Precis

The US state of Florida has become the epicentre of a nation-wide culture war and a model for the country’s right-wing conservative movement.

Led by Governor Ron DeSantis, the only serious Republican rival to Donald Trump's presidential bid, the state has become the place where “woke goes to die”. 

This week on Foreign Correspondent the ABC’s Washington bureau chief Jade Macmillan travels to the sunshine state to see how this war is playing out.

The battlegrounds are schools and universities where new laws on the teaching of issues like race and gender are bitterly dividing communities.

While other US states are watching closely, and some even following suit, all eyes are now on Ron DeSantis who is expected to announce a run for the Republican presidential nomination.

The question is will the Governor’s “anti-woke” blueprint take him all the way to the White House?

Episode teaser

Music

00:10

JADE MACMILLAN, Reporter: In the pageantry of US politics, Florida is used to turning heads. For decades, it's been courted as the prized swing state, where elections are won on the barest of margins, and presidents are made. Now, all eyes are on Florida again, and its rising star of the American right.

00:27

MC: It is my honour to welcome America's Governor, Ron DeSantis.

00:50

DESANTIS: We will never surrender to the woke mob. Florida is where woke goes to die.

00:56

JADE MACMILLAN, Reporter: Governor Ron DeSantis has made Florida the epicentre of the nation's culture wars, zeroing in on education and the teaching of issues like race and gender.

01:03

CATALINA STUBBE: He defend freedom, he defends education and the innocence of our children.

01:15

ANITA: There is a palpable fear in the State of Florida right now.

01:21

JADE MACMILLAN, Reporter: The Governor has been crisscrossing the country, pitching his Florida playbook to a national audience.

DESANTIS: I'm happy. You're looking at the number one non-fiction book in America right here.

01:27

JADE MACMILLAN, Reporter: Setting up a showdown for the Republican presidential nomination, with Florida's most famous resident Donald Trump.

01:41

MAGA MARY: It's not going to be pretty. It's going to turn families against each other and it's going to be awful. Awful.

01:50

Super: Jade Macmillan

JADE MACMILLAN, Reporter: Ron DeSantis is regarded as the only serious Republican rival to Donald Trump. Even before he makes an official announcement he's having a massive influence on America, so we've come to see what the man and his war on woke look like. 

01:57

Title: THE WAR ON WOKE

Music

02:17

Man busking with violin. Super:
SARASOTA, FLORIDA

02:22

Marius and family in boat

On Florida's Gulf coast, life revolves around the water.

02:30

MARIUS: I feel like I'm living in heaven, honestly. This is heaven on earth right here.

02:35

JADE MACMILLAN, Reporter: Real estate agent Marius Mocan and his family have embraced the Sarasota lifestyle since arriving here two years ago.

02:40

MARIUS: The water, the beaches, the weather. As you can see, there's beautiful real estate everywhere. Prices have skyrocketed with the amount of people moving here.

02:50

JADE MACMILLAN, Reporter: The Mocans moved from Oregon after becoming fed up with that state's COVID policies.

03:01

MARIUS: "You want to drive? Go ahead and drive."

03:07

JADE MACMILLAN, Reporter: Today they're taking me out to one of their favourite spots. In Florida, they say they found freedom.

MARIUS: I feel like

03:10

Marius interview on boat

I haven't lived in the true America until I moved here. A truly free country. When you get here, it's just like, America! It's like more in your face, you know? And everybody just minds their own business. You do your own thing. Nobody's judging you.

03:24

Mocan family on beach

JADE MACMILLAN, Reporter: Ron DeSantis did shut down Florida in the early stages of the pandemic, but soon bucked the advice of federal experts.  He re-opened schools and businesses, and banned mask and vaccine mandates.  Americans chafing at COVID restrictions rushed in. By 2022, Florida was the fastest growing state, and Ron DeSantis was the new hero of the right. 

