Ana Navarro Claims DeSantis ‘Gamed the System’ of Voting to Win

WASHINGTON (FLV) – CNN political commentator Ana Navarro slammed Gov. Ron DeSantis during a panel on CNN, alleging DeSantis won “because he gamed the system” following the 2022 midterm blow out in Florida.

DeSantis and the Republican Party of Florida successfully flipped traditionally Democrat-heavy or Democrat-leaning counties across the Sunshine State, in some cases by double digit margins.

“Ron DeSantis barely won in 2018, by 35,000 votes, by the skin of his teeth against a black progressive little known mayor from Tallahassee Florida… yesterday he won by 20 percentage points, why? Because he gamed the system. Because he turned Florida into an unleveled playing field,” Navarro said.

“They changed election laws, making it harder to vote by mail. They paraded a bunch of people – black people, that they arrested for voting fraud, and paraded them in front of national media. He created an election police.”

Navarro shared the clip on Twitter saying, “What do u call passing laws changing vote by mail/curtailing Early Voting? What do u call creating an unnecessary Election Police and making sure some Black voters got arrested for cockamamie voting charges later dismissed in Court? What do u call redistricting FL to benefit GOP”

DeSantis’ Press Secretary Bryan Griffin responded to Navarro saying, “Nothing ‘curtailed’ early voting. Absentee ballots are still available upon request. Convicted felon murderers or sex offenders are not eligible to vote & no charge has been dismissed on the merits.”

In April, DeSantis signed Senate Bill (SB) 524, which required the Department of State to strengthen ID requirements for mail-in ballots, required supervisors of elections to check voter rolls every year for ineligible voters, increased the penalty for ballot harvesting from a first-degree misdemeanor to a third-degree felony, among other items.

In regards to Navarro’s question on redistricting benefiting the GOP, Florida’s Voice has previously reported while there are claims of gerrymandering on the congressional, state house, and state senate districts, courts have upheld them and DeSantis’ map is more geometrically even than the prior cycle’s map.

Those maps, however, don’t impact the results of statewide races, like the governor and U.S. Senate election.

Many traditionally blue counties were flipped red, including Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, Osceola, Hillsborough, and Pinellas, throwing doubt into the narrative that gerrymandering is to blame for Democrats’ losses.