Name: Meet Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor who has been heavily criticized for his coronavirus pandemic response
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Meet Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor who has been heavily criticized for his coronavirus pandemic response

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Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. It indicates a way to close an interaction, or dismiss a notification.An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. It often indicates a user profile.Florida is than ever before, and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is back under fire for his handling of .The backlash began as when the pandemic first hit. DeSantis refused to shut the beaches down, leaving the decision up to local governments.He issued a statewide stay-at-home order on April 1, to do so, and reopened Florida on April 30. Now, have tripled over the course of May to the end of June.DeSantis' response is in tune with his party's pro-business, small government stance — his way of trying to keep Florida's economy strong in a time when a pandemic has .&nbsp;In less than a decade, DeSantis, who has a military background, has served as a House representative, attempted to run for US Senate, and become governor, .&nbsp;A representative for DeSantis did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment. Here's a look at how DeSantis, who is backed by Trump, rose to political prominence in Florida."He was bright. He was very, very attentive," Dee Centinaro, DeSantis' first grade teacher told . "I knew he would do his work, I knew he would pay attention, and I knew I could trust him."DeSantis was captain of the baseball team while at Yale. considered becoming a history teacher in Georgia before heading off to law school.DeSantis advised troops on their legal parameters when handling prisoners, . , he served as an adviser to a US Navy SEAL commander in Iraq in support of the SEAL mission in Fallujah, Ramadi.His honors include the Bronze Star Medal for Meritorious Service and the Iraq Campaign Medal.After leaving active-duty service in 2010, DeSantis stayed in the reserves as a lieutenant commander and served as a federal prosecutor on "sensitive military cases," according to the Miami Herald.DeSantis advised active duty military lawyers on cases ranging from drug use to rape allegations, .They met on a driving range, . "He's always been a guy that's been pushing me in the right direction to succeed," Casey told the local outlet. a daughter, Madison, and a son, Mason, who are both toddlers. On March 30, they of their third child, daughter Mamie."Former colleagues on Capitol Hill describe a hardworking but aloof congressman who walked through the halls with earbuds, effectively shielding him from interaction," . "Even when he's meeting with other politicians who might be prospective supporters, he'll scan emails and texts on his phone in mid-conversation."She added: "Former coworkers have described a military-like efficiency and restraint as being core to his character, qualities that perhaps don't help him ooze charisma or connect with strangers."that Casey's natural ability on camera has given "affability and eloquence" to her husband, telling stories about him and making him appear more relatable to the public.When he promoted the book, "Dreams of Our Founding Fathers," people told him to run for office, . "And so lo and behold, an open congressional seat opened up in our backyard."But not everyone was a fan of the book. that the book excused slavery and complained about women's rights.While there, "he quickly cultivated an image on Capitol Hill of sticking to a strict ideology," , citing DeSantis' fight for term limits, habit of sleeping in his office, and rejection of Congressional pension and health insurance plan as examples., he refused the latter because he's "against special deals for politicians." His website also states that he fought to cut taxes, sponsor legislation that makes it easier for the military to prosecute sexual assault, and wrote a bill to end a secret Congress slush fund funded by taxpayers to make hush payoffs for sexual harassment.&nbsp;He also fought for the , which provided that Congress members wouldn't receive a salary unless Congress passed a&nbsp;budget&nbsp;by October 1, 2012.He was later endorsed by Fox hosts Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham during his race for governor, .In 2015, DeSantis helped found Freedom Caucus, a in the House. Its ideology has roots in the Tea Party movement, and it opposed the Obama Administration's policies, threatening a government shutdown the year it was founded, .But , not all members of the Freedom Caucus are on the rightmost end of the spectrum. The caucus was established to help push House GOP leadership rightward on certain fiscal and social issues. It wanted to give committees more power on which bills could move forward."America needs a new generation of leaders to address the big issues facing the country," announcing his Senate candidacy.Rubio originally wasn't going to run for re-election but had changed his mind to the filing deadline for the primary ballot.He said it would be "inappropriate" to earn his $174,000 annual salary while on the campaign trail and missing out on congressional business, and thus resigned and gave up his Congress salary. The move was in line with DeSantis' "fiscally conservative persona," .DeSantis supported Trump in an effort to unite the Republican Party to defeat Hillary Clinton, . He has since voted with Trump .&nbsp;Trump tweeted his support for DeSantis and hosted a July 2018 rally for him in Tampa. DeSantis often used the endorsement as a talking point, . His website during the campaign : "Iraq Veteran. #1 Conservative in FL. Endorsed by President Trump."&nbsp;DeSantis was also backed by GOP mega-donors like Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and Marvel Chairman Isaac "Ike" Perlmutter, .DeSantis proposed an amendment to the 2018 spending bill that would defund Mueller's investigation in 2017 and pushed to impeach Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversaw the investigation, . DeSantis reportedly "grilled" him in a congressional hearing.But in January 2019, DeSantis signed an NDA with the FBI in exchange for a briefing on Russian hacking into Florida voter systems, which was revealed in the Mueller report, . The about-face, wrote Caputo, didn't sit well with fellow Republicans, who called DeSantis' signing of the NDA a "misstep" and "cover-up."The ad was an attempt to gain Trump supporters, .In the ad, DeSantis is also shown reading Trump's book, "Art of the Deal" to another child and reading "Make America Great Again" to his daughter."The last thing we need to do is to monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda with huge tax increases and bankrupting the state. That is not gonna work. That's not gonna be good for Florida," he had said in an interview on Fox News.