Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley invited Disney to come set up shop in her home state of South Carolina, taking a dig at Florida governor Ron DeSantis on Wednesday over his feud with the entertainment giant.
Earlier on Wednesday, Disney filed a lawsuit against DeSantis and other Florida state leaders accusing them of participating in a “targeted campaign of government retaliation” against the company that began last year when Disney spoke out against Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law.
Disney’s then-CEO spoke out against the bill, which prohibits the teaching of sexual orientation and gender identity in public schools to students in kindergarten through third grade, and suspended political donations in Florida. DeSantis responded last year by signing a bill to strip Disney of its 56-year-old “independent special district” status, which had granted it the privilege of creating its own regulations, building codes, and other municipal services. While lawmakers decided against dissolving the district, they instead elected to give DeSantis the power to appoint the district’s board members.
Now, Disney is alleging in a 77-page lawsuit that state leaders have weaponized government power in “as clear a case of retaliation as this Court is ever likely to see.” The lawsuit comes after the DeSantis-appointed board, in an effort to transfer power from Disney to the state, voted to nullify two agreements that a previous Disney-controlled board made.
Hey @Disney, my home state will happily accept your 70,000+ jobs if you want to leave Florida.
We’ve got great weather, great people, and it’s always a great day in South Carolina!
SC’s not woke, but we’re not sanctimonious about it either. pic.twitter.com/uf1PWQjGc5
— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) April 26, 2023
Asked about the lawsuit and the feud during an appearance on Fox News, Haley spoke about her time as the governor of South Carolina.
“I took a double digit unemployment state and I turned it into an economic power house,” she said. “Businesses were my partners, because if you take care of your businesses, you take care of your economy, your economy takes care of the people and everyone wins.”
“South Carolina was a very anti-woke state, it still is, and if Disney would like to move their hundreds of thousands of jobs to South Carolina and bring the billions of dollars with them, I’ll let them know I’ll be happy to meet them in South Carolina and introduce them to the governor and the legislature that would welcome it,” she said.
Haley shared the Fox News clip on Twitter and added, “SC’s not woke, but we’re not sanctimonious about it either,” a likely reference to the fact that former president Trump has dubbed DeSantis, “Ron DeSanctimonious.”
Though he has not formally announced a presidential bid, DeSantis is widely considered a likely 2024 contender.
Jeremy Redfern, the governor’s deputy press secretary, responded to the news of Disney’s lawsuit in a tweet saying: “We are unaware of any legal right that a company has to operate its own government or maintain special privileges not held by other businesses in the state. This lawsuit is yet unfortunate example of their hope to undermine the will of the Florida voters and operate outside the bounds of the law.”
Haley is among a growing chorus on Republicans who have called out DeSantis over his ongoing battle with Disney.
Fox Business host Larry Kudlow warned last week that the Florida governor is “close to making a fool of himself with his Walt Disney obsession.”
Chris Christie said he doesn’t think DeSantis is a conservative “based on his actions towards Disney” and said the job of government is to “stay out of the business of business.”
“Where are we headed here now? If you express disagreement in this country, the government is allowed to punish you? To me, that’s what I always thought liberals did,” said Christie, who is considering his own 2024 bid.