Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis draws comparisons to Iowa

DES MOINES — In his remarks during his first trip to Iowa as a potential presidential candidate, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis got the most vocal reception when he described policies enacted in Florida that probably sounded familiar to the Iowa crowd.

Parents’ rights and choice in education.

Prohibiting the teaching of gender identity in elementary schools.

Banning the teaching of Critical Race Theory — or, as it is categorized in Iowa, divisive topics.

Those topics that DeSantis and Florida Republicans have addressed legislatively likely ring a bell with Iowans, as Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and Iowa Republican state lawmakers have been passing legislation on those exact same topics.

“We should not have a situation where a teacher is telling a second-grader that they were born in the wrong body,” DeSantis said to a standing ovation Friday evening during an event at the Iowa State Fairgrounds.

Event organizers said roughly 1,000 people attended the event in Des Moines. It was the second stop of the day for DeSantis, who spoke earlier Friday at a casino in Davenport.

DeSantis’ trip was highly anticipated in Iowa, which next February will be the first state to cast its presidential preference in the Republican caucuses ahead of the 2024 elections.

Most early polling on the Republican presidential race has showed DeSantis — who has not yet officially declared himself a candidate — and former President Donald Trump far in front of other official and potential candidates.

‘You watch Iowa’

In Davenport, DeSantis said Republican governors can get competitive about the conservative policies that they are enacting in their states.

Iowa Republicans have passed bills in recent weeks that would ban gender-affirming care and prohibit instruction of gender identity and sexual orientation in elementary schools. At the start of the session, Iowa lawmakers passed a bill that would allow parents to use taxpayer per-pupil funds to send their children to private schools.

Florida lawmakers are considering a bill that would open its private school program to all families, regardless of income.

DeSantis’ speech to Iowa Republicans comes as the Florida Legislature begins its 60-day session.

“I always tell my legislators, ‘You watch Iowa. Do not let them get ahead of us on any of this stuff,’ ” DeSantis said. “So we’ve got our Legislature in session now. So buckle up. The next 60 days should be fun in Florida.”

In his speech at the Rhythm City Casino in Davenport, DeSantis ticked off a list of Republican accomplishments in Florida that should also sound familiar to Iowans: prohibiting mask and vaccine mandates; banning the teaching of gender identity and sexual orientation in elementary schools; restricting diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at public universities; and restricting public investments in companies that focus on environmental, social and governance-investment strategies.

“Our state is where ‘woke’ goes to die,” DeSantis said to a standing ovation.

At both events, DeSantis also drew parallels between Iowa’s and Florida’s politics. Both governors won their first full terms in 2018 and resisted pandemic-era mandates and closures in 2020. Both won by double-digit margins in their 2022 re-election campaigns.

“We both focused on protecting the lives and livelihoods and the freedom of our citizens,” Reynolds said.

‘America’s governor’

DeSantis greeted the audience by complimenting Reynolds.

“It’s so great to be here with America’s governor,” he said.

DeSantis said he speaks with people who move to Florida from other states, and many express displeasure about how their home Democratic-controlled states are run.

“But when I meet Iowans in Florida, they’re happy. They love their state, because it’s well run,” DeSantis said. “It’s one of the best-run states in the country.”

When he won a narrow election in 2018, DeSantis said, he was advised “not to rock the boat.”

“The advice I was getting at the time, was OK, it’s a divided state, very close election. Trim your sails, don’t rock the boat, you know, just get in there and kind of be a little passive. And I rejected that advice,” he said.

“My view was, I may have received 50 percent of the vote, but I earned 100 percent of the executive power, and I intend to use that to be able to advance the best interests of the people in Florida and fulfill my campaign promises.”

Trump-DeSantis

DeSantis’ visit comes as a Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll released Friday shows DeSantis comparable with Donald Trump in favorability ratings. About 42 percent of Iowa Republicans view DeSantis as very favorable and about 44 percent of Iowa Republicans view Trump that way.

More Republicans, however, viewed Trump, who has his own visit to Davenport scheduled for Monday, unfavorably. Eighteen percent of Iowa Republicans viewed Trump as mostly or very unfavorable. Just 6 percent of Iowa Republicans said the same for DeSantis, though 20 percent said they weren't sure.

Attendees at both events were given free copies of DeSantis’ book, “The Courage to Be Free: Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Revival.”

‘Extreme agenda’

In a news conference Thursday hosted by the national Democratic Party, Iowa Democratic Party chairwoman Rita Hart criticized DeSantis’ support for proposed legislation in Florida that would prohibit abortions at six weeks, which often is before the mother is aware of the pregnancy.

Again, similar legislation passed recently in Iowa, although that law was stopped by the state courts. Reynolds has asked the Iowa Supreme Court to reconsider the case.

“Look, I don’t know who’s going to come out of this GOP primary, but the bottom line is that Iowans — and Americans — cannot afford the extreme agenda that these folks are peddling,” Hart told reporters.

During a press briefing Friday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked about DeSantis’ campaign stump line about “woke” going to die in Florida.

“When Republicans — extreme Republicans, these MAGA Republicans — don't agree with an issue or with policy, they don’t bring forth something that’s going to have a good-faith conversation. They go to this conversation of ‘woke.’ But that is not actually policy,” Jean-Pierre said, according to a White House transcript.

“This is not having a good-faith conversation on how we can move the country forward. This is about attacking young kids and their parents because of how they view themselves, because of how they see themselves, because of how they want to live. What that turns into is hate.”

As DeSantis made his visit to Iowa, the Democratic National Committee said it is launching a “mobile billboard” campaign to advertise DeSantis' positions on Social Security and Medicare.

During his 2012 campaign for Congress, DeSantis expressed support for restructuring the two programs, which aid millions of seniors in the U.S., to make them more financially sustainable.

Since then, he has said the GOP would not “mess with” Social Security.

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