Leaders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) say its travel advisory highlighting Florida’s “active hostility” to minorities is only the beginning of a campaign to engage voters in the state and nationally, as the state’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, prepares to launch his presidential run on Wednesday.
Leon Russell, chair of the NAACP, also told the Guardian that the group rejected calling for an economic boycott of the state similar to one that ended with South Carolina lowering the confederate flag in 2015.
“Very simply put, we questioned the effectiveness of a boycott,” Russell said. “In Florida, this is about the politics of the situation and so people need to buckle in and organize, and get themselves arranged to deal with elections and the consequences of the elections.
“It’s to make the general public across the nation fully aware of what’s happening here in Florida. The legislative actions that concern us cover a broad gamut, not just Black history, not just public education, but what we consider to be attacks on different groups of people who make up the state of Florida.
“We’re not saying, ‘Don’t come to Florida, don’t spend your money here,’ we’re saying if you are coming, come to an entertainment center that supports diversity, equity and inclusion, go to companies that support all groups of people, corporations that have spoken out in favor of human rights rather than trying to restrict them.”
DeSantis, who has signed into law a raft of legislation targeting African Americans, including an assault on Black voting rights, is planning to launch his long-anticipated presidential run on Wednesday night in conversation with the owner of Twitter, Elon Musk. Russell, however, said the timing of the NAACP advisory was coincidental.
“Whether it be immigrants, the LGBTQ+ community, women and reproductive rights, or voting rights, there are any number of issues that the Florida legislature and the governor have taken up, and we believe that all of those things generally the public needs to be aware of,” he said.
“People have to talk about [DeSantis’s] record but they have to talk about the record of every candidate and compare everyone running for office, whether it’s at the primary level or way up.
“In 2024 is not just the presidential election, there are other elections, and we have really one party dominating all the politics in the state of Florida.”
Conservatives reacted swiftly to the NAACP’s advisory on Monday, with DeSantis’s spokesperson calling it “a stunt” and Christian Ziegler, chair of the Florida Republican party, offering to help pay for Russell to move out of the state from his home in Tampa.
Russell called Ziegler’s offer “BS”. “Frankly, we didn’t tell anyone to leave,” he said. “We look at this as a way to build participation in the electoral process, and that we do it from the bottom up, not just presidential politics, but local politics as well.
“We said that we would take this into a civic engagement program, that we will collaborate with other groups on all of the issues that we’ve talked about, whether it’s redistricting, whether it’s women’s reproductive rights or whatever.”
The NAACP advisory follows a similar statement issued last month by the advocacy group Equality Florida, which warned of “the risks posed to the health, safety, and freedom of those considering short or long term travel, or relocation to the state” following various anti-LGBTQ+ legislation signed by DeSantis.
But overall, Russell said he is optimistic that voters around the country will take developments in Florida with them to the ballot box next year.
“Ron DeSantis’s campaign against wokeness has awakened the people, and is awakening the people,” he said.
“And that’s the whole point here, to make sure that people are aware, that they’re not asleep, that they’re not apathetic, that they understand the importance of the political process and clearly understand their role in that process.
“That’s our work, not to go out and campaign against Ron DeSantis or Donald Trump or anyone else, but to go out and clearly state what the issues are and what our position is.”
