DeSantis swipes at Trump, calls Iowa and Florida partners in GOP fight to ‘restore sanity’

CEDAR RAPIDS — In his first visit to Iowa as a declared presidential candidate, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis repeatedly framed Iowa and Florida as partners in a Republican battle to “restore sanity.”

Be that prohibiting instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation in public schools, or banning gender-affirming care for minors and abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.

“Iowa has really set a great standard,” DeSantis told a crowd of about 500 people gathered Wednesday at Hawkeye Downs Speedway & Expo Center.

  Buy Photo

“People have said that all of the success in Iowa with these great conservative policies makes Iowa the Florida of the North. I don’t know … maybe we’re the Iowa of the South,” he said to loud applause. “The elites of D.C. could learn a thing or two about what Iowa has done and the common sense and conservative values. Instead, (President Joe) Biden and his crew are intent to plunge this country into the abyss.”

He vowed to send Biden “back to his basement,” and said the nation is “careening toward bankruptcy” in the wake of Biden’s debt ceiling deal with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

“It does $4 trillion in additional debt in less than two years,” DeSantis said. “It locks in the inflated levels of spending that they’ve done since COVID. ... And it keeps 98 percent of Biden’s 87,000 IRS agent expansion.”

  Buy Photo

DeSantis burnished his reputation as a conservative governor willing to push hard for conservative policies and embrace conservative culture fights.

That includes taking on a political fight with the Walt Disney Company and blocking his state’s colleges from promoting, supporting or maintaining programs or campus activities on diversity, equity and inclusion, calling it “discrimination, exclusion and indoctrination” to applause.

He told the crowd that “we will fight the woke mob” and “leave woke ideology in the dust bin of history where it belongs.”

DeSantis focused much of his speech on his ability to get results rather than just deliver rhetoric, drawing a thinly veiled comparison to former President Donald Trump, who by far remains the leading Republican front-runner in the polls, both nationally and in Iowa.

“I can tell you also that leadership is not about entertainment,” he said. “It’s not about building a brand. And it's not about virtue signaling. Leadership is about producing results for the people that you represent. And Iowa has produce results and Florida has produced results.”

  Buy Photo

He said the GOP needs to “dispense with the culture of losing” as he seeks to weaken Trump’s grip on the GOP.

“Outside of Iowa and Florida and a handful of spots, we’ve had three disappointing election cycles in a row and that's not going to cut in this time,” DeSantis said.

While not mentioning him by name, he also criticized Trump for empowering Dr. Anthony Fauci, the immunologist who served as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the chief medical adviser to the president at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said Florida “chose facts over fear” and “freedom over Fauci-ism” during the pandemic.

“We also will bring about a reckoning — a needed reckoning — about the disastrous federal policies regarding COIVD-19,” DeSantis said. “Fauci policies were wrong policies. Fauci policies were destructive. And we must have accountability for those policies so that this can never happen again in our country.”

.@RonDeSantis defends picking fight with Disney and banning education in gender identity and sexual orientation in school, says “sexualization of children is wrong and we stand against that” and says “will leave woke ideology in the dust bin of history where it belongs.” pic.twitter.com/nwrrfzbsCi

— Tom Barton (@tjbarton83) June 1, 2023

Democratic chair calls DeSantis agenda ‘wildly out of step’

Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart, speaking with reporters Tuesday, criticized new laws signed by DeSantis in Florida that heightened abortion restrictions and loosen gun ownership regulations.

“While he focuses on culture wars, DeSantis has done nothing to address the biggest economic challenges that are facing families,” Hart asserted.

She said DeSantis’ conservative agenda would strip away Iowans’ freedoms.

“That agenda is wildly out of step with what people need here in Iowa,” she said of DeSantis signing a bill banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy — before many women know they are pregnant — along with measures allowing people to carry concealed guns without a permit, banning classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in schools, and preventing school staffers or students from being required to refer to people by pronouns that don’t correspond to the person’s sex at birth.

  Buy Photo

“One thing is certain: No matter who wins the Republican primary, it is absolutely clear that another MAGA presidency would be a disaster for Iowans,” Hart said.

DeSantis is headed to two other early primary states, New Hampshire and South Carolina, before returning to Iowa this weekend for Iowa Republican U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst’s annual “Roast and Ride” fundraiser in Des Moines. The motorcycle ride, hog roast and rally will feature all of the major Republican presidential candidates except Trump.

Voters want more of what DeSantis has done in Florida

Jade and Andrew Lammers of Cedar Rapids, both undecided Republicans, said they’re looking for a candidate who supports a strict abortion ban and strengthening gun rights.

Jade, 22, said she doesn’t know much about DeSantis’ policies, “but we knew he’s been doing a good job as governor of Florida,” and wanted to hear him in person.

“I want a candidate who is very focused on the American middle class and allowing faith to be a part of the freedom that we enjoy here in America,” she said.

She called Florida’s six-week abortion ban “a step in the right direction.”

“I’m one who thinks all abortion should be banned,” Jade said. “ … I think that God loves life, and that it’s just the root of everything we should stand for in America.”

She said she’s keeping her options open as she surveys the increasingly crowded Republican presidential primary field.

“I would be OK with another Trump presidency,” Jade said. “I think I would also be OK with DeSantis being president.”

  Buy Photo

Andrew, 26, a forklift operator, said he’s looking for a nominee who is less polarizing, with fewer character flaws.

He said he appreciates DeSantis’ push to restricts the education of LGBTQ topics in the state's public schools, similar measures passed and signed into law by Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds.,

“I feel like that’s been a problem for a lot of states,” Andrew said. “ … I’m looking to hear what his plans are for” replicating his success and policy agenda in Florida “across the United States.”

Comments: (319) 398-8499; tom.barton@thegazette.com