Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) tore into Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis during a congressional hearing with Jasmine Burnley-Clark, the director of the Florida-based Equal Ground organization, about abuses of public office.
"Everyday Floridians have been exercising their right to democracy," said Ocasio-Cortez. "They have voted overwhelmingly and organized at the ballot box to institute minimum wage. And Ron DeSantis tries to preempt and overturn minimum wage. Floridians tried to come together in order to get housing costs under control, and what does Ron DeSantis ... and the Republican Party in Florida do? Overturn it. Then we are seeing voting rights restoration, we are seeing redrawing of and trying to check extreme gerrymandering. And what Governor DeSantis is doing is overriding the will of Floridians. And that, at the core, is what we need to talk about today."
DeSantis won re-election in the 2022 midterm cycle commandingly; however, he has also leveraged this power to pass legislation largely opposed by voters in his state, like a near-total abortion ban despite Florida voters supporting abortion being legal in most cases by 17 points. He has also stripped power away from other officials who were themselves elected, like removing a state attorney who vowed not to prosecute anyone in his county over abortion.
"Frankly, it does not matter what end of the political spectrum you are on in the United States. It doesn't matter if you're a Democrat, a Republican, if you're red or blue, if you're woke or asleep. I don't care," said Ocasio-Cortez. "The point is, is that when people speak at the ballot box, that their will is honored, and that the policies and officials that they support at the ballot box get instituted by our government."
"And we should all be very, very concerned when an elected official takes a seat of power, and when everyday people vote to have a certain outcome at the ballot box, he takes it, Ron DeSantis takes it upon himself and say, Floridians, I know what's better for you than what you do," she continued. "I'm going to take away the power of your voice at the ballot box, I'm going to take away the power that you have over your own body, I'm going to take away the power of your ability to be a full citizen and have your voting rights be honored in the United States."
"This should wake everybody up, independent of political affiliation," she concluded.
