| Good morning. Politics reporter Kirby Wilson here, filling in again this week for Emily L. Mahoney. Ron DeSantis’ birthday was Wednesday! Happy 44th to the governor. We didn’t get him anything, but the New York Times gifted DeSantis a 9,500-word profile. Reporter Matt Flegenheimer — citing plenty of Tampa Bay Times and Miami Herald reporting — details the governor’s rise from relatively anonymous congressman to serious contender for the presidency. The piece asks a lot of questions we’re doing our best to figure out ourselves: What makes DeSantis such a formidable foe for the state’s progressives? Can he become the GOP standard bearer while Donald Trump remains politically active? And is DeSantis ready for national prime time? Give the piece a read, and let me know what you think. — Kirby Wilson, kwilson@tampabay.com |
| Marco Rubio’s war on the woke |
| The Rundown: Sometimes, when politicians face difficult elections, they change their message to fit the moment. Marco Rubio may be in the toughest Senate race of his career, but he doesn’t appear to be moderating one bit. In a recent series of online missives, Rubio dove headfirst onto the conservative side of one of the most divisive cultural issues of our time: how to treat transgender people. Last week, Rubio wrote a letter to Tampa Bay Rays owner Stuart Sternberg about the organization’s $20,000 donation to Metro Inclusive Health. That Tampa Bay-area health care company offers a number of services, including hormone therapy for transgender people. Rubio wrote that he was concerned the organization was providing kids with these treatments, a practice he called “harmful and irreversible” and “not backed by science.” (For more background on the science behind hormonal therapies for transgender kids, check out this story.) The Rays declined to comment. Then on Wednesday, Rubio’s team sent out a release called “Liberals Believe Men Can Get Pregnant.” In it, Rubio noted that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention uses the term “pregnant people” when referring to those who give birth. In doing so, the agency is accounting for the scenario in which a transgender man — i.e., a person born female who identifies as a man — gets pregnant. Rubio is not having it: “Every single human being that’s ever been born was born of a biological woman,” the release said. Rubio’s betting such statements will resonate not only with conservative voters, but with a broader general electorate in his race against the formidable U.S. Rep. Val Demings. We’ll see how that strategy turns out. |
.png)
No comments:
Post a Comment