&nbsp;Critics called out DeSantis, saying the phrase "monkey this up" was a racist comment toward his opponent, Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, who would have been Florida's first black governor, .His campaign released a statement calling the accusation "absurd," .The new appointments secured a conservative majority on the court, a lack of which had "long been a source of frustration for Republicans," .He formed : economy, education, environment, and public safety.According to the list of accomplishments on the , DeSantis has helped make record investments in the state's education system and created the Family Empowerment Scholarship Program for children of families with limited financial resources.In healthcare, he legalized smoking medical marijuana, created the Patient Savings Act to help lower healthcare costs, took steps to lower the cost of prescription drugs in the state, and established the Opioid Task Force while securing over $120 million to fight the opioid epidemic.In November 2019, DeSantis proposed a . That includes over the next four years to preserve the Everglades — a $1 billion increase in spending over the past four years and a record high level of funding for restoration.The Everglades Foundation praised his proposed budget, but Aliki Moncrief, executive director of Florida Conservation Voters, said it needed more action "to invest in climate solutions," .DeSantis has also established : the Blue-Green Algae Task Force and Office of Environmental Accountability and Transparency.DeSantis provided televised briefings twice daily, avoided pushing for early evacuations, and reached out and listened to local emergency managers during Hurricane Dorian,&nbsp;.Scott had closed daily conference calls with disaster managers to the media, but DeSantis opened them back up to reporters.DeSantis has said he wouldn't have signed the Florida Legislature's post-Parkland gun bill into law, which Scott did. It was Florida's first gun control measure in nearly a decade, . It implemented a three-day waiting period to buy gun buys and raised the purchase age from 18 to 21."When I served in Congress, I fought back against the Democrats' witch hunts every single day," DeSantis wrote in an email blast, . "I REFUSED to let them overturn the 2016 election and erase your vote from history. Now the Democrats are officially moving to impeach our duly elected president, my duty to protect him isn't over."He added: "As Governor of Florida, I want the president to know that we have his back in this fight 100%, so today I'm issuing the Presidential Protection Fund to fight back against this disgusting attempt to overturn a legitimate U.S. election."That's . Hispanic, African-American, Independent, and Democrat voters showed approval in the poll, ."The message I think for spring breakers is the party is over in Florida," . But DeSantis didn't make an official order, leaving the decision to close beaches in the hands of local governments.&nbsp;After public backlash over the crowded beaches, DeSantis signed an order that will and closed all bars and nightclubs in the state for 30 days. He eventually closing all beaches and businesses in Broward and Palm Beach counties, which are among the , until March 31. But his office said governments will have the ability to enforce, relax, modify, or remove these closures as they see fit.&nbsp;&nbsp;has suggested that DeSantis is hesitating to enforce measures that may hurt the state's $86 billion tourism industry., 33 states and Washington DC had issued a statewide stay-at-home order. In a news conference on March 24, DeSantis called a potential shelter-in-place order "a very blunt instrument.""When you are ordering people to shelter in place, you are consigning a number — probably hundreds of thousands — of Floridians to lose their jobs," DeSantis said.&nbsp;."We have 20 counties that have zero cases at all and about 25 counties that really only have a few cases," he added. , the number of counties in Florida without coronavirus cases has dropped to 16.Ten Democratic members of Florida's congressional delegation sent DeSantis a letter asking for a shelter-in-place order, . for not closing public beaches statewide to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Even some Florida citizens implying his lack of decision-making is leading to coronavirus deaths. and the have both praised DeSantis for his coronavirus response.In a news conference, DeSantis called out New Yorkers for getting on flights out of the city even though the state is under a shelter-in-place order, ."You're having people be reckless and cause problems for other communities," DeSantis said. "Tens of thousands have defied [state directives in New York] and so we're ending up in a situation where we're having to pick up some of those pieces.DeSantis issued an executive order requiring everybody arriving from the New York, New Jersey, or Connecticut area to self-quarantine for 14 days. He said the National Guard would be stationed in major Florida airports and would ask passengers of flights coming from the New York area to self-isolate on arrival.He later ordered the same restrictions for travelers from . He had the Florida Highway Patrol set up a checkpoint on&nbsp;the interstate to intercept drivers,At the time, 60% of all COVID-19 cases in the Sunshine State were in southeast Florida, .The statewide stay-at-home order directed "all Floridians to limit movements and personal interactions outside the home to only those necessary to obtain or provide essential services or to conduct essential activities," DeSantis said in a .But some parts of Florida opened even earlier. On April 17, DeSantis allowed some beaches in northern Florida to reopen, , even though the state was continuing to see an increase in coronavirus cases.Source: &nbsp;Fewer than 5% of people tested in Florida had COVID-19 in May, . By the end of June, the number had tripled to a seven-day average of just under 16%. As of June 29, Florida was seeing more than 5,000 cases a day for a week straight."When everything started to open up and ease up, then our volume picked up," Dr. Mark Supino, an emergency-medicine physician at Jackson Health System in Miami, told Davis.DeSantis has attributed the increase in cases to an increase in testing and to young people. Young people have indeed accounted for a large share of new coronavirus cases, Davis wrote, but many were drinking at bars that the state reopened.The state for the Fourth of July weekend.An icon in the shape of a lightning bolt.Keep readingNewsletterSign up for our newsletter to receive our top stories based on your reading preferences — delivered daily to your inbox.Something is loading.It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options.Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. It indicates a way to close an interaction, or dismiss a notification.

Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. It indicates a way to close an interaction, or dismiss a notification.An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. It often indicates a user profile.Florida is than ever before, and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is back under fire for his handling of .The backlash began as when the pandemic first hit. DeSantis refused to shut the beaches down, leaving the decision up to local governments.He issued a statewide stay-at-home order on April 1, to do so, and reopened Florida on April 30. Now, have tripled over the course of May to the end of...

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Meet Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor who has been heavily criticized for his coronavirus pandemic response

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