A top player in Florida’s political scene championed the Sunshine State’s legislative achievements during his time at Heritage Action’s Sentinel Summit on Saturday in an effort to motivate grassroots leaders across the country to replicate these examples in their home states while protecting the integrity of the conservative movement.
“Understand what’s at stake, we are in a true battle, a spiritual battle, for the soul of our country,” Florida state Rep. Chase Tramont said. “The lunatic fringe has become their [Democratic Party] main fringe; we cannot allow that to happen to the Republican Party.”
The representative continued, adding that grassroots efforts are vital to phasing out the historically high “racism and antisemitism” among the right.
“The lunatics cannot become the mainstream,” Tramont said. “Let’s not live with the regrets.”
During his summit appearance, the representative also highlighted his home state’s milestones in protecting children from harmful online content.
In 2024, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed HB 3, legislation that requires pornography websites to verify the age of those who attempt to access the site. The legislation has since been enacted into law.
“There’s nothing like the challenges of this generation. It’s scary, it’s what it is,” Tramont said, adding that Generation Z is the most connected generation yet suffers from historically high rates of depression.
“God is pretty clear when he says that you’d be transformed by the renewing of your mind,” Tramont stated. “The mind is the most important thing about you because what you think about God, what you think about yourself and who you are and who God made you out to be, is the most important thing about you.”
“You’ll never be able to view life without a complete understanding of who God is and who he made you to be,” Tramont continued. “If your mind is altered and your mind is attacked and disillusioned by the things that are online, what’s happening, happens.”
Aside from celebrating this achievement, the representative pointed out that the fight to protect children from online harm, now more than ever, must continue across the country, given advances in artificial intelligence and social media, which he described as a “Trojan horse.”
“The same principle applies,” he continued. “Since the creation of the internet, I think we’ve seen some incredible, incredibly positive things that have happened. But with that, we’ve seen a Trojan horse, all sorts of evils imaginable.”
“Young girls are not measuring themselves up to what God has created them and intended them to be. They measure themselves up to online images that tell them what they should be. That’s a big problem,” Tramont concluded.
