DeSantis has a line of state’s following his policies….

Gay rights activists believe DeSantis helped inspire dozens of new state proposals that seek to regulate transgender health care, drag-show performances or public accommodations for transgender Americans. So far in 2023, the American Civil Liberties Union has identified 278 proposals in state legislatures that it considers “anti LGBTQ bills,” already equaling the total number of such bills filed in 2022.

Meanwhile, PEN America, a freedom of expression advocacy group, has so far identified 81 proposals that it believes are attempts to stifle creativity and academic freedom in education. About 20 of those proposals appear to be nearly a “carbon copy” of a law enacted last year in Florida that bans LGBTQ topics from elementary school classrooms, said Jeremy Young, senior manager of free expression and education at PEN America.

And according to Moms for Liberty, a Florida-based advocacy group with close ties to DeSantis, lawmakers in a half-dozen states are debating “parental rights” legislation that closely mirrors a bill that Florida’s governor signed into law last year restricting what teachers can say about gender and sexual orientation.

Although conservative advocacy groups and think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation, the Manhattan Institute, the Alliance Defending Freedom and Moms for Liberty still play a significant role in drafting state legislation and finding sponsors for the proposals, both conservative and liberal advocates say DeSantis’s governance of Florida is providing a road map….

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The governor’s growing influence in state legislatures could serve as a litmus test for how widely DeSantis might appeal to a larger audience as he mulls a possible presidential run. Despite the sheer number of Florida-style bills, some analysts are skeptical that DeSantis’s measures that stoke culture wars will draw support from lawmakers in more moderate states….

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But as GOP legislators from an array of states seek to emulate DeSantis’s policies, there remains considerable uncertainty over whether his message and style of policymaking play well politically outside of Florida and the Deep South.

Democratic lawmakers in some states say they relish making the debate over GOP legislation a referendum on the Florida governor, saying he has become synonymous with an abrasive brand of politics that turns off moderate voters….

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