03:41

MARIUS: Ron DeSantis did a very good job during COVID. His response to everything. I have friends that are more

04:12

left-leaning have told me bold things like, you're going to die if you move there. There's no restrictions. You're going to get COVID and you're going to die. That's what I was told. But once we got here and we just had that, we're here, you know, all of that just sort of dissipated.

04:19

DAUGHTER: "Papa, I know how to get on myself."

DARIA: "She does, this is true."

MARIUS: "Oh, wow!"

04:38

MC: "Ladies and Gentlemen, Governor Ron DeSantis."

DESANTIS: Over the past few years, as so many states in our country grinded their citizens down, we in Florida lifted our people up.

04:43

DeSantis inauguration

When other states consigned their people's freedom to the dustbin, Florida stood strongly as freedom's linchpin. God bless you.

05:00

JADE MACMILLAN, Reporter: Ron DeSantis is a 44-year-old descendant of Italian immigrants, a navy veteran, and a father of three.  He's had a fast and furious rise since his first bid for governor in 2018.

05:09

Still. DeSantis and Trump

In that election, with President Trump's endorsement, he won by less than half a percentage point.

05:23

Still. DeSantis and family

Four years later, he was the new prince of the Republican Party,

05:30

DeSantis victory speech

re-elected as governor with the biggest victory in decades.

DESANTIS: "Well, thank you so much! We chose education over indoctrination."

05:37

Trump

JADE MACMILLAN, Reporter: While the former president was dogged by scandal, Ron DeSantis earned

05:50

the tagline 'Trump without the nonsense'.

05:55

'Stop woke' speech

DESANTIS: "We are not going to tell some kindergartener that they're an oppressor based on their race and what may have happened 100 or 200 years ago.

06:00

JADE MACMILLAN, Reporter: He's channelled his momentum into a campaign for 'parental rights', targeting what he decries as 'woke indoctrination' in schools.

DESANTIS: "We will never surrender to the woke mob.

06:06

Flag outside suburban house. Catalina with children

Florida is where woke goes to die.

06:21

JADE MACMILLAN, Reporter: Across Florida, Ron DeSantis has found a powerful new ally in suburban mothers.

06:27

CATALINA: "Run, run, run. You can make it!"

06:35

JADE MACMILLAN, Reporter: Catalina Stubbe is a former Miss World Colombia who campaigns with a group called Moms for Liberty, a conservative non-profit founded in Florida during the pandemic as a pushback against remote learning and mask mandates.

06:40

Jade greets children

CATALINA: So, this is Jade.

NATALIA: I'm Natalia.

JADE MACMILLAN, Reporter: Natalia. And what's your name?

HERMAN: Herman.

JADE MACMILLAN, Reporter: Nice to meet you.

06:56

Jade with Catalina into house

CATALINA: It was difficult for me, pandemic, but I realised with the pandemic a lot of things, how the education system is actually not too good.

07:01

"Can I see your folder, please? Wash your hands!"

Because of the pandemic I really wasn't happy with what my children were learning.

07:13

JADE MACMILLAN, Reporter: Moms for Liberty grew quickly and now claims more than 100,000 members across the country. Its mission is to 'fight for the survival of America' by defending parental rights.

CATALINA: We became like a political party.

07:27

Catalina interview in home

Every single politician was talking about education. Finally, for the first time they were talking about parental rights; the rights that God give you when your child is born. You have to take the entire responsibility of your own children. That means you are the only one taking all the decision over your children, being medical, education, morality, religion, everything. You are the only one. Parents are the only ones taking all the decision

07:45

Daughter enters

over their children…

Hola princess. That's my daughter.

LEA: Hi.

08:18

GVs, home interior

JADE MACMILLAN, Reporter: Moms for Liberty threw their weight behind Ron DeSantis in his first term as governor, campaigning for the Parental Rights in Education Bill, which prohibits instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity from kindergarten through year three. Critics call it 'Don't say gay.'

08:27

Catalina interview

CATALINA: When an adult talk to children about sexuality and genitalia and how they feel about coming out of the closet and whatever, this is child abuse. They're using the tax money payer to push a radical agenda.

