Ron DeSantis' Culture War Is Turning Off Republicans

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' ongoing feud with Disney and his battle against "woke" is putting him at risk of alienating the GOP at a time when he needs to garner as much support as possible.

A number of establishment Republican figures have condemned DeSantis, who is widely expected to confirm he is running for president in the coming weeks, for targeting Disney after the company objected to his so-called "don't say gay" bill—a move which appears to have backfired on the governor.

He has also received some right-wing backlash after he signed a bill that would ban abortions after six weeks, and continued to push through with policies targeting education and the LGBTQ+ community, including the banning of some books in schools.

"He spends way too much time on the culture wars, and that begins with Disney and includes many other things," former Trump White House counselor Kellyanne Conway told Fox Business host Larry Kudlow on April 20. "Woke is important, but you can't have that as a replacement for a bold, growth-centric economic plan."

However, Thomas Gift, an associate professor who heads the Center on U.S. Politics at University College London, said that having a hardline stance on "woke" is DeSantis' brand, and that his base is "lapping it up" as he continues to battle the culture wars.

"It's hard to question the political impulses of a governor who won re-election by nearly 20 percentage points in a swing state based on this exact strategy," Gift told Newsweek.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis delivers remarks during the New Hampshire GOP's Amos Tuck Dinner on April 14, 2023, in Manchester, New Hampshire. Some GOP members have condemned DeSantis for continuing to stoke the culture wars and his unrelenting attacks on the Walt Disney Company. Scott Eisen//Getty Images

DeSantis has been engaged in a war with Disney after the company spoke out against HB 1557, legislation that bans the discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in certain grades at Florida schools.

DeSantis later stripped Disney of benefits protected under the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which essentially allowed Disney to run as its own governing body for the past 50 years.

However, the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District—the board handpicked by DeSantis to oversee the governance of Walt Disney World—revealed in March that weeks before the governor signed a bill giving the state control of the land, Reedy Creek had signed a deal with Disney that handed control of its development rights and special privileges to the company, essentially allowing Disney to remain self-governing.

Unsurprisingly, former President Donald Trump, who is expected to face off against DeSantis in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, mocked DeSantis on Truth Social and suggested the governor had been "outplayed, outsmarted, and embarrassed by Mickey Mouse and Disney."

New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu suggested that DeSantis is at risk of making the GOP as a whole look bad by going after a much-loved, family-friendly company.

"This has gone from kind of going after a headline to something that has devolved into an issue, and it convolutes the entire Republican message," Sununu told CNN on April 17. "It's not good for Governor DeSantis. I don't think it's good for the Republican Party."

Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie also suggested that Disney's humiliation of DeSantis is showing he wouldn't be able to handle being in the White House.

"That's not the guy I want sitting across from President Xi [Jinping of China] ... or sitting across from [Russia's President Vladimir] Putin and trying to resolve what's happening in Ukraine, if you can't see around a corner [Disney CEO] Bob Iger created for you," Christie told Semafor on April 18.

"I'm a conservative, and I believe as a conservative, the job of government is... to stay out of the business of business. I don't think Ron DeSantis is a conservative based on his actions towards Disney."

Bryan Griffin, a spokesperson for DeSantis, said in a statement that "there's no need to respond to any critics." Griffin added that the Florida governor has made clear he is targeting Disney because they have had "extraordinary special privileges and an unfair special advantage compared to other businesses in the state."

Elsewhere, a top Republican donor who had previously expressed support for a 2024 presidential campaign from DeSantis announced he is holding back on financially backing him for the time being because of the governor's "stance on abortion and book banning."

Thomas Peterffy, founder of Interactive Brokers, also expressed fears that DeSantis has "lost some momentum" in his potential 2024 bid, after having long been thought of as the biggest challenger to Trump in the primaries with many previous polls suggesting the governor is the preferred Republican candidate.

"I am more reluctant to back him," Peterffy told the Financial Times. "We are waiting to see who among the primary candidates is most likely to be able to win the general, and then put all of our firepower behind them."

Trump currently leads DeSantis in a hypothetical 2024 Republican primary by 49.3 percent to 26.2 percent, according to FiveThirtyEight's national polling average. But political scientist Gift said DeSantis could still be the culture warrior the GOP is looking for.

Gift said: "There are legitimate questions about how DeSantis' firebrand tactics might play in a general election, but his attacks on progressive corporations, critical race theory and the like aren't losing him any votes in the GOP primaries.

"It may still not be enough to take down Trump, but Republican primary voters are looking for their ultimate culture warrior to lead then into battle—and DeSantis is no doubt armored up and ready to lead."