A national civil rights advocacy organization’s annual report on nationwide extremist activities cited Florida for having the “second highest number of hate and anti-government groups” in the United States in 2023.

The Southern Poverty Law Center‘s “Year in Hate & Extremism” report released June 4 also noted the Sunshine State served as a “Southern base and headquarters” for “hate and anti-government” organizations.

“The groups used various tactics, from direct-action protest and distributing flyers to political action and local organizing,” the report said. “They also covered a range of ideological affiliations from overtly bigoted neo-Nazi and anti-immigrant organizations to those pushing election conspiracies and mobilizing the anti-student inclusion efforts.”

The report listed more than 60 such organizations, including the Proud Boys, operating from the lower peninsula to the Florida Panhandle. Four members of the Proud Boys — including leader Enrique Tarrio — were convicted last May of seditious conspiracy charges in relation to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

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The group Moms for Liberty was also listed for the second year in a row, despite the organization’s rejection of the label in last year’s report.

The incidents that the report named as concerning included 116 instances of hate-flyer distributions and 33 attempts to ban public library books, including 2,672 titles.

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The study noted that, nationally, the White Power movement lacks centralized organization and is acting instead as a fragmented network without universally recognized leaders. And yet, said SPLC investigator Cassie Miller, its ranks are surging with members and its coalition is multiplying with more and more entities rather than fizzling.

“A lot of the motivation for the White Power movement is now coming from an external source,” she said. “And that is an increasing hard-right movement within the mainstream of American politics. So the White Power movement really finds a lot of promise in this political moment because they see so much alignment between their own political goals and that of the mainstream right.”

The “alignment,” Miller said, is found in common objectives such as demonizing immigrants, curtailing LGBTQ+ rights, silencing teachers’ ability to talk about complex topics such as racism, and limiting access to abortion.

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Margaret Huang, president and CEO of the SPLC and SPLC Action Fund, said the report found startling increases in the number of anti-government hate groups, up 133 to 835 in total, and hate organizations, up by 72 to 595, across the United States last year.

“What we’re seeing now should be a wake-up call for all of us,” said Huang, noting the report “documented more hate and anti-government extremist groups than ever before.”

And these seemingly disparate organizations are preparing for the Nov. 5 vote, which is just five months away, with a singular goal.

“With a historic election just months away, these groups are multiplying, mobilizing and making, and in some instances already implementing, plans to undo democracy,” she said.

Antonio Fins is a politics and business editor at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at afins@pbpost.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: SPLC: Florida ranks second in number of hate, extremist groups