08:48

JADE MACMILLAN, Reporter: Some people would describe Ron DeSantis's policies as being homophobic.

09:07

CATALINA: There will always be retractors and people who criticise everyone. I mean, I don't share that, because I love governor DeSantis, what he did for our state. I love, I really love. And I think we need to set an example of Florida with Governor DeSantis for the entire world to show how a good leader can make a perfect state.

09:12

Jade driving

Radio: "Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is set to deliver his state of the state address tonight."

JADE MACMILLAN, Reporter: Ron DeSantis has been using his electoral mandate to re-shape Florida into a model Republican state.

Radio: "He's expected to focus on popular and cultural issues as he eyes a run for president."

09:44

JADE MACMILLAN, Reporter: He's lowered taxes while investing in law enforcement. And tightened abortion regulations while loosening gun laws. But it's his intervention in the public school system that's tapped a deep well of emotion.

10:04

Jade to camera outside capitol

One of the reasons that Ron DeSantis has been able to push so much of his agenda is because of the amount of support he has in Florida's state legislature. Republicans hold supermajorities in both chambers. It means that there's very little resistance to some of the really controversial laws being passed.

10:26

Legislature opening

10:49

At the opening of the legislature for 2023, Ron DeSantis is due to give his State of the State address.

10:55

Reporter: "Governor, any bombshells?"

Reporter 2: "God bless you!"

Speaker: "Madame President, the Governor of Florida."

President: "Let the Governor be received."

11:04

JADE MACMILLAN, Reporter: On the agenda for this session is a proposed expansion of the ban on teaching gender identity and sexual orientation until Year 9 that would also prohibit the use of preferred pronouns in schools.

11:15

Jade listens to speech

DESANTIS: We must continue our momentum with K-through-12 education by fortifying parents' rights.

11:29

DeSantis speech

Our schools must deliver a good education, not a political indoctrination.

11:36

Protestors outside legislature

Children are not guinea pigs for science experimentation, and we cannot allow people to make money off mutilating them.

11:42

PROTESTOR: If they keep adding on these laws, more and more trans kids will die.

JADE MACMILLAN, Reporter: What message do you want to send to the Governor?

11:55

PROTESTOR: Stop trying to erase transgender people and non-binary people and stop being afraid of us.

12:01

Jade listens to speech outside chamber

DESANTIS: We will stand strong. We will hold the line. We won't back down. And I can promise you this. You ain't seen nothing yet. Thank you all. God bless you. Thank you.

12:12

JADE MACMILLAN, Reporter: Outside the chamber the governor takes questions from chosen journalists, and he defends opening the public school system to scrutiny.

12:29

DeSantis with press corps

DESANTIS: We've been able to empower parents with our curriculum transparency. They go in and say, if I'm going to send my ten year old daughter, I don't think I want this there with all these graphic images, that's not appropriate, because I can tell you, when parents object to it at school board meetings across the country, they usually are told you have to pipe down because it's too graphic to even discuss in the school board meeting. So if you can't discuss it in a school board meeting, how is it appropriate for these kids.

12:38

Leon County GVs

Music

13:07

RADIO: "Tonight's school board meeting is just getting underway…"

RADIO 2: "I don't know why the GOP took forever to come down this path. This is probably going to be a winning ticket to win over new voters who would otherwise never vote for Republicans because their kids have a brighter future.

13:09

School board meeting

CHILD: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands…

13:24

JADE MACMILLAN, Reporter: Ron DeSantis has extended his influence from the state legislature down to the local level.

13:33

Florida's school boards decide how schools in their districts operate. They're made up of elected positions.  Last year, Ron DeSantis became the first governor in the state's history to endorse and fund candidates.

13:41

BOARD CHAIRPERSON: Alright, 19.02 public hearing for required instruction for human growth and development. Open public hearing.

13:58

MEMBER: Madam Chair, there are five speakers on this item.

JADE MACMILLAN, Reporter: We've come to a school board meeting in Leon County.

