In Los Angeles Speech, DeSantis Warns America Must Choose Between California and Florida

“Your governor is extremely concerned about Florida’s current state of affairs, so I decided to make a visit.”

SIMI VALLEY, CALIF.—Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis lashed out at California’s progressive policies during a Sunday speech. This gave a peek into what the Republican’s 2024 Presidential campaign might look like.

DeSantis, speaking to a packed house at Ronald Reagan Presidential Library lamented how progressive California Democrats had driven Californians away from the state. DeSantis blamed the governor for high taxes and public schools. “indoctrination,” wet-on-crime prosecutor for driving half-a million people from the state in the last two years.

“From the beginning of this state’s history, all the way until like the last four or five years, people beat a path to California. You didn’t beat a path away from California,” DeSantis said. “Now you see the state hemorrhaging population.”

This speech was DeSantis’s latest on his book tour. It is often viewed as an early campaign trek. DeSantis, if he decides to run for office, will be joining a Republican field already including former President Donald Trump and former South Carolina Governor Nikki HaleyAnd “anti-woke” Silicon Valley entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. California voter poll, February 2008. showed Trump was soundly defeated by DeSantis in the Republican contest.

The Sunday event attracted a variety of donors and library members as well as curious people, such actor Gary Sinise or Pete Wilson (former Republican California Governor), who spoke. Washington Free Beacon DeSantis’s speech had been “magnificent.”

Wilson wouldn’t say who he would endorse for 2024. He noted however that “we’re confronting the problem of having too much talent.” He added: “the nice thing is that everything [DeSantis] said is true, and he has done all the things that he has talked about.”

DeSantis received a standing ovation after he stated that all schools should be open for students. “should not be teaching a second-grader that they can choose their gender”—a perceived reference to California public schools’ forays into radical gender ideology.

“In Florida we say very clearly we will never ever surrender to the woke mob,” He stated. “Our state is where woke goes to die.”

He did not apologize for the blunt style of his governing, explaining how, after he won the 2018 governorship by half a point, advisers cautioned him “to not rock the boat.”

“I rejected that advice,” He stated. “My view was that I may have earned 50 percent of the vote, but I earned 100 percent of the executive power, and I intended to use it to advance the best interests of Florida.”

DeSantis made a subtle jab at Trump by boasting that he had governed with “surgical precision” Avoidable “drama or palace intrigue.”

“Because we did that, we beat the left, day after day after day,” He stated.

On Sunday, the audience members told the story. Free Beacon Because they are looking for an alternative, they came to DeSantis.

“Most of my friends are avid Ron DeSantis fans,” Michele Fisher is a Los Angeles resident and described herself as moderately pro-choice. “not too political” Republican trying to figure out which candidate she could vote for. “Anyone running against Trump has to be a positive.”

Joyce Wiechert of Southern California, another Californian, stated that while she has voted in Trump’s favor in the past, this time she plans to support someone different and is open to both DeSantis as well as Haley.

DeSantis pulled no punches with California governor. Gavin Newsom (D.), has been running a proxy campaign to defeat DeSantis over months. He paid for critical ads to be run on Facebook and Twitter as well as Florida billboards. DeSantis was able to focus on California politics and had one comment for his West Coast foe.

“Your governor is very concerned about what we’re doing in Florida,” DeSantis made fun of DeSantis at the beginning. “so I figured I had to come by.”