DeSantis keeps waging culture wars, tries to make peace with Trump

ORLANDO, Fla. — Gov. Ron DeSantis has tried lately to shore up his relationship with former President Donald Trump and soften his much-maligned public image even as his culture war agenda continues.

He’s signed laws to allow chaplains in public schools, mandate teaching kindergartners about the history of communism, and ban lab-grown meat that he declared was a plot hatched by the “global elite.”

“It’s a placeholder,” said Dante Scala, a political scientist at the University of New Hampshire, a state where DeSantis campaigned heavily but dropped out before its primary. “I don’t think he and his circle have figured out yet exactly what went wrong. … I don’t know that they have much of a clue what to do for 2028. So when you don’t know what else to do, keep doing the same thing.”

Across the country, bills aimed at transgender people have waned from this time last year, with bills dying even in GOP-controlled states such as Iowa.

But DeSantis said last week that he would “fight back” against new federal regulations banning discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity at universities and colleges.

Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody filed a lawsuit Monday, along with counterparts in Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina, to try to block the new federal rule.

“His social policies are core to both his identity and to his public brand,” said Gregory Koger, a professor of political science at the University of Miami. “He’s been at the forefront [of] translating them into policy. The rest of the party sees that as an agenda they can run with.”

Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics, said although it didn’t appear culture war issues were at the top of national GOP voters’ minds in the primary, his focus on them wasn’t the reason for DeSantis’ failure.

“I don’t necessarily think his loss was a rejection of his approach,” Kondik said. “I just don’t think he ended up being all that compelling of an actual candidate.”

‘Kiss the ring’

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