14:04

Members of the local chapter of Moms for Liberty have come to object to its sex education curriculum.

MEMBER: The first, we will have Priscilla West.

14:10

Mothers address meeting

PRISCILLA WEST: In the 314 pages of Leon County's middle and high school curriculum, the word woman is not used, not once. The word man is only used once. The word anal is used 33 times.

14:20

SHARON KERWIN: There are several lessons in this curriculum that don't follow Florida statute 1003.42 that says, quote, "teach abstinence from sexual activity outside of marriage as the expected standard for all school aged students while teaching the benefits of a monogamous heterosexual marriage." By the way, I couldn't find one time that marriage was referenced in this curriculum.

CHAIRPERSON: "Thank you for your comment. Next speaker, Brandi Andrews."

14:37

BRANDI ANDREWS: I honestly just envision a little girl going to school that day. She learns what a clitoris is, she goes home and starts masturbating. What does that do for her future now?

15:01

JADE MACMILLAN, Reporter: Superintendent Rocky Hanna clashed with the governor over COVID policies. He's now being investigated by the Department of Education over allegations he let his personal views influence his work.

15:15

ROCKY HANNA: I've been with our school district 35 years. I've never seen so much scrutiny before.

15:30

BRANDI ANDREWS: I know there's a lot of you up there that view us as your enemy. We're not. We're parents. These are our kids.

CHAIRPERSON: Thank you for your comment.

ROCKY HANNA: I've never seen anything like this; this attack by the governor and the legislature, saying horrible things about our public schools that are completely untrue,

15:35

Rocky Hanna interview

that gender identity conversations are being had to second and third graders, which is totally false, that we're teaching critical race theory in our high schools, which is totally false. It's all just misinformation and it's pitted teachers against parents and it's just sad.

15:52

Jade walks with Anita in school corridor

ANITA: There is a palpable fear in the state of Florida right now. You wonder if you're going to do something

16:12

Anita interview in classroom

that might be perceived as legally wrong. So, the normal pressure on a teacher to come in the classroom, do your best job, meet every learner's needs, bring every child to their full potential – on top of that, we wonder, are we going to say the wrong thing?

16:23

JADE MACMILLAN, Reporter: English teacher Anita Hatcher is a 36-year veteran of the public school system.  

16:42

Have you ever seen any signs of teachers trying to impose a certain ideology on students trying to, in the words of the governor, indoctrinate them?

ANITA: Not ever. Not in any state I've taught in. Not ever.

16:49

JADE MACMILLAN, Reporter: Where do you think that comes from?

ANITA I can only guess, based on my life experiences, that the Governor of the State of Florida has some deep-seated fear that is coming out as prejudice and coming out as legislation. And he's tapping into this fear that other people have and he's making a political career out of it.

17:05

JADE MACMILLAN, Reporter: For Anita, it's personal.  Do students ever confide in you, tell you things that they're not comfortable telling their parents?

ANITA: Absolutely. And not only do students confide in me; it was the teachers that my child confided in before he talked to me that saved his life.

17:33

Family photo. Ethan as toddler

JADE MACMILLAN, Reporter: Anita's 17-year-old son, Ethan, is transgender.  She's sent him to live with family in another state because she feared for his safety in Florida.

ANITA: My heart breaks every day that I'm not with him.

17:53

Anita interview

When he was a baby, I prayed over his crib that he would be independent because I was a 41 year old new mother, and I got exactly what I prayed for. So it really is about doing the right thing when it's the hardest thing you've ever done.

18:09

Sarasota GVs

RADIO: "To the new developments in the education battle unfolding at New College in Sarasota. It has major implications for Governor DeSantis and his plan to influence what students learn in Florida."

RADIO 2: "It is a gorgeous day, but it's going to be a warm one."

18:32

Jade walks New College grounds. Students protest DeSantis

JADE MACMILLAN, Reporter: I'm back in Sarasota, on the tranquil grounds of New College. This public campus of less than 700 students calls itself a community of free thinkers.  It's now at the centre of the governor's war over education. Ron DeSantis says the college has been captured by woke ideology.

