DeSantis takes culture wars well beyond Florida: The Note

The TAKE with Rick Klein

What if a Republican governor were in a position to -- virtually by himself -- wipe out the redistricting gains Democrats scored across the entire country while making a statement about race and representation in politics?

What if that same governor could show progress over a few short days on gun rights and taking on social media and big corporations over political discourse -- building on conservative wins on abortion, school curriculum and voting rights?

That's the remarkable place Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has put himself in the equally remarkable special legislative session underway in Tallahassee this week.

DeSantis has added to the agenda a proposal to strip the Walt Disney Co. of some of the benefits it receives through a special local government entity after the company came out against a new Florida law banning gender identity and sexual orientation from being taught in lower elementary grades. Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

The other major lifting of the special session is to approve a new map of the state's congressional districts after DeSantis vetoed the proposal that had been put forward by GOP legislative leaders. While Florida is adding a House seat due to population gains, the new map would reduce the number of majority-Black districts and take away three highly competitive seats -- while giving Republicans four additional seats they can count as safe, according to a FiveThirtyEight analysis.

The issues DeSantis has chosen to elevate are relevant, of course, inside Florida, where the governor is up for reelection this year and where former President Donald Trump happens to currently reside.

But the issues also speak loudly to conservative activists beyond the Sunshine State, at a time that DeSantis' gaze may be starting to drift toward national ambitions -- whether Trump likes that or not.

The RUNDOWN with Averi Harper

With a little more than six months until the midterm elections, President Joe Biden is turning to domestic issues and cross-country stops aimed at highlighting the administration's successes.

It's no secret that, historically, midterm elections don't favor the president's party, and Democrats are bracing for losses. Biden's drop-in visits in states across the country, like his Tuesday stop in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, have given him a chance to tout the administration's accomplishments, address what agenda items have been left undone and talk about what could be in jeopardy if Democrats lose control of one or both chambers of Congress.

Drawing attention to the tangible results of Biden administration's legislative successes, including the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, could also be a boon for vulnerable Democrats up for reelection, like Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H.

"Maggie was a key player in the infrastructure law, making a difference in New Hampshire," said Biden during remarks highlighting infrastructure investments in the coastal city of Portsmouth.

What remains to be seen is if the impact of infrastructure efforts will be enough to energize voters when they're being crushed by the skyrocketing costs of living including food and gasoline. According to the latest ABC-Ipsos poll, only 35% of Democrats are "very enthusiastic" about voting.

Biden heads west to Oregon and Washington later this week.

The TIP with Alisa Wiersema

Data exclusively shared with ABC News for the first fundraising quarter of 2022 from the Democratic-aligned, online donation platform ActBlue indicates a strong presence of grassroots donors in this year's campaign cycle.

More than 2 million unique donors gave just over 9 million contributions to 14,352 campaigns and organizations over the last three months, according to ActBlue. The total raised this quarter -- nearly $380 million -- is more than double what was raised over the same time period in 2018 amid the midterm election cycle.

"Grassroots donors pay attention to races in their states and around their towns, as well as the pressing issues that groups and nonprofits work on," said ActBlue Executive Director Erin Hill. Hill also noted that ActBlue is getting greater donor engagement stemming from advocacy for issues like voting rights, LGBTQIA+ protections and health care access.

Since 2020, several issues that fall into those categories have grown out of state- and local-level policies that echoed onto the national stage -- often in the form of party culture wars.

Meanwhile, voting rights have been at the forefront of political discourse in several high-profile battleground states, including Georgia, Texas, Florida and Pennsylvania, where state executive officeholders were often at the center of political battles over newly proposed legislation.

The heightened visibility of the impact local races could have on future policy decisions could be a factor in why ActBlue reports candidates for state legislatures raising more than in the past.

Candidates in this year's governor's races and state attorneys general contests -- positions often involved with legal challenges to state policies -- have also seen significant boosts in fundraising compared to the same period in the last midterm cycle.

NUMBER OF THE DAY, powered by FiveThirtyEight

12. That's the percentage-point net support for legalizing marijuana (support for legalization minus opposition to legalization) among Republicans, according to polling from Civiqs. And as FiveThirtyEight contributor Michael Tesler writes, that's significant because congressional Republicans' opposition to legalization is increasingly out of step with where their own rank-and-file members stand on the issue. Read more from Michael on how the politics of pot have changed in the last 20 years.

THE PLAYLIST

ABC News' "Start Here" Podcast. "Start Here" begins Wednesday morning with former White House adviser Andy Slavitt on the latest COVID-19 mask mandates. Then, ABC's Maggie Rulli details the devastation from floods in South Africa. And, ABC's Dan Abrams explains actor Johnny Depp's defamation suit against his ex-wife, actress Amber Heard. http://apple.co/2HPocUL

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