Ron DeSantis continues to hone his messaging on property insurance, climate change, and the culture war, and the three topics became one mass on the campaign trail Saturday.
The Governor told Iowans Saturday that environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) was to blame for high insurance costs.
“I think you have a lot of movement to things like ESG and climate change and stuff which is causing these policies to be more expensive, which I don’t think is a legitimate way to do it,” the 2024 presidential candidate said.
“But I think I’m concerned about this ESG, I’m concerned about them trying to say climate change and everything because that’s going to make some of these things very, very expensive if they’re pricing in all these things that very well may not happen. And that’s new from where we were 20 or 30 years ago.”
DeSantis made the comments at a town hall event in Johnston.
DeSantis has found ESG to be a durable topic. He’s promised to “protect meat” from it, and has promised as a candidate to “kneecap” ESG and social credit scores. However, this is the first time he’s wrapped it into insurance.
Interestingly, his position on climate change has been flexible over the years. Depending on the day and audience, he admits it exists and that humans cause it or kvetches about “politicizing the weather.”
The Governor’s comments come just days after the U.S. Senate Budget Committee began a probe of Citizens Property Insurance and its ability to handle underwriting losses, including the question as to whether the state insurer might need a federal bailout.
DeSantis hasn’t suffered much political blowback from challenges in the insurance market, at least from his own party. A recent poll from the University of North Florida Public Opinion Research Lab shows just 3% of Republicans primarily blame the Governor, though Democrats and independents are more likely to blame him.
That said, insurance has been a major issue for Floridians’ pocketbooks. A Cygnal survey last month showed 91% of voters are “concerned” about higher rates, with just 0.5% of all respondents saying their rates have decreased in the last year.
Though it hasn’t hurt him with his in-state base, Florida’s insurance market has been an issue nationally, as former President Donald Trump has made a campaign issue of Florida’s troubled insurance sector.
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