In the early stages of the pandemic, apart from showing an inappropriate preference for his older constituents, DeSantis’ record was fairly unremarkable. That changed, however, when he saw political advantages in throwing his support to the anti-vax movement. As a result, he prohibited school districts, local governments, and even businesses from imposing mask and vaccine mandates on employees and consumers, talked up bogus cures, and spread doubts about the efficacy of the vaccines. He even refused to say whether he had been vaccinated or not. On the whole, then, his record is even worse than Trump’s. His “freedom” agenda meant freedom for the virus, and unnecessary deaths for vulnerable Floridians.
How should the Democrats make this point? First, they need to find a reputable study that identifies the number of unnecessary deaths for which DeSantis is responsible. Then they need to run lots of ads featuring haggard nurses in which they tell the world DeSantis has blood on his hands. They might even make the point that DeSantis claims to be “pro-life” on the abortion issue, but only cares about the lives of the unborn. That would be another twofer.