18:47

Media guy leads Jade to press area

PR GUY: Are you guys all camera or are you print?

JADE MACMILLAN, Reporter: Camera. Yep.

PR GUY: So, you'll see we have like a big taped-off area with all cameras and it's going to be a jungle.

19:11

JADE MACMILLAN, Reporter: He's overhauled its leadership, appointing six conservative members to its board. Today they'll vote on a motion to abolish the college's office that provides support programs for people of different races, genders, and sexual orientations. The governor wants these offices scrapped at all state colleges and universities, arguing they create division.

19:23

Board meeting

TRUSTEE SPALDING: This is discrimination; it should be gone.

AUDIENCE: It's inclusion!

19:47

JADE MACMILLAN, Reporter: The make-up of the board means the vote is a foregone conclusion, but students and parents have turned out anyway to be heard.

19:54

CHAIRPERSON: This is the time for public comment. At the end of a minute, your time will be done, the microphone will cut off, and we ask that you please yield to the next speaker.

20:03

Mother addresses meeting

MOTHER: Thank you. My son is a student here who is looking at transferring, which I know doesn't matter to you. You've been very clear that you are happy to help relocate students who don't support your vision for their school. I hope that the kind of educational derailment and utter disrespect that you are currently showing my child is never suffered by one of yours.

20:14

Sam addresses meeting

SAM: This has been a hostile takeover of the top five public liberal arts college that we call home. It's absurd that some of these trustees couldn't even be here today because they don't even live in Florida. They were handpicked by DeSantis because of their commitment to culture war grifting.

20:52

Parents chant

AUDIENCE: Shame on you! Shame on you! Shame on you!

CHAIRPERSON: Time is up. Okay, so we had the motion, it's been seconded. Can we do a roll call vote on that, please?

21:07

Trustees vote

BOARD SECRETARY: Trustee Bauerlein?

BAUERLEIN: Yes.

BOARD SECRETARY: Trustee Karp?

KARP: Yes.

BOARD SECRETARY: Trustee Keenan?

KEENAN: No.

21:14

BOARD SECRETARY: Trustee Kesler?

KESLER: Yes.

21:19

BOARD SECRETARY: Trustee Rufo?

RUFO: Yes.

BOARD SECRETARY: Trustee Ruez?

RUEZ: No. 

21:22

BOARD SECRETARY: Trustee Spalding?

SPALDING: Yes.

BOARD SECRETARY: Trustee Speir?

SPEIR: Yes.

21:26

BOARD SECRETARY: Chair Jinks?

JINKS: Yes.

BOARD SECRETARY:  Vice chair Christaldi.

CHRISTALDI: Yes.

BOARD SECRETARY: Motion passes.

CHAIRPERSON: Motion passes, okay.

21:31

Sam on skateboard

JADE MACMILLAN, Reporter: Student Sam Sharf says it's all about politics, not education.

SAM: As an authoritarian figure in Florida with unlimited power to do as he pleases, he gets to basically make this his testing ground to begin taking over institutions.

21:38

Sam interview

And he's obviously doing this in a way to posture for his presidential campaign, to boost his resume among the ultra-conservative base. And it's disheartening that we are just like political pawns in his game of politics and optics.

21:57

Marvin on bus

Music

22:15

MARVIN: I was born in 1940 in central Florida. I entered white people's houses through the back door. I drank from the coloured water fountain. I sat on the back of the bus. And even as a child, that hurt.

22:50

"Just make a left at the end of this road and it's two miles down there."

23:13

Marvin on laptop

JADE MACMILLAN, Reporter: Dr Marvin Dunn has been an educator for more than 50 years.  He's one of governor DeSantis's most outspoken critics.

23:24

Marvin interview at home

MARVIN: I was teaching at Florida International University for four years before DeSantis was born, and now he comes and tells me what I can and cannot teach in my classroom? This is out… it's outrageous. I simply won't stand for it.

