Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has come under a heavy amount of scrutiny after an uber-wealthy, and exclusive community in Key Largo somehow received enough COVID-19 vaccine doses for 1,200 residents over the age of 65, according to a report from the Miami Herald. As it happens, Republican donors live there, including the former GOP Governor of Illinois, Bruce Rauner, who forked over a $250,000 check to DeSantis.
“Since DeSantis started using the state’s vaccine initiative to steer special pop-up vaccinations to select communities, his political committee has raised $2.7 million in the month of February alone, more than any other month since he first ran for governor in 2018, records show,” the report states.
“In fact, the only people from Key Largo who gave to DeSantis’ political committee live in Ocean Reef.,” the outlet reports. “All 17 of them had given the governor contributions of $5,000 each through December 2020, according to the Florida Division of Elections.”
A Florida Democrat isn’t too happy about this.
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“This is wrong on so many levels,” state Sen. Annette Taddeo tweeted Wednesday night. “Floridians life saving vaccines should NOT depend on a rich Zip code or how big your political contribution is!!!”
This is wrong on so many levels.
I’m so glad we now have the Biden administration running federal sites in Florida so regular folks can get their vaccine!
Floridians life saving vaccines should NOT depend on a rich zip code or how big your political contribution is!!! https://t.co/GvYLeUCYYI
— Annette Taddeo (She/Her/Ella) (@Annette_Taddeo) March 4, 2021
DeSantis was very popular with the Conservative Political Action Conference’s annual gathering this year as a potential presidential nominee in 2024 after a straw poll was conducted. DeSantis became popular with conservatives after taking his cue from former President Donald Trump by not shutting down his state in response to the raging COVID-19 pandemic. And that’s kind of weird since Florida suffered heavy losses from the pandemic. Florida has many elderly residents, many of which struggled to get their first dose of the vaccine, but sure, go for the guy who could have had a leading role in the movie, The Hunger Games.
You can read the full report here
Featured image via Gage Skidmore/Flickr, under Creative Commons license 2.0
