Two Weeks into the General Election, Ron DeSantis Still Has No Policy Agenda

DeSantis Struggles to Pivot to the General Election

Why does Ron DeSantis want to be governor?

Who knows.

Two weeks into the general election, DeSantis is still unable to articulate what he would do for the people of Florida or his plans to address the most urgent issues facing the state — like health care, education, or economic development. As the Tampa Bay Times reported this week, despite promising to lay out policies in the general election, DeSantis has “continued to keep quiet about his agenda as governor” — and even went as far as to cancel an interview where he had planned to lay out his policy agenda.

DeSantis’s failure to run a substantive, policy-oriented campaign has drawn criticism from reporters in Florida — and on national cable news. In a segment on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, host Mika Brezinski quipped that DeSantis “is having some issues — he’s reportedly not ready to discuss the issues.” Former Florida Congressman Joe Scarborough went further, saying that DeSantis “doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing right now.”

Local outlets have echoed those comments. WIOD’s Manny Munoz yesterday said “his campaign website, I went to it yesterday, I was shocked at how little there is in terms of a platform, what he really believes in, plans to do with Florida if he is elected.” And outlets like Politico and WINK News have panned DeSantis for released policy plans that “suggests changes without providing specifics” on the environment and offering “fewer specifics” on health care than Andrew Gillum.