DeSantis takes digs at Whitmer’s Michigan, says Democratic Party a ‘dead carcass’ in Florida
Ryan King
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Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) touted his electoral success and mocked Democrats over the number of Michiganders moving to Florida during a keynote address at a Midland County Michigan Republican Party breakfast Thursday.
Local Republicans at the event underscored the need to “course correct” and get the state back on track after a series of electoral losses, emphasizing they want to bring the “Sunshine State mojo” to Michigan. DeSantis stuck to billing Florida as a blueprint for the nation by rattling off familiar talking points on his record.
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“Now, as governor of Florida, when I want to hang out with Michiganders at the beginning of April, I usually just go to Naples,” DeSantis joked, insinuating that liberal policies in Lansing are driving Michiganders to the Sunshine State. “But it’s great to be in the real thing.”
“Even though I’m focusing on my job, I get to learn a lot about what’s going on in other states because when they govern badly … a lot of times, that will impact Florida [as] people will move,” he added.
Perhaps alluding to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s (D-MI) COVID-19 policies, DeSantis argued that Florida avoided a “Faucian dystopia” and retained freedom for its residents. He also bashed the Biden administration for its international vaccine mandate that led Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic to skip the Miami Open.
DeSantis said, “The lesson is the Left will use whatever they can to try to control and to try to infringe freedom.” To combat that, his state legislature passed a slate of laws to protect it, he said.
Ahead of his roughly 57-minute-long remarks, one local Republican noted in introductory statements that Michigan has been described as the “anti-Florida.”
DeSantis later noted how Republicans have managed to cement political power in Florida.
“Voters in Florida responded, and what used to be a swing state, you know, now the Democratic Party in Florida is a hollow shell. It’s like a dead carcass on the side of the road. I mean, we have beat the Left in the state of Florida,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis’s speech comes from GOP losses in the Great Lake State during the 2022 midterm elections. Whitmer scored a resounding reelection victory, and Democrats managed to clinch control of both chambers in the state legislature for the first time in nearly four decades.
“The stakes are high. I think what we showed in Florida is that if you show bold leadership, if you pursue a bold agenda, you can beat these people,” DeSantis said. “There is no substitute for victory. And what I see around the country with Republicans is they started to develop a culture of losing.”
“We saw it in Wisconsin with this Supreme Court race; we saw it with a very disappointing midterm elections,” he added. “In Florida, we have a culture of winning, we have a culture of execution, and we have a culture of delivering.”
Over recent weeks, DeSantis has been crisscrossing the country, touting his record in Florida as speculation over his 2024 ambitions mounts. Many of the trips have been used to promote his book, which was released in February. The campaign of his chief potential 2024 rival, former President Donald Trump, has accused him of running a stealth campaign.
DeSantis has trips scheduled to Israel, Georgia, Pennsylvania, New York, Tennessee, Ohio, New Hampshire, Utah, and elsewhere over the coming weeks. He has consistently polled as the second GOP contender after Trump, per the latest RealClearPolitics polling aggregate.
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Following his stop in Midland County, Michigan, DeSantis is set to deliver remarks at Hillsdale College, a Christian, conservative institution. DeSantis’s allies have cited Hillsdale College in the Florida GOP’s quest to transform liberal Florida institutions such as the New College of Florida.
“It became an ideological epicenter. It was all about things like gender ideology and CRT,” DeSantis said, referring to the New College of Florida. “I appointed in January six conservative board members to the board of trustees. They fired the president, hired a conservative president … and said the mission of the college is not to be a Marxist indoctrination center.”