ORLANDO, Fla. — This weekend’s Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando will have a decidedly Florida feel, with Gov. Ron DeSantis kicking off the event and Palm Beach resident Donald Trump closing it.
But in between, the tone of the country’s largest conservative event, and possibly the next four years of Republican politics, will be set by several panels indulging in the former president's unfounded conspiracy theories of election fraud.
“It shows Trump’s enormous sway, even though he lost,” said Aubrey Jewett, a professor of political science at the University of Central Florida.
“He may have lost the election, but right now, some Republicans won’t admit that,” Jewett said. “And for some others, it’s not that they are necessarily true believers, but they recognize the politics of it. It’s still an effective tool to get the Republican base fired up.”
This year’s CPAC at the Hyatt Regency Orlando was already the subject of criticism over coronavirus concerns. Its usual Maryland hotel site is closed over COVID-19 restrictions, so the event shifted southward to the more permissive state of Florida.
DeSantis, who has fiercely opposed any kind of pandemic restrictions since last spring, is set to address the conference Friday morning with a speech titled, “Florida Welcomes CPAC: Open for Business.”
DeSantis gave a preview of what could be expected in his Friday appearance before a raucous and largely maskless crowd in West Palm Beach, in which he said, “All the schools should be open. All the businesses should be open.”
The governor also made national headlines following the Super Bowl, when he dismissed concerns about crowded Tampa Bay Buccaneers celebrations amid the rise of the UK coronavirus variant in the state.
DeSantis, Jewett said, will have “a prime spot as governor.”
“He’s primarily been thought of as not only a Trump ally but sort of a Trump acolyte, somebody who really fiercely carries the Trump banner,” Jewett said. “And he’s potentially trying to set himself up for his reelection to governor and then maybe a presidential run.”
U.S. Sen. Rick Scott is also scheduled to speak at a Friday panel on “The Way Forward: Unlocking Our Churches, Our Voices, and Our Social Media Accounts.”
Finally, on Sunday afternoon, Trump is set to make his first live public appearance since leaving office Jan. 20 in a speech in which he will reportedly name himself the “presumptive 2024 nominee” in total control of the party, according to Axios.
Axios also reported that Trump advisers describe the speech as a “show of force” and Trump will proclaim that “I’m still in charge” despite his defeat and second impeachment over his incitement of the mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6.
Not listed to appear, however, is Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio. Rubio, who has gone out of his way to be on Trump’s good side since their contentious GOP primary battle in 2016, had been facing the possibility of a primary challenge by Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump. But last week, The New York Times reported that she told Rubio she would not run.
Rubio’s office did not respond to questions about why he was not attending CPAC.
At an event themed as “America Uncanceled,” CPAC on Monday canceled a scheduled appearance by musician Young Pharoah for what organizers called his “reprehensible” anti-Semitic views.
The conference includes a number of provocatively titled panels, including “California Socialism: Promising Heaven, Delivering Hell,” “Flipping the Switch: Biden’s Energy Policy Goes Dark,” “When Government Grabs the Wheel: The Imminent Threat to Your Daily Drive,” and “So You’ve Been De-Platformed — What Now?”
But by far the biggest topic was the election, with seven panels seemingly going all in on the false allegations of fraud Trump spouted for months following his loss to President Joe Biden. Trump has still not conceded defeat, even after his “Stop the Steal” rally Jan. 6 led to the Capitol riot.
The series “Protecting Elections” kicks off with a panel titled, “Voting is Democracy: Why we Must Protect Elections,” but leads into follow-up sessions named, “Other Culprits: Why Judges & Media Refused to Look at the Evidence,” and “The Left Pulled the Strings, Covered It Up, and Even Admits It.”
Other election-related panels include one called, “Failed States (PA, GA, NV, oh my!),” which includes as a speaker a Georgia attorney who helped Trump in his failed attempt to overturn Biden’s win in that state. The continued false allegations of fraud have had a real effect on Republican voters.
According to a new Vox and Data for Progress poll, 73% of likely Republican voters said they questioned Biden’s win, and 75% said they believed Biden benefited from voter fraud.
But the conference also comes after one of the last of Trump’s appeals challenging the election results in Pennsylvania was denied by the Supreme Court on Monday.
The Trump campaign and his allies had claimed Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court extending the mail-in ballot deadline by three days nullified that state’s election, a position first taken by DeSantis in a Fox interview the week after that vote and echoed by Scott in his voting to overturn the state’s results on Jan. 6.
Still, the approximately 10,000 votes that came in during those three days were not enough to tip the outcome to Trump.
Scott ordered his own election deadline changes in the Panhandle following Hurricane Michael in 2018, and DeSantis’ secretary of state, Laurel Lee, extended the state’s registration deadline in 2020 after the online system failed.
Despite what they claimed was a flawless election, DeSantis and Florida Republicans are also following the lead of other Republican-controlled states in using the false election fraud narrative to try to restrict mail-in voting and limit dropboxes.
“It does make you think that it’s more politics than policy,” Jewett said. “It’s more about signaling that he’s on the side of President Trump.”
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