What is Project 2025? Florida Looks Like Test Site for Republican Plan

John Kennedy
| Capital Bureau | USA TODAY NETWORK – FLORIDA

The conservative Heritage Foundation’s nearly 900-page Project 2025 is not an easy read.

But the document, seen as a conservative road map for a second Donald Trump presidency, is fueling heated debate in the new race for the White House.

Project 2025 proposes a sweeping overhaul of the federal government, replacing thousands of civil servants with political forces, expanding the powers of the president, abolishing the Department of Education, implementing a series of tax cuts, banning pornography, and ending the sale of the abortion pill.

To Floridians, the document’s themes and policies may sound familiar. After all, Governor Ron DeSantis has advanced many of the same ideas that were pushed by far-right think tanks during his first six years in office.

“You in Florida are living in the future,” said Nick Beauchamp, a political scientist at Northeastern University who has written about Project 2025 and its proposals, driven by Heritage and a host of other conservative, billionaire-funded think tanks.

“The states are always the test cases for all of these things. Maybe the billionaires behind these think tanks are all talking to each other,” Beauchamp said.

More from USA TODAY: What is Project 2025? Inside the conservative plan Trump says he has ‘no idea’ about.

Florida: ‘Laboratories’ for Conservative Experiments?

Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried is among those warning about Project 2025. She says her home state is divided over many of DeSantis’ policies.

“We have been the guinea pigs for the Heritage Foundation here in the state of Florida, so we understand the threat that Project 2025 poses,” Fried said.

Trump has denied any knowledge of Project 2025. But Democrats led by newly inaugurated presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris are painting a picture of the dystopian America that awaits us if Trump wins in November.

The document calls for ending diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the workplace and in education, limiting workers’ rights to organize through unions and promoting restrictions on the use of books, among other things — all of which were passed in Florida by DeSantis.

Florida’s expanded private school voucher program, which could lead to the closure of dozens of public schools in the state, is being cited by Project 2025 as a program that should be replicated nationwide.

Florida under DeSantis is also praised by the authors for the state’s “parental rights law.” The measure, first introduced in 2021 during the COVID-19 era, has been beefed up to limit classroom discussions of sexual orientation and gender.

As the governor said in his second inaugural address, Florida is where the woke go to die.

Related news: From student debt to Title IX reform: How Project 2025 could change people’s lives

Trump: ‘I don’t want to know anything about Project 2025’

At the first rally since the assassination attempt, Trump says he “took a bullet for democracy” and tries to distance himself from Project 2025.

‘Anti-woke’ themes are pervasive in Project 2025

Project 2025 proposes that the “next conservative president should make the institutions of American civil society hard targets for woke culture warriors.” The document would also urge Trump in a second term to remove terms like “sexual orientation,” “gender equality,” “abortion,” and “reproductive rights” from laws and regulations.

DeSantis removed the term “climate change” from Florida law earlier this year.

Republicans have rejected any involvement by Trump in Project 2025, claiming the conservative wish-list document is now being used by Democrats to drum up support for Harris as she replaces President Joe Biden as their party’s nominee.

“I’m not an extremist at all,” said Trump, who labeled the authors of Project 2025 as far-right, though he still has close ties to some of them.

GOP leaders say Democrats are only stoking fear

Evan Power, chairman of the Florida Republican Party, also said the document should now serve primarily as a weapon for Democrats.

“Project 2025 is a think tank idea pushed in an organized manner by the left to distract from the disastrous Biden-Harris administration,” Power said.

Instead, he added, “let’s focus on the issues that matter to Florida voters.”

Heritage and a host of conservative think tanks played central roles in developing Project 2025. Similar organizations also helped draft many of the key laws passed during the DeSantis years.

The Foundation for Government Accountability in Naples, the James Madison Institute in Tallahassee and the American Legislative Exchange Council, headquartered in Virginia, are just some of the groups behind the ideas and legislation that have flourished in Florida under DeSantis.

They are also evidence of the close connection between wealthy donors, the think tanks they fund and the policies ultimately implemented by GOP leaders.

How Laws Are Made – Aided by Conservative Think Tanks Like the Heritage Foundation

For example, the Foundation for Government Accountability, founded in 2011, was the driving force behind a new law signed by DeSantis that allows children as young as 16 to work more than 30 hours a week if their employer has their parents’ permission.

The legislation began with a much more serious weakening of child labor laws, but was eventually rolled back.

FGA is active nationwide in this area and has also had influence with Republicans in Florida, making it harder to get ballot proposals before voters. It continues to strengthen Republican leaders’ opposition to Medicaid expansion, with Florida one of only 10 states that does not do so.

The organization receives significant financial support from the Ed Uihlein Family Foundation, to which Richard Uihlein — an heir to the Schlitz Brewing Co. — made a contribution to DeSantis’ presidential campaign, which ended in January.

Another major backer of the FGA is the 85 Fund, run by conservative legal activist Leonard Leo. Leo is a driving force behind the Federalist Society, the conservative legal group that DeSantis relied on to appoint a majority of the new justices to the Florida Supreme Court.

The Texas-based Cicero Institute, another conservative policy research group, was the driving force behind a new Florida law that bans cities and counties from allowing homeless people to camp or sleep on public property. Joe Lonsdale, a tech investor, is chairman of the Cicero Institute and hosted a Texas fundraiser for DeSantis during his presidential campaign.

Republican megadonor and tech billionaire entrepreneur Peter Thiel, a mentor to Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance, also advocates for large-scale measures to target the homeless.

Anders Croy, a spokesman for DeSantis Watch, a website backed by progressive nonprofits critical of the governor, said Project 2025 needs careful monitoring. Florida, he said, is an example of how conservative ideas become law.

“Under Governor DeSantis, we have seen what happens when extreme policies are implemented that only benefit the wealthy and connected corporate elites, while workers and seniors are left to foot the bill,” Croy said.

John Kennedy is a reporter in the Florida Capital Bureau of the USA TODAY Network. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on X: @JKennedyReport.