With about a week left in their annual legislative session, Florida lawmakers, operating at a breakneck pace, have ticked virtually every box on DeSantis’ wish list. And they’re not finished yet.

As Florida House Speaker Paul Renner recently told Politico’s Paul Fineout, “Listen, I think we’ve delivered major, major victories on so many different fronts and the governor can rightly claim credit for having one of the biggest sessions certainly in Florida history.”

Team DeSantis is counting on GOP primary voters to absolutely adore planks the governor nail-gunned into place this spring, including limiting abortions to a six-week window, striking the automatic deduction of dues for Democrat-aligned unions, adopting “constitutional carry” for firearms, prohibiting children from attending adult-themed drag shows, tighter term limits on school board members, allowing jury supermajorities to recommend death sentences, a celebrated expansion of school choice options for K-12 students, and, just today, banning “woke” considerations from investment firms vying for the state’s business.

There’s also that little matter of clarifying state election law regarding whether elected officials — *cough* Ron DeSantis *cough* — must resign to run for president. They most likely didn’t anyway, but now the rule is spelled out: No, they don’t. 

Legislators seem certain to deliver on denying so-called gender-affirming procedures for minors and most of the governor’s immigration reform plan.

Wait. There’s more. And this ought to get the attention not merely of energized Republicans who will choose the GOP candidate, but — if DeSantis claims the nomination — could play well in battleground states wearied by escalating crime.

Monday, DeSantis signed a trio of tough-on-crime bills, making good on promises to law enforcement officials and enthusiasts during his February barnstorming stops in Illinois, Pennsylvania, and New York.

Coming to Florida’s statute book October 1 are provisions that:

• Impose capital punishment on criminals who commit sexual battery on children under 12.
• Boost penalties for the production, trafficking, and purchase of “rainbow fentanyl.”
• Make it a first-degree felony to possess, sell, or manufacture fentanyl and other controlled substances that resemble candy.
• Added DUI manslaughter and extortion to the list of “dangerous crimes” eligible for pretrial detention.
• Mandates a uniform statewide bond schedule, to be set by the state Supreme Court, standardizing bail amounts for different crimes.
• Tighten regulations that allow judges to consider conditions for non-cash bail, while prohibiting defendants arrested for specific crimes from being released before their first court appearance.

“We treat criminals like criminals,” Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody told the audience gathered for the bill signing. “And we don’t blur the line between criminals and victims. In Florida, we’ll make sure criminals go where they belong — behind bars.”

From Moody’s microphone to the ears of purple-state suburbanites concerned about the tendency of urban crime to metastasize beyond its host organ.

In particular, making child rapists eligible for Florida’s lethal needle puts DeSantis in the national spotlight: The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a similar law in Louisiana in 2008 (Kennedy v. Louisiana). DeSantis is ready — itching, really — for the fight.

“We think that in the worst of the worst cases, the only appropriate punishment is the ultimate punishment, and so this bill sets up a procedure to be able to challenge that precedent,” DeSantis said at a news conference in Titusville. “In Florida, we stand for the protection of children,” he added.

Not insignificantly for those examining their crystal balls, the bill drew strong bipartisan support, including cosponsorship by state Senate Minority Leader Lauren Book, a Broward County Democrat.

So, let political opponents say what they will. 

“This session was about the governor’s wish list,” said Rep. Fentrice Driskell, the House Democratic leader. “Effectively anything he wished for or dreamed for … the Legislature hustled to make it happen.”

But Driskell contended that she’s not sure that the legislative wins will give DeSantis the “national boost’ he was aiming for. She said while some of the bills passed this year were “red meat” for the conservative base they have alienated some GOP donors and would be unpopular with general election voters in 2024.

This is important if true. So let’s think about it.

This spring, the Legislature has carried out the program on which DeSantis sailed to a 20-point re-election victory last November, flipping even some indigo counties to Republicans from the top of the ticket on down. And with interstates 95 and 75 bringing newcomers from the North and Midwest who once were reliable Democrat voters, it’s entirely sensible to suppose — Driskell’s prediction notwithstanding — those they left behind could be similarly wooed.

Not without evidence, Team DeSantis has to like his chances.