A longtime supporter of the Republican Party and a donor to former President Donald Trump said Gov. Ron DeSantis “may have gone too far” in his battle against the Walt Disney Company.
Dan Eberhart, CEO of oilfield services company Canary, said DeSantis’s actions against Disney have opened the door for Democrats to attack him for damaging Florida’s economy, the Washington Post wrote Saturday. DeSantis signed a bill on Friday dissolving Reedy Creek Improvement District’s special status, which is widely believed to have helped save Disney significant amounts of money and streamline its development process for the Walt Disney World Resort.
Eberhart compared DeSantis’s recent actions on restricting discussions about gender identity and sexual orientation in kindergarten through third grade to Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s 2021 campaign promise that parents will have more rights to know what children learn in classrooms.
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“Youngkin invented this, and DeSantis has perfected it,” Eberhart said.
Several Democrats, including 2022 Florida gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist, have already criticized DeSantis for dissolving Disney’s private government, with Crist calling DeSantis “a threat to our state’s economy” on Friday. The White House also spoke out against DeSantis’s battle with Disney last week.
DeSantis moved to dissolve Disney’s private government after the company spoke out against the governor signing the Parental Rights in Education Bill, commonly referred to as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill by its critics, on March 28. The bill bans classroom instruction of gender identity and sexual orientation in kindergarten through third grade.
Since the start of March, Disney’s stock has lost nearly $50 billion in value.
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Canary has not responded to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