23:33

JADE MACMILLAN, Reporter: Dr Dunn has spent decades researching and teaching Florida's black history.  He claims the governor is trying to sanitise it.

23:50

MARVIN: The experience of black people in Florida has been very, very violent. And we should not be surprised at that. Florida was a part of the confederacy during the Civil War, and a lot of people who had those racist attitudes came down into Florida and blacks paid the price for that.

24:00

JADE MACMILLAN, Reporter: Dr Dunn has challenged legislation known as the Stop Woke Act, which says racial history can't be taught in a way that "indoctrinates" students or instructs them to feel guilty because of their race.

24:17

MARVIN: I was the principal of a high school for 15 years, 15 years. If one of my teachers had told a white student, you should feel guilty for what happened during slavery, that teacher would've been out of my building that day. I wouldn't have stood for it. It's not happening in Florida. I don't know a single school where a white kid is being told you should feel guilty. It is DeSantis's big lie, and most people believe this.

24:31

JADE MACMILLAN, Reporter: Why do you think the governor has introduced this particular piece of legislation?

24:56

MARVIN: The governor has introduced this legislation because he wants to be president. The governor's doing this to attract the extreme right wing of his party and he's intentionally creating a monster just so he can be the one that slays it – this woke mob thing he came up with. This is going to be the next president of the United States? I hope not.

25:01

Marvin leading tour to Rosewood

JADE MACMILLAN, Reporter: Dr Dunn has responded to the Stop Woke Act by organising what he calls "Teach the truth" tours. Today he's brought a group of students and their parents to the former town of Rosewood.

25:33

MARVIN: The main reason I want you to walk all the way here was to be able to see that between us and that bus was downtown Rosewood. That's where the juke joint was. Some of you are too young to know what a juke joint was. Well, that's where people partied, the club.

25:46

JADE MACMILLAN, Reporter: Once a thriving, mostly black, community, Rosewood was burned to the ground in 1923 after a white woman claimed to have been assaulted by a black man.  Survivors fled into the surrounding swamps. This path is what remains of a railroad that allowed some people to escape.

25:58

Marvin with Jade at Rosewood

MARVIN: Lives were saved on this railroad track by a white man and his wife. White people helped us in Rosewood and that should be recognised. This was the path to safety. That makes this spot sacred.

26:20

JADE MACMILLAN, Reporter: Dr Dunn has purchased this land and hopes to turn it into a park.

26:34

Marvin addresses tour, plants roses and azaleas

MARVIN: No governor, no president can take our history away. And that's why we're here, not to make anybody angry, not to upset anybody. We're here for our own purposes.

26:43

JADE MACMILLAN, Reporter:  With the help of the students, he's planting roses and azaleas – flowers that bloomed here 100 years ago.

26:56

Music

27:07

MARVIN: I don't think most Americans, white or black, conservative or liberal, like what's going on. This stuff may play well in Florida. But will it work in Pennsylvania? Will it work in Michigan? Ohio? Even if he wins the presidency, even if he wins it two terms, this is a side-track for our country. This is not us. This will pass.

27:10

Jade driving

Music

27:37

RADIO: "America enters unchartered waters this week as former President Trump was indicted on 34 criminal charges. Did you see this bump in the polls for Trump? Trump widening his lead after the news of the indictment came out. Question is whether or not this type of momentum can be sustained."

27:44

JADE MACMILLAN, Reporter: Donald Trump continues to hold a substantial lead over Ron DeSantis as the preferred Republican nominee.  The Florida governor is yet to confirm he's running. Donald Trump and his supporters are preparing for a fight.

28:08

MAGA MARY: I never had a warm and fuzzy feeling about Ron DeSantis. I mean,

28:28

Trump supporter Mary

I voted for him. He's, so far, he's been a good Governor. But this presidential run… We won't be happy. We'll have to choose. And I'm afraid Governor DeSantis will be on the losing side.

28:33

Music

28:52

Credits [see below]

28:57

Outpoint

29:20