Despite their opposing political views, President Joe Biden and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis put aside their political differences to tour Florida and see the damage left by the recent Hurricane Ian on Oct 5. Seeing a Democratic president and Republican governor work together is certainly a nice thing to see, as their rivalry is definitely one of the more notable as of late. However, I also feel as though this should not even be considered newsworthy, since we really should not be at a point where two big politicians from differing parties collaborating is considered ‘unusual’ or ‘abnormal,’ nor should it be frowned upon.

The current President and Floridian Governor have been butting heads for some time now. Some of the big issues that sparked tension between the two include COVID restrictions/freedoms, LGBTQ+ issues and, very recently, DeSantis’s flying of undocumented immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, which had provoked outrage from liberals and praise from conservatives. Similarly with Hurricane Ian, Biden denounced DeSantis and many other Republicans over rejecting hurricane relief/infrastructure bills, with many Republicans calling Biden out on this attack, saying that these bills include many other policies or costs that may outweigh the initial benefit of what the bill was trying to fix, first and foremost.

There has been speculation about DeSantis’s interest in the seat of U.S president for some time now, although he hasn’t made any official statement on the matter. Assuming he were to win, and he and Joe Biden win the primaries in their respective parties, I imagine the race to be very fierce. Yet, despite this looming political fist fight, both had spoken kindly to one another last Wednesday, and focused on relief for Ian during a press conference in the southern city of Fort Meyers. DeSantis thanked Biden and First Lady Jill Biden for coming to Florida, and the president had told reporters DeSantis had done a good job, saying “we have very different political philosophies, but we’ve worked hand in glove.” That day, Biden had said the debate over whether climate change is actually happening or not had subsided.

Ian formed out of a wave near West Africa, and began to strike the Caribbean around September 21st of this year. It hit Jamaica and Cuba before being dubbed as a more ‘high end’ Category 3 hurricane, causing widespread flooding across Cuba, as well as a power outage felt across the island nation. It then left Category 3 classification, before entering Category 4, as it approached the West Coast of Florida on September 28th. Ian hit landfall and peak intensity on the island of Cayo Costa. After moving inland, it began weakening into a ‘tropical storm’, before moving into the Atlantic once more. Upon exiting Florida, it strengthened into a hurricane one more, and made its next and final landfall in South Carolina. The hurricane caused 137 deaths in total, 132 occurring in the U.S, most of which in Florida, and damage is estimated at around $50 billion.