During an October meeting of Sarasota MAGA Patriots — a rightwing coalition pursuing a range of issues, from anti-vaccine activism to emergency preparedness — attendees railed against a new state law curbing local oversight of development and the Republican lawmakers who backed it.

Their ire reflects tensions inside Florida’s dominant party, between Tallahassee’s power brokers and the populist base that helped put them there.

Passed this spring with near-unanimous support in both the Senate and the House, SB 180 limits counties and cities from imposing new limits on building — a measure framed as a way to help homeowners rebuild after major storms, but whose reach extends statewide and far beyond coastal areas still recovering from 2024 storms.

The backlash to SB180 highlights a growing

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