As Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis prepares to announce his presidential candidate in 2024, he may have an opponent more formidable than Donald Trump: Mickey Mouse.
DeSantis has been waging a year-long war against the Walt Disney Corporation since the company, which has operated Walt Disney World in Orlando since 1971, rebuked the “Don't say gay” bill in March 2022.
For now, Disney appears to have the upper hand, thwarting DeSantis' attempt to wrestle control of her Florida property away from the company. But DeSantis is not backing down, prompting some to question whether his commitment to fight culture wars and one of the most powerful companies in the world can kill his campaign before it even starts.
“If you're going to attempt a strategy as risky as this, you have to pull it off seamlessly, and so far it hasn't,” he says. Kostas Panagopoulos, chair of Northeastern University's political science department and distinguished professor of political science. “There's a chance he'll fail because now he's on the defensive and he may have to take more extreme measures that he didn't originally plan to take to stay ahead of this situation – if that's even possible. If the perception that he has been duped by Disney washes over the electorate, the political points he was hoping to score may evaporate.”
The battle between DeSantis and Disney was a complicated legal and political judo match that left DeSantis worse for wear, he says.
Tensions between the company and DeSantis began in March 2022 when the usually politically tight-lipped company he spoke against a Florida law dubbed by critics the “Don't Say Gay” bill. The legislation, signed by DeSantis, prohibits discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through third grade and severely limits it beyond third grade.
In response, DeSantis, who has built a successful political career on culture war issues, attacked what he calls “Woke Disney.”
It began by trying to limit Disney's power in the special tax district occupied by Walt Disney World. The Reedy Creek Improvement District is an “independent special district” that allows the theme park to function as a county government. It has full control over planning, permitting and construction on the property, including roads and other infrastructure. It can maintain its own water and electricity services and has its own police and fire department.
DeSantis and the Florida legislature tried to revoke the company's special tax status — until they realized it would mean shifting about $1 billion in debt to residents in neighboring counties.
The governor then turned his attention to the special taxing district's five-member board of supervisors. In February 2023, DeSantis signed a bill giving the governor the power to replace the board previously appointed by Disney with a handpicked selection of Florida Republicans.
“Today, the corporate empire is finally coming to an end,” DeSantis said. “There's a new sheriff in town and accountability will be the order of the day.”
But a month before the new board was to begin, the outgoing board approved an agreement during a public meeting that limited the board's ability to make changes to the property without Disney's approval, removing DeSantis' new board in procedure. To limit them all, using one Royal Life Clausea legal mechanism used in the United Kingdom and former British colonies, the council also ensured that the agreement would remain in force until 21 years “after the death of the last surviving descendant of King Charles III, King of England”.
By the time DeSantis and his appointed board realized what had happened, it was too late. Meet the new sheriff as well as the old sheriff.
“You better be sure to kill the king if you choose to attack him,” says Panagopoulos. “I don't think in this situation DeSantis has hurt Disney in any meaningful way. All it does for DeSantis is create a very powerful enemy that could cause him a lot of trouble down the road.”
DeSantis is now calling for an investigation into the deal, while Disney maintains that “all agreements entered into between Disney and the District were appropriate and discussed and approved in open public forums in compliance with Florida's Sunshine Law.” Bob Iger, the company's CEO, also confirmed the company's continued investment in Florida, citing plans pump $17 billion into Walt Disney World over the next decade and create 13,000 new jobs.
Panagopoulos says DeSantis' decision to pick a fight with Disney is, in some ways, an attempt to position himself as an alternative to Trump. With the former president facing legal challenges, DeSantis took a page from Trump's book and made a play on the Republican base in an effort to “show strength and toughness.”
There is inherent risk with a type of strategy where execution and follow-through are less important than political positioning. The risk is even more significant when the target is a company with significant financial influence in your home country. Disney's 25,000-acre megaresort has brought tens of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars economic benefits to the state. In this case, it's not just a culture war. it is an economic war.
“At the end of the day people's pocketbooks are more important to them than politics,” says Panagopoulos.
DeSantis is starting to fall even further behind Trump preliminary voting. Being known as “the guy who lost a fight with Mickey Mouse” won't help, Panagopoulos says, and he could start “recasting [his] image in the minds of many voters,” especially if his political opponents capitalize on it.
Panagopoulos says DeSantis' power play against Disney may also be a sign of things to come for a Republican party that continues to double down on culture war politics.
“Efforts like these are inconsistent with the Republican party's close ties to big business that they have leveraged heavily for electoral gains,” he says. “I'm not sure that this as an isolated incident implies that the relationship between the Republican party and big business in America has broken. But it suggests those bonds may be weaker than in the past. If big business begins to feel that the Republican party is untrustworthy, they may become less willing to support Republican causes, which could only benefit Democrats.”
Cody Mello-Klein is a reporter for Northeastern Global News. Email him at c.mello-klein@northeastern.edu. Follow him on Twitter @Proelectioneer.
