DeSantis woos South Carolina with wife Casey.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is making his presence felt in South Carolina, a key early primary state. Despite facing two declared challengers for the Republican nomination, DeSantis is not shying away from the challenge. He held his first event in Beaufort, where Senator Tim Scott represented in Congress, and his second one outside Lexington, the legislative district where former Governor Nikki Haley got her start.

“We’re political junkies,” said Rob Visconti, who drove with his wife Michelle 2 1/2 hours from Myrtle Beach to hear DeSantis. “We’d like to see everybody running. We went down and saw Tim Scott about two weeks ago when he did his announcement in Charleston. And we wanted to see DeSantis. This is the first time we get the chance to see him.”

DeSantis drew a slightly larger crowd than Haley at the same venue. His crowd was appreciative, but not all of them were committed. They were more in the candidate shopping mode.

Charming Family Side

Putting the family side out there seems a shrewd strategy for him. It highlights that they have children; DeSantis’s many initiatives regarding children and families are personal to them. That they are small children emphasizes his youth—in contrast to the 80-year-old President Joe Biden and the 77-year-old Trump.

And it allows him to work side by side with his wife, a heavy-hitter not only in the charm department but in substance, staking out her turf as first lady in various policy issues.

“One thing I learned very quickly was that there were a lot of great people on the ground, exterior of government, who were doing great things, but they were all siloed,” she said. “You had the faith-based community doing wonderful things, but they were over here. You have the private sector here, the nonprofits here, the state government over there. There was oftentimes very little communication and collaboration on the best interests of people in need.”

They worked with the Department of Children and Families to create a program of “hope navigators” who work with grant recipients and find them help outside the government.

Energy and Can-Do Attitude

During his speech, DeSantis detailed his accomplishments and battles as governor, from banning the sale of land to the Chinese Communist Party to rapidly reopening bridges in Hurricane Ian to establishing sales tax exemptions for child- and baby-related items to deporting illegal immigrants to the chic sanctuary city of Martha’s Vineyard—as well as a ban on central bank digital currency, and eliminating DEI indoctrination at public universities and CRT from public schools.

If elected, he pledged to bring energy and a can-do attitude to the White House.

“I’m going to be a very energetic executive. We’re going to go on offense. We’re going to start fr