Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had a lot of positive things to say about California during his speech at the state’s GOP convention on Friday – most of them about the weather and the recent outflow of California residents to his state.
“You don’t pick up and move from Southern California to Florida because of the weather. You don’t leave your friends and family behind and go thousands of miles just on a whim,” DeSantis told a crowded banquet hall with red, white and blue table cloths and floral arrangements. “These people were doing it because they were seeking to live in a free state that respected their rights and where they can thrive.”
Making the case that Florida can be a blueprint for the nation if he wins the GOP nomination, DeSantis claims he is the candidate who has delivered on all the issues Republicans care about — from the economy and education to crime and cryptocurrency.
During a half hour speech that repeatedly drew enthusiastic applause, DeSantis said Florida had cut billions of dollars in taxes while yielding budget surpluses that allowed him to pay 25% of the outstanding debt Florida had accumulated since its founding. He also trumpeted universal school choice and the state’s recent No. 1 education ranking in U.S. News & World Report.
He touted that Florida eliminated critical race theory from K-12 schools, prohibited the use of gender ideology in schools and enacted a Parents’ Bill of Rights that informs them about school curriculum.
“Now the media will say, and the left will say, that if a parent objects to a book in fourth grade that is pornographic and you remove that book from the fourth grade library that’s quote ‘banning the book,’” DeSantis said to a round of boos. “First of all, in Florida, there’s nothing banned. You as an adult can knock yourself out with adult material. Just don’t do it to the kids. Leave our kids alone.”
DeSantis doubled the already surprising statistic he cited during Wednesday night’s second Republican debate in nearby Simi Valley, Calif., during which he said he and his wife had met three people who had been mugged in Los Angeles. On Friday night, he said they had “run into like six or seven people that have gotten mugged,” before segueing into soft-on-crime districts of attorney in San Francisco and Los Angeles that he said were usually elected with funding from people like George Soros.
“They let the inmates run the asylum and it puts the people of their communities at risk,” he said, adding that he removed the two DAs that had been “elected with Soros funding” in Tampa and Orlando. “Crime goes up and the quality of life becomes destroyed.”
DeSantis drew applause when he reiterated a statistic he has often cited on the campaign trail: that Florida’s crime rate is at a 50-year low. According to the Tampa Bay Times, the statistic relies on incomplete data that doesn’t account for 40% of the state population.
“On issue after issue, we don’t chirp. We don’t virtue signal. We act and we deliver,” said DeSantis, who has served as Florida’s governor since 2019.
A Florida native, DeSantis grew up with a mother who worked as a nurse and a father who installed cable boxes. He served as a Navy SEAL in Iraq before attending Harvard Law School, where he graduated with honors. He later served as a prosecutor. His rise in politics began when DeSantis was elected to Congress in 2012. He is now in his second term as Florida’s governor, having defeated Democrat Charlie Crist by a margin of 20 points last year.
DeSantis’s speech at the California GOP Convention came two days after he and six other Republican presidential candidates squared off in a scrum of a debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in nearby Simi Valley, Calif. Trump was absent from the debate stage, having opted to speak with non-union workers at an auto supplier in Michigan.
The Florida governor is one of four Republican presidential candidates who are speaking at this weekend’s convention as they attempt to solidify support in a crowded GOP field overshadowed by frontrunner Donald Trump. Trump and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott also gave speeches Friday. Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy is scheduled to speak Saturday.
According to a Morning Consult poll released Wednesday, Trump has 63% support from likely Republican voters. DeSantis is in a distant second place with 12%.
California is one of at least a dozen states that will hold its primary March 5 on Super Tuesday. If any candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, the contender will receive all of the state’s 169 delegates, following a recent California GOP rule change. If a candidate fails to hit the 50% threshold, delegates will be proportionally awarded.
