DeSantis’ ‘knock on wood’ insurance comment haunts him on campaign trail — and it should | Opinion

Fixing property insurance isn’t going to get hearts pumping in the Republican Party like declaring a war on “woke.” It doesn’t get out the vote the way “indoctrination in schools” does. It won’t play to the folks in Iowa and South Carolina — not like declaring you’ll leave Mexican cartel members “stone cold dead” at the border or that you’ll start “slitting throats” of federal bureaucrats if you’re elected president.

Property insurance is an utter bore, for political purposes. But it’s definitely not boring — at all — if you are a homeowner in Florida these days, with hurricane season hard upon us and one bad hit in North Florida late last month. It’s a chronic pain that gets worse each year as prices go up, coverage gets lower and more of us are forced into the insurer of last resort, state-backed Citizens Insurance. It’s a fear that, soon, we won’t be able to afford to live here at all.

Tone-deaf comment

And yet Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is back on the presidential campaign trail, after a minor pause to handle the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Idalia. It doesn’t help that his comment is still ringing in our ears from July, when he advised Floridians to “knock on wood” in the hope that the state will be spared from a major hurricane this season. The people in the Big Bend region of Florida, which caught the brunt of Category 3 Hurricane Idalia, may have something else they’d like to knock right now, and it’s not wood.

None of that is lost on DeSantis’ critics and competitors for the Republican nomination for president. As the Miami Herald reported, former President Donald Trump has repeatedly gigged DeSantis about the sky-high property insurance market in Florida and last week said that DeSantis “gave up the store” when it comes to insurance in Florida.

Sen. Rick Scott, no DeSantis fan, took to CNN to go after the governor on the topic. Scott, who was governor before DeSantis, said, “There’s clearly more than has to be done” by state officials, adding: “It’s way too expensive to insure homes in Florida right now.”

And even Fox News, which has traditionally been DeSantis’ happy place, has been pointed in its remarks. On “Fox & Friends,” co-host Brian Kilmeade said on an Aug. 30 segment recorded as Idalia made landfall that, “Insurance in Florida is through the roof.”

Leads the nation

They are right. Florida has the most expensive homeowners’ insurance in the country. (Car insurance is up, too.) Property insurance companies keep leaving the market or curtailing coverage. This has been a problem for many years, even prior to DeSantis, but it has gotten far worse under him. In 2023 alone, property insurance in the state went up, on average, about 42% over the year before.

None of this is news to DeSantis or the Legislature. They’ve met in special session, passed some laws they say will curb fraud and other issues that may be driving up prices, and continue to insist that homeowners have to wait until some mythical “next year” to see the market stabilize a bit. Even then, prices may not come down. Homeowners could see little actual relief.

So that’s the situation in Florida: an insurance crisis. Meanwhile, the governor goes around the country bragging about what he calls the “Florida Blueprint,” his prescription for America. It takes a lot of gall to stand at the podium and tell people you’re the best person to lead the country when you know how homeowners in your state are suffering under onerous property insurance bills.

National voters, beware.

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