In speeches in Iowa on Friday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said that Republicans taking a firm stance in the nation’s culture wars will help them win elections, and he vowed never to surrender to the “woke mob.”
On March 10, DeSantis traveled to Iowa for separate events in Davenport and Des Moines as part of his “freedom blueprint” tour for his newly released memoir, “The Courage to Be Free: Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Revival.”
According to DeSantis, the book, which charts a roadmap for the conservative fight against the excesses of progressivism, is the country’s best-selling non-fiction book.
“There’s a lot of people that aren’t happy about that, I can tell you,” he said, drawing cheers from the crowd.
While Florida Governor Rick Scott is said to be considering a presidential run, he has yet to declare his candidacy. DeSantis’ participation in the two events came ahead of the 2024 Iowa GOP caucuses, which will kick off the Republican presidential nominating season.
In Davenport, the Republican governor emphasized his anti-leftist crusade in Florida, highlighting accomplishments such as prohibiting mask and COVID-19 vaccine mandates, prohibiting the teaching of gender identity and sexual orientation to young students, and prohibiting biological men from competing in women’s sports.
“We’re very sensitive to what parents are facing in terms of the different influences that are trying to be imposed on our children,” DeSantis said. “It is wrong to tell a second grader that they were born in the wrong body. It is wrong to have gender ideology imposed in our schools. And in Florida, we don’t let it happen.”
DeSantis praised the Florida Board of Medicine’s recent bans on transgender surgery, hormone therapy, and puberty blockers for children in his speech.
“Our children are not guinea pigs for medical experimentation. We don’t want people making money off mutilating them in ways that are irreversible,” he said, blaming the explosion of transgender procedures in recent years on the “woke mind virus.”
“It’s warping people,” he said. “It’s infecting medical practice.”
DeSantis continued his speech in Davenport by claiming that Florida has managed to remain “free” despite “woke ideology” taking hold in many institutions, including medicine, universities, and corporations.
“Because ‘woke ideology’ has infected so many institutions, if you really want to protect the freedom of your folks, you’ve got to be willing to defend them against the left imposing their pathologies on your people in any of these institutions,” DeSantis said. “So we’ve got to fight.”
“In the state of Florida, we will fight the ‘woke’ in the legislature, we will fight the ‘woke’ in education, we will fight the ‘woke’ in the businesses.”
“We will never ever surrender to the ‘woke mob’—our state is where ‘woke’ goes to die,” DeSantis added, holding up conservative efforts against “woke ideology” in Florida as a roadmap for other states to follow.
DeSantis also criticized corporate America’s efforts to impose a progressive ideological agenda through ESG, which he described as a way to use economic power to push an agenda that would face electoral opposition.
He spoke out against financial sector discrimination against fossil fuels and Second Amendment rights. DeSantis also promised to protect conservatives and Christians from “woke banking,” which is presumably the denial of financial services based on ideology.
DeSantis drew parallels between Iowa and Florida politics at both events, praising Iowa for being one of the “best run” states in the country.
“There is an effort to sexualize these young kids, and it is wrong. And we’ve got to stand up against it. And we can’t allow it to win the day. And you’re doing it in Iowa. We’re doing it in Florida. But that needs to be all across the country,” he said.
DeSantis’ speech to Iowa Republicans came as the Florida legislature began its 60-day session this week.
“I always tell my legislators, ‘You watch Iowa. Do not let them get ahead of us on any of this stuff,’” DeSantis said. “So, we’ve got our legislature in session now. So buckle up. The next 60 days should be fun in Florida.”
While the crowds at the events reacted enthusiastically to DeSantis’ anti-woke rhetoric, the Biden administration was more reserved.
During a press conference on Friday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked about DeSantis’ comments about “woke” people dying in Florida.
“When Republicans—extreme Republicans, these MAGA Republicans—don’t agree with an issue or with policy, they don’t bring forth something that’s going to have a good-faith conversation. They go to this conversation of ‘woke.’ But that is not actually policy,” Jean-Pierre said.
“This is not having a good-faith conversation on how we can move the country forward. This is about attacking young kids and their parents because of how they view themselves, because of how they see themselves, because of how they want to live. What that turns into is hate,” she added.
Iowa Democratic Party chairwoman Rita Hart on Thursday took a similarly critical line.
“I don’t know who’s going to come out of this GOP primary, but the bottom line is that Iowans—and Americans—cannot afford the extreme agenda that these folks are peddling,” Hart told reporters at a press conference.
Former President Donald Trump, who is running for president in 2024, is scheduled to visit Davenport on Monday.
