Pitching his administration’s conservative record as a national blueprint for Capitol Hill, Gov. Ron DeSantis rallied Republicans in Osceola County Tuesday night, portraying Navy veteran Dan Green’s bid for Florida’s 9th Congressional District as part of a broader push to bring aggressive Florida-style governance to Washington.
Speaking before a crowd in St. Cloud, south of Orlando, DeSantis pointed to his administration’s high-profile battles on education policy, state spending reductions and corporate pushback and urged voters to bring that same combative, policy-driven mandate to the halls of Congress.
“I will say that I’m looking forward to y’all getting the congressman elected that has served this country and that has served for the right reasons. Now, I am a big believer that we need term limits for members of Congress. But until we do that, you can show your current guy the term limit by kicking him out of office.
“So, I think what we need is what we’ve done in Florida. It can be a model for people like Dan going to Washington, other states, you name it, because it’s not just about peacocking and putting social media press releases out and never getting anything done. We have fought every big fight that there has been to fight in the state of Florida, and we have won every big fight that there is to fight in Florida.”
DeSantis rallied the conservative faithful with a recap, alleging major victories over left-wing institutions, agencies and agendas.
“Just think about it. We beat Dr. Fauci on COVID. We beat Disney on gender ideology. We beat Soros on crime by removing two of his prosecutors. We beat Martha’s Vineyard on illegal immigration.
“We just beat the Muslim Brotherhood by banning Sharia law. We beat the teachers unions by enacting universal school choice for all Florida families. We beat SEIU by doing paycheck protection.
“Every single time there was a fight, we would beat and win the fights. And that’s ultimately what it’s all about. Because leadership — when it’s popular, when it’s easy — anyone can do that. ‘I’ll just go with the flow,’ all this other stuff. It really matters when it is tough and when you’re going to face arrows.”
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DeSantis repeatedly emphasized that his top priority was sticking to the courage of his convictions, not seeking political expediency or going along to get along.
“I remember during COVID, I was doing things, and people said, ‘Oh, he’s not shutting down the beaches. Why does he have these people in school?’ And all this other stuff. You know, people come after you, and a lot of people told me that I was frittering away my governorship, that I wouldn’t be able to win in ’22, and all this other stuff. I don’t know if that was true. Who knows, right?
“But when you get in a position to lead, you either do it or you should just sit down. My job was not to be worried about my own political hide. My job was to be worried about protecting the liberty, jobs, and businesses of the people I was elected to serve. So, we started the fire, and we gave them his right.”
It is clear that the two-term governor considers his famed battle with Disney to be a particular feather in his cap.
“Nobody in the history of the state had ever taken on Disney in anything. A lot of people told me I was making a mistake,” DeSantis said.
“But the reality is, do we want a society in which our 6-year-olds are being told they can change genders, or do we want a society rooted in truth? If you want a society rooted in truth, even if the biggest, most powerful corporation in the state is against you, you’ve got to stand up and you’ve got to fight. And we fought, and we won.”
As the federal debt has topped a staggering $40 trillion, DeSantis made the case that he has taken the state on a markedly divergent course.
“Just look at the results. For four straight years, Florida has reduced its budget. Is any other state in the country reducing spending? We’ve done it four years in a row,” DeSantis said.
“I was just able to announce today if you take all of Florida’s debt for all of our history up until the time I became governor, just in my tenure, we will retire 54% of the state’s debt, more than cutting it in half.
“We’ve been ranked No. 1 for education freedom, and our public university system is ranked No. 1. We have the lowest in-state tuition of any state in the United States, and it’s the exact same cost today to students and families that it was the day I took office.
“It did not go up one penny under my tenure. Is there anything else that didn’t go up? The dollar menu at McDonald’s is all $2.99 now. Everything else has gone up, but that has not gone up.”
And DeSantis touts Florida as a national leader in lowering taxes for its citizens and called for voters to back Amendment 3 in Florida, which would pave the way for elimination of non-school property taxes.
“If you look at tax relief, we’ve done $10 billion over my tenure — more than anyone. Some of it is permanent, like no tax on baby items, back-to-school items and no tax on business rent. But, really, the big enchilada is going to be on the ballot in November when you have a chance on Amendment 3 to vote yourself more control over your own home and not let them tax you to death. So vote yes on 3.
As Republicans face headwinds heading into the midterms in a little over a month, DeSantis drew a parallel between this year’s election, and the 2018 election, which propelled him to the governor’s mansion by a narrow margin.
“We’ve done all this stuff, but I think the lesson is this: When I won eight years ago, it was kind of similar to how it is now. People were saying it was a ‘blue year.’ There was a lot of wind in the face of Republican candidates,” DeSantis recalled.
“A lot of people thought Florida was a swing state — that we were purple — where one point had decided all these races for the previous decade. A lot of people didn’t think I could even win given those circumstances. And even if I won, they said, ‘Well, the state’s going to go blue. You’ve got all these people moving from Puerto Rico, the Northeast, anything.’ So, I’m running. It wasn’t easy, and we won.”
DeSantis maintains he has never taken a poll as a means to determine a position on an issue.
“It was a close race, so I had a choice to make: Do I try to tiptoe around the tulips, not offend anybody, and just try to walk this tight line? Or do I say, ‘You know what? I won the election. I got 100% of the executive power, and I didn’t get elected to follow. I got elected to lead,'” DeSantis said.
“So, I am going to fly the banner of bold colors, not pale pastels. I’m going to do what I believe in. I am not going to take any polls. I have not to this day ever polled a single issue in my entire time as governor.
“The reason is simple. … It depends on how you ask the question, right? I can tweak the words and get a different result. But also, what does a poll actually mean? Like Popeye said, ‘I am what I am,’ right?”
