Chairman’s Message

Historic Seminole Compact is a win-win for Florida

This week, the Florida Senate and House roundly approved the historic gaming compact that Governor DeSantis successfully negotiated with the Seminole Tribe of Florida. The agreement will generate a minimum of $2.5 billion in new revenue for the state over the next five years and an estimated $6 billion through 2030. This is all new money to the state as the Tribe is not currently making any revenue payments.

The new Compact is needed after the breakdown of the 2010 compact, which for 11 years has denied the state of Florida any revenue from the Seminole Tribe’s ongoing gaming operations — including the most profitable casino in the United States in Hillsborough County.  

“This changes today. With this new compact, the state will now see a large stream of recurring revenue to the tune of billions of dollars over the next few years,” Governor DeSantis said. In addition, “the deal will also create over 2,000 jobs.”

“This legislation has been a long time coming. I appreciate the hard work of everyone involved, particularly the leadership of Governor DeSantis in bringing the Compact across the finish line,” Senate President Wilton Simpson said. “By comprehensively addressing issues raised for almost a decade, this historic Compact restores Florida’s relationship with the Seminole Tribe, offers new opportunities for Florida’s legacy pari-mutuel industry, and provides substantial new revenues for our state.”

“Today, we achieved a historic deal for the state of Florida,” Speaker Chris Sprowls said.

Read more here: https://www.flgov.com/2021/05/19/florida-legislature-approves-seminole-compact-by-historic-margins/

––––

Meanwhile, Val Demings' apparent decision to challenge Senator Marco Rubio for the U.S. Senate in 2022 makes the decision for Floridians crystal clear.

Demings is just another in a long line of Democrats trying for a Senate seat who have spent their D.C. career voting in perfect lock-step with Nancy Pelosi to push radical policies that are completely out of touch with Florida families.

For instance, in the past full Congress (2019-2020, perhaps the most radical) Val Demings voted with Nancy Pelosi 100% of the time. Nothing is too radical for Val. 

In contrast, Senator Marco Rubio’s record of delivering wins for Florida families and support of traditional Americanism is unmatched. 

He wrote and led to passage the bipartisan PPP program in 2020 that saved millions of jobs in Florida. He wrote and led to passage the historic VA Accountability Act. He doubled the child tax credit over Democrat opposition. He has been a leader on Everglades restoration, getting restoration efforts back on track. And he has been a leader in calling out China for its ruthless civil rights violations of its own citizens and threats against its neighbors.

The fight is clear now, and we know who would be best for Floridians and America: Senator Marco Rubio.

Legislation

Alcohol-to-go is now permanent in Florida. Governor DeSantis signed into law Senate Bill 148, which allows restaurants or vendors of alcoholic beverages also holding a public food service license to sell or deliver alcoholic beverages prepared by the vendor in sealed containers.

The bill offers additional sales options, commonly referred to as alcohol-to-go, that are similar to measures implemented by emergency orders of Governor DeSantis during Florida’s state of emergency because of COVID-19.

“Alcoholic drinks to-go became an important source of revenue for restaurants that were trying to survive during the pandemic,” Governor DeSantis. “This law is an important measure to continue the positive economic impacts of a temporary order. I want to thank the Legislature, but particularly Senator Jennifer Bradley and Representative Josie Tomkow, for being ready and willing to create common sense reforms that got government out of the way and increased opportunity for Florida businesses.”

Read more here: https://www.flgov.com/2021/05/13/governor-desantis-signs-bill-allowing-to-go-sales-of-alcoholic-beverages-by-restaurants/

Florida Update

Standing up for business owners who were unfairly punished by local government overreach, Governor DeSantis signed an executive order pardoning all COVID-related charges and arrests. 

In response, Broward State Attorney Harold Pryor sent a letter to Governor DeSantis in response to the order, saying he would recommend to the court that, “…those who have been sentenced, have their sentences vacated.”

He also said he’ll direct prosecutors to “…dismiss those offenses involving all alleged violations of COVID-19 Emergency Executive Orders.”

Read more here: https://miami.cbslocal.com/2021/05/18/ron-desantis-pardons-all-covid-related-charges-arrests/

Governor Ron DeSantis

Finally, an in-depth media report debunks a year’s worth of false narratives — narratives that the media is still trying to spin.

Florida’s COVID-19 death rate is lower than the national average — without draconian lockdowns, unscientific mask mandates or invasive vaccine passports. In an attempt to discredit Governor DeSantis’ successful response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the corporate media embraced an absurd narrative for the past year, claiming that “Florida is manipulating COVID-19 data to hide the real numbers.”

Totally untrue. The single source for this conspiracy theory was a disgruntled former employee of the Florida Department of Health. Though there was zero evidence of data manipulation, partisan media activists did not let the facts derail their false narrative.

But after reviewing hundreds of pages of public records, National Review published a comprehensive exposé that destroyed this year-long corporate media smear campaign against Governor DeSantis and Florida’s hardworking public health leaders.

Read it here: https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/05/rebekah-jones-the-covid-whistleblower-who-wasnt/

Journalists have one job: to report the truth. That so many eagerly amplified an obvious lie, solely to score political points, is an indictment of modern journalism. 

Read the media’s year of myths and then the actual truth here:
https://www.flgov.com/2021/05/14/new-report-ends-corporate-medias-favorite-false-narrative-about-floridas-successful-covid-19-response/

Social Media Highlights

REMEMBER: @FloridaGOP and retweet and share. The Republican message must be spread around the state and you are integral to making that happen.