Ron DeSantis was booed as he arrived at a vigil in Jacksonville on Sunday for three Black people who had been killed by a white supremacist. Nobody disputed the governor’s and presidential candidate’s claims that the murderer was “a scumbag” and the deaths were “totally unacceptable” because they were both committed on the basis of race.

However, DeSantis’s previous stance—which many people perceived as indifferent—to Nazis rallying in the state and his support for a number of laws intended to deny Black voters the right to vote as well as his reinterpretation of Florida’s racial history to promote forced labour as advantageous for the enslaved—raised questions about his comments.

Your policies caused this!” one protester shouted at DeSantis as he prepared to take the microphone at the memorial. The Dollar General shooter, a 21-year-old white man who left behind several “manifestos of hate”, had earlier been turned away from Jacksonville’s historically Black college, Edward Waters University.

The largest city in Florida had turned into a haven for antisemitism, and the city commission was obliged to take action in January to forbid projections on buildings after a sudden influx of swastikas and other offensive messages.

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Despite his hesitation to speak out after a series of rallies held by Nazi groups in Florida this year and last, some of which had flags with swastikas and “DeSantis country” slogans, longtime DeSantis watchers were not surprised to see the governor at the gathering.

“The reality is that this type of hatred isn’t random. It’s been festering in Florida, which has provided a friendly breeding ground for Nazis to feel at home,” said Carlos Guillermo Smith, a Democratic former state representative and candidate for a state senate seat in next year’s elections.

“Nazis were rallying in Jacksonville, in Orlando, at Disney, [and] many of them flew DeSantis flags alongside swastikas. What politician from any party wouldn’t immediately condemn Nazis rallying in their name? Ron DeSantis was that politician.”

DeSantis’s detractors point to several dubious incidents with racial overtones in his history, including the Anti-Defamation League, which has documented a rise in white supremacist groups in Florida.

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Among them are his warning to Florida voters not to “monkey this up” in his 2018 race for governor against the Black Democrat Andrew Gillum and the termination of a presidential campaign staffer last month after it was discovered that the aide had used Nazi symbols in a film promoting DeSantis.

Smith, who serves as a senior policy adviser for Equality Florida, criticised DeSantis for his veto of funding for survivors of the 2016 Pulse gay nightclub shooting after promising the LGBTQ+ community on the third anniversary of the 49 murders that he would always support them. Smith also criticised DeSantis for promising funding for the Edward Waters University three months after signing a bill ending diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in public state colleges.