experiencing a spike in cases, the media was wall-to-wall news about the numbers. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis was a frequent target for the blame. His sensible moves, such as not forcing low-risk kids to wear masks, was treated as akin to murder by the media. “In August, President Biden criticized DeSantis, although not by name, saying: “Some state officials are passing laws that forbid people from doing the right thing. I say to the governors, please help. If you’re not going to help, get out of the way of the people that are trying to do the right thing.” “But what DeSantis understood is that there is no absolute “right thing” where COVID-19 is concerned, that we are living in an endemic (no longer a pandemic thanks to vaccines) and that there is very little political action that can be implemented to stop it. At the time of Florida’s spike, the state had an above-average vaccination rate when compared with the rest of the country. They weren’t doing anything differently than places with lower case rates, they were simply at the peak of their seasonal spike. “Florida is doing better in per-capita cases and deaths from COVID than states that put in universal mask mandates and lockdowns. But you won’t hear that from the media. Now that DeSantis’ strategy has worked, they have quietly moved on without acknowledging their predictions of doom were wrong. “It’s a lesson that we need to quickly learn. Encouraging vaccination is important, but ultimately COVID will be something we need to handle with less hysteria going forward, and DeSantis has been a model for that.” Read the entire column here: https://nypost.com/2021/10/28/florida-gov-ron-desantis-has-shown-how-to-handle-covid-19/ Social Media Highlights   REMEMBER: @FloridaGOP and retweet and share. The Republican message must be spread around the state and you are integral to making that happen. PAID FOR BY THE REPUBLICAN PARTY OF FLORIDA. NOT AUTHORIZED BY ANY CANDIDATE OR CANDIDATE’S COMMITTEE.WWW.FLORIDA.GOP