Sierra Club Florida condemns DeSantis’ ‘scorched-earth’ politics, supports NAACP

Sierra Club Florida has joined a coalition of six advocacy groups in their condemnation of “the politics of anger and fear” in Florida.

The Sierra Club, an advocacy group that works to preserve the environment in Florida and across the nation, issued a statement Friday morning saying it stood with the NAACP and Equality Florida’s travel advisories.

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“The Governor’s scorched-earth approach does not represent who we are,” said James S. Scott, Executive Committee Chair of Sierra Club Florida. “We are better than this.”

The NAACP released its travel advisory on May 20, saying that Florida “has engaged in an all-out attack on Black Americans, accurate Black history, voting rights, members of the LGBTQ+ community, immigrants, women’s reproductive rights, and free speech, while simultaneously embracing a culture of fear, bullying, and intimidation by public officials.”

Since its advisory, other groups like the League of United Latin American Citizens, Human Rights Campaign, the Florida Immigrant Coalition, and Equality Florida also released statements in opposition to political actions taken by DeSantis.

“The People of Florida must stand in solidarity,” Scott said.

DeSantis, in turn, has fired back at the advisories. Earlier this week, the governor and now presidential primary candidate called the advisory from the NAACP a “farce.”

“Claiming that Florida is unsafe is a total farce,” DeSantis said in the Twitter space announcing his candidacy. “I mean, are you kidding me? You look at cities around this country, they are awash in crime. In Florida, our crime rate is at a 50-year low. You look at the top 25 cities for crime in America, Florida does not have a single one amongst the top 25.”