Debbie Wasserman Schultz at DNC calls Florida ‘testing ground’ for Project 2025

Debbie Wasserman Schultz at the 2024 DNC. Screenshot via PBS.

U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz says Americans need only to look at Florida to see Project 2025 in action.

In a Democratic National Convention (DNC) speech, Wasserman Schultz attacked Gov. Ron DeSantis more often than Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

“From the classroom to the emergency room, Gov. DeSantis turned Florida into a testing ground for the Right’s most egregious, dangerous policies,” the Weston Democrat said. “I can tell you firsthand, it’s been devastating for families in my district and across the state.”

The Democratic Co-Chair of Florida’s congressional delegation and longest-serving Democrat holding federal office in Florida said the state serves as a “cautionary tale.” She slammed policies like Florida’s “Parental Rights in Education” law, which critics labeled “Don’t Say Gay,” and a controversial Black history curriculum that drew rebukes even from Black Republicans.

“Today in Florida, state policy requires that kids are taught racist lies about so-called benefits of slavery,” Wasserman Schultz said. “Books are banned. Teachers are censored. And our LGBTQ+ community endures endless state-sponsored hate, even a cruel ‘Don’t Say Gay’ school law. Today in Florida as we grapple with record heat and rising seas, extreme MAGA Republicans deleted mentions of climate change from state law.”

She then tied the DeSantis agenda in Florida directly to Project 2025, an extensive policy platform crafted by Washington think tanks and offered as a blueprint for Trump for a conservative takeover of the federal government. The Heritage Foundation Director who spearheaded the project recently resigned, as Trump leveled public criticism at the plan while reportedly aligning with it privately.

But the initiative has provided endless fodder for speakers at the DNC in Chicago. Wasserman Schultz suggested that any notion that the policy proposals won’t be put into action should be dispelled by DeSantis’ aggressive pursuit of similar goals in Florida.

“For the people of my state, Project 2025 isn’t just a threat. It’s a reality that we battle every day,” she said

She said a “near total abortion ban” signed by DeSantis has proven especially consequential for the women of Florida.

“I keep thinking about a Central Florida woman I met named Deborah,” Wasserman Schultz said.

“At 23 weeks pregnant, she got news every future parent dreads. Her baby’s kidneys never developed. Doctors told her that not only would her baby not survive, her own health was in danger. Deborah couldn’t get the care she needed in Florida. And she couldn’t afford to travel hundreds of miles to get it. She had no choice but to carry her son, Milo, to term only to watch him die in her arms two hours later. This is Project 2025 in practice.”

She said to expect such stories nationwide if Republicans win the Presidential Election this Fall.

“It’s what Donald Trump and JD Vance want for the whole country. But we’re not going to let it happen, are we?” Wasserman Schultz said. “Now I say this as a Floridian, but also a mom and an American. We can’t let them do to America what they did to Florida. Are you with me? So, let’s fight like hell to elect Kamala Harris the next President of the United States of America.”

Wasserman Schultz notably led the Democratic National Committee in 2016, when Trump first ran for President. But she ended up resigning her post at the convention that year following a leak of emails suggesting party officials wrongly favored Hillary Clinton during the nomination cycle that year. With Democrats heavily divided, Trump went on to win the presidency that year.

That she was given a speech at Chicago at all signals a level of healing between flanks of the party, though the convention has also seen protests sympathetic to Palestinians bombed in the West Bank while Wasserman Schultz and other Democrats have voiced steadfast support of Israel.

Wasserman Schultz made no mention of that conflict, even as progressive speakers like U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York said Harris as President would “help secure a cease-fire.”

Wasserman Schultz has been the most high-profile Florida official to take the DNC so far, with U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost expected to speak before the convention ends Thursday night.