By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

There had been a neck-and-neck battle throughout several states to determine which of them had the nation’s weirdest individual serving as governor.

Then a clear “favorite” emerged just the other day. The “winner” appears to be Gov. Ron DeSantis, Republican of Florida.

I want you to roll this one around for a moment. DeSantis issued a “no mandate” order, meaning that there would be no orders coming from local governments to have folks don masks to fight the COVID outbreak in Florida.

Ahh, but some school superintendents defied that order. They ordered teachers, students and staff to wear masks. De Santis’s response? It was to threaten to withhold the pay for public school educators who chose to defy the governor’s no-mandate edict.

Now I have to ask you: Is that just about the most outrageous thing you’ve heard come from a governor?

The irony, of course, is unbelievable. Florida — along with Texas — is the state with the most outbreaks of the Delta variant of COVID-19. It is logging the nation’s greatest infection rate, hospitalization rate and, oh yeah, death rate.

DeSantis, though, won’t budge from his order banning any additional health restrictions designed to, um, keep people alive. The Sunshine State nitwit says the COVID surge is coming from immigrants crossing the border from Mexico, a clear effort to pin something — anything! — on President Biden. I should mention that DeSantis is a possible 2024 GOP presidential candidate.

To be sure, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, another Republican, has been giving DeSantis a run for the distinction of nation’s top gubernatorial weirdo. Abbott has issued a no-mandate order of his own, only to be challenged by some of the mega school districts in Texas; they were led by Dallas Independent School District Superintendent Michael Hinojosa, who has emerged as my latest hero in this political battle.

Institutions of higher learning in Texas are invoking mandatory COVID testing programs for their students, faculty and staff. That’s a start, although it’s not as in-your-face as the mask mandate that came from the DISD and other big-city public school systems.

I cannot figure this clown DeSantis out. He wants to run for president in 2024, or so we are being led to believe. He’ll be among a large field of Republicans seeking to run for the nation’s highest office.

I am wondering if he is going to use the withhold educator salaries gambit as a campaign ploy. If he does, he is toast. Please, governor … try to justify that bizarre and cruel policy.

I double-dog dare ya.