Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday that he’s fully prepared to take on Gov. Gavin Newsom just in case the California Democrat becomes the 2024 Democrat presidential nominee.