The Florida Project

Strongman Governor Ron DeSantis transformed the Sunshine State. Can he sell his blueprint to the nation?

- By Molly Ball/ Tallahassee

IT'S A TUESDAY MORNING IN TALLAHASSEE, AND a wood-paneled hearing room at the Florida legislature is packed. The state senate's fiscal-policy committee is considering a bill to prohibit most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, and dozens of citizens have lined up to testify: anguished young students in colorful hair and ABORTION IS HEALTH CARE T-shirts; little old ladies wearing cardigans and crosses. For hours they speak in emotional terms as the senators listen.

Yet an air of inevitability hangs over the proceedings. Governor Ron De Santis supports this bill, and therefore it is destined to pass. In Tallahassee these days, what the governor wants, the governor gets. It is De Santis who welcomed this fight, DeSantis who calls the shots, and DeSantis who will reap the credit-or blame-for his latest move in a frenzy of right-wing policymaking.