Florida’s House Democrats have elected new leaders, each to serve a two year term beginning after the 2022 and 2024 elections.
“Rep. Ramon Alexander, D-Tallahassee, and Rep. Fentrice Driskell, D-Tampa, will be the next two leaders of Florida House Democrats. The House Democratic caucus on Wednesday elected Alexander to serve as its leader for a two-year period starting after the 2022 elections,” according to The Tallahassee Democrat. “The caucus chose Driskell to serve as leader for the two-year period starting after the 2024 elections.”
Most recently, Alexander made headlines for his opposition to HB 1, an anti-rioting law signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), meant to combat years-long rioting by far-left groups in many of America’s urban centers.
He characterized the bill, which increases penalties for committing crimes during a riot, as an attack on “civil disobedience.” But thousands of riots over the past year alone resulted in looting, property damage, and even death.
“Just because the stuff I’m saying may make some of you all feel uncomfortable, does not give you the right to stop me and mute me from saying what I’m gonna say,” Alexander said.
He invoked the Jim Crow era when slamming the bill.
“I started tearing up last night when I was thinking about this,” Alexander continued, “because I’m looking at these college students in North Carolina, South Carolina, all over Florida, walking inside lunchroom counters, just trying to be served some eggs and some sausage, just trying to drink some coffee. And they used the tool of civil disobedience to help people understand that it’s not right to keep someone from having the same opportunity to drink from the same water fountain and use the same restroom just because of the color of their skin. And I’m trying to tell you right now, if it wasn’t for civil disobedience, if it wasn’t for the people who stood up and advocated and fought for the things they fought for, I wouldn’t be drinking from the same water fountain that you’re drinking from today. I wouldn’t be able to walk inside of the same restaurant and to eat the same foods you eat. I would have to go behind the lunchroom counter and get my food from the back.”
Those who favor HB 1 view it differently.
“This legislation strikes the appropriate balance of safeguarding every Floridian’s constitutional right to peacefully assemble while ensuring that those who hide behind peaceful protest to cause violence in our communities will be punished,” DeSantis said of the bill. “Further, this legislation ensures that no community in the state engages in defunding of their police.”
Driskell will serve as the Florida House Democrat Leader beginning in 2024.
She recently opposed DeSantis’ ban on mask mandates, despite the fact that Florida, while remaining open for most of the COVID-19 pandemic, fared well compared to states like New York, which were completely locked down, and remain restricted today.
She said banning mask mandates was “a move in the wrong direction,” and criticized the legislature’s move to make vaccine passports illegal.
“It’s been an interesting sort of role reversal that we’re seeing with Republican leadership where they keep trying to tell businesses and corporations how to do their job and how to run their business,” Driskell said. “It’s just, it’s very strange to me. And again, I think a move in the wrong direction.”
Driskell, like Alexander, has a history of downplaying the violent riots from the past year.
“Many of us marched alongside you,” she said at a press conference in February. “And while the peaceful protests may have themselves subsided, our work has not.”
She is also a proponent of “police reform.”
“As Black lawmakers, our lived experiences in our communities is how we know that there needs to be a better relationship with law enforcement,” Driskell told POLITICO in April. “Unfortunately, that sense of urgency hasn’t necessarily translated [to] majority leadership in the House and the Senate.”
– – –
Pete D’Abrosca is a contributor at The Florida Capital Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Background Photo “Florida Capitol” by DXR. CC BY-SA 4.0.
