Florida Teens Are Doing Whatever They Can to Stop DeSantis 2024

Rodriguez says young people in Florida are largely united in their fight against the state’s governor “because he doesn’t represent Gen Z values.” 

“We believe in human rights. We believe [people should] love who they want to love. We believe in education, not the banning of books. Gen Z does not stand for hate.”

Lola Smith, 12, was born and raised in Florida. Though they’re at an age where they should mostly be playing with friends and doing homework, they often spend time traveling to Tallahassee, the state capital, where they speak at public hearings in defense of their rights. Smith was at a state house committee hearing where Rep. Webster Barnaby (R–FL) called trans people demons, imps, and mutants. (He later apologized.) While DeSantis claims his legislation is aimed at protecting children, Smith feels far from protected. “I am being erased,” they said. “I have to put all my energy into fighting for my right to exist when, in reality, I should be focusing on doing stuff like my math homework.”

Smith is exhausted by the seemingly endless flood of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation being signed into law in Florida and by the amount of work they’re putting in to try to stop it. At school, they say kids are too scared to come out to their parents or teachers. Some students have instead confided in Smith about their identities. But while Florida is “a mess right now,” Smith hasn’t given up hope for their home state and said they’ll continue making the four-hour, one-way drive to Tallahassee to fight for what they believe is the state’s rightful future.

Tom Bonier, the CEO of TargetSmart, a Democratic data services firm, said it’s rare for a candidate’s home state voters to take such a stand against them. “It’s unusual to have that galvanization of people from [your] home state for a guy who won by a wide double-digit margin.” But, Bonier said, DeSantis’s wins in the 2018 and 2022 gubernatorial races shouldn’t necessarily be taken as a sign of overwhelming statewide popularity. Bonier says voter suppression and the feeling young voters and Democrats had that DeSantis would be impossible to beat in the governor’s race played a role. Now, young Floridians are “ in a unique position to spread the word that the rest of America should do everything they can to ensure that he’s not able to do to the United States what he has done to Florida.”

Florida is often the butt of national jokes, from the eponymous Florida Man meme to supposedly liberal calls to expel the state from the U.S. altogether. Driggers feels the need to defend his state against the idea that it’s “too far gone. I’ve seen some people convey the idea that Florida deserves its plight because we didn’t vote the right way,” he said. “And I think that’s such a horrible way to look at it. You have to consider the marginalized communities in Florida… are obviously not at fault. By no means are we a lost cause. And the fight we’re putting into confronting DeSantis is awe-inspiring.”

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