Changes

Pandering to his [[dark money|dark-money]] mega-donors, DeSantis personally pushed for statewide [[sports gambling]] in a deal valued at $2.5 billion, despite opposition by [[conservative]]s based on the enormous harm inflicted by the [[gambling]] [[addiction]].<ref name="Politico">https://www.politico.com/news/2023/06/30/desantis-scores-big-legal-win-upholding-2-5b-gambling-deal-with-florida-tribe-00104427</ref>

Pandering to his [[dark money|dark-money]] mega-donors, DeSantis personally pushed for statewide [[sports gambling]] in a deal valued at $2.5 billion, despite opposition by [[conservative]]s based on the enormous harm inflicted by the [[gambling]] [[addiction]].<ref name="Politico">https://www.politico.com/news/2023/06/30/desantis-scores-big-legal-win-upholding-2-5b-gambling-deal-with-florida-tribe-00104427</ref>

It was due to Trump's endorsement of him in 2018 that DeSantis was able to win the [[Republican]] gubernatorial primary, and then barely defeated the later-indicted [[Democrat]] [[Andrew Gillum]] in the [[2018 midterms]].<ref>''[http://archive.is/QfvFt If Democrats want to win, they need a black politician on the ticket]'', Theodore R. Johnson, ''The Washington Post'', March 13, 2020.</ref>  In 2022, [[conservative]] [[Ashley Moody]] won reelection as Attorney General by nearly 61% of the vote, which helped carry DeSantis to victory with a smaller number of those same votes.<ref>Previously, DeSantis served as a member of the [[United States House of Representatives]] from January 2013 to September 2018.</ref>  

It was due to Trump's endorsement of him in 2018 that DeSantis was able to win the [[Republican]] gubernatorial primary, and then barely defeated the later-indicted [[Democrat]] [[Andrew Gillum]] in the [[2018 midterms]].<ref>''[http://archive.is/QfvFt If Democrats want to win, they need a black politician on the ticket]'', Theodore R. Johnson, ''The Washington Post'', March 13, 2020.</ref>  In 2022, [[Ashley Moody]] won reelection as Attorney General by nearly 61% of the vote, which helped carry DeSantis to victory with a smaller number of those same votes.<ref>Previously, DeSantis served as a member of the [[United States House of Representatives]] from January 2013 to September 2018.</ref>  

Despite propaganda claiming the contrary, DeSantis has not governed as a sincere conservative. To paraphrase "Dutchman," a prominent commentator on ''The Conservative Treehouse'', every action he has taken since 2018 was a political calculation designed to create two non-existent images, one of a "Free State of Florida" and the other of a "Trump lite". He is not nor has he ever been [[America First]]; his public image is totally artificial and disconnected from reality.[https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2023/06/22/everyone-is-going-to-think-im-nuts-but-im-not-nuts]

Despite propaganda claiming the contrary, DeSantis has not governed as a sincere conservative. To paraphrase "Dutchman," a prominent commentator on ''The Conservative Treehouse'', every action he has taken since 2018 was a political calculation designed to create two non-existent images, one of a "Free State of Florida" and the other of a "Trump lite". He is not nor has he ever been [[America First]]; his public image is totally artificial and disconnected from reality.[https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2023/06/22/everyone-is-going-to-think-im-nuts-but-im-not-nuts]