Florida’s Death Toll Now Exceeds DeSantis’ Margin of Victory

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis made a big bet that keeping Florida open and fighting mask mandates would be political gold, and for a time it looked like he was winning that bet. No more, as the Delta variant has made Florida the epicenter of a new and more transmissible surge of COVID-19. And DeSantis is too dug in fighting mask mandates and peddling “Don’t Fauci My Florida” merchandise to make many adjustments even as the number of hospitalizations climb with a rising death rate sure to follow.

Local school boards are defying his executive order banning...