1 of 4 | Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis praised conservative leadership while denouncing Democratic states during his speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., on Sunday. Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI |
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March 6 (UPI) -- Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, long anticipated to be a challenger for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, visited California over the weekend where he championed conservative governance over liberal leadership.
The Republican governor spoke Sunday before some 1,000 people at Simi Valley's Ronald Reagan Presidential Library's Air Force One Pavilion in an appearance that was in promotion of his newly published book, The Courage to be Free: Florida's Blueprint for America's Revival.
During the roughly 45-minute speech, DeSantis attempted to frame himself as a politician whose conservative leadership of Florida has people literally flocking from Democratic-led states, such as California, to his borders.
"We've witnessed a great American exodus from states governed by leftist politicians imposing leftist ideology and delivering poor results and you've seen massive gains in states like Florida who are governing according to the tried and true principles that President Reagan held dear," he said, adding that this is the result of "better governance in states like Florida" and "of poor governance in these left-wing states."
He pointed to the COVID-19 pandemic as being a point where people re-evaluated their lives and who they wanted to run their country and decided to "vote with their feet."
"When common sense suddenly became an uncommon virtue, Florida stood as a refuge of sanity, a citadel of freedom for people throughout the United States and, indeed throughout the world, we refused to let our state descend into some type of Faucian dystopia where people's rights were curtailed and their livelihoods destroyed," he said, referring to Antony Fauci, the former face of the White House's response to the pandemic.
He aimed criticism directly at California, but also at Illinois and New York, accusing their Democratic leaders and institutions of being infected with "this woke mind virus."
"They put things like woke ideology over the tried and true principles that President Reagan stood for and that most Americans believe in," he said.
The speech was made as the race for the Republican nomination for president in the 2024 general elections begins to pick up the pace. Former President Donald Trump has already announced he is running to reclaim the White House as has former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, along a handful of others.
It has long been expected that DeSantis will put his name in the hat, and Trump on Sunday used his speech during the Conservative Political Action Committee to take swipes at the Florida Republican, whom he did not mention by name.
Though DeSantis spoke before those who replied with applause and cheers, not everyone in the Golden State was happy to see the Republican governor, with the Simi Valley Police Department reporting vandals had graffitied "Ron DeFascist" in black spray paint on one of the presidential library's entrance signs.
Police said the graffiti was applied overnight, noticed before 7:30 a.m. and removed prior to DeSantis' speech later Sunday.
On Saturday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom had issued a sarcastic statement welcoming DeSantis to what he called the "real freedom state," ABC News reported.
"California residents are safer, healthier and more prosperous than those unfortunate enough to have you as their governor," he said.
"Oh, by the way, you're going to get smoked by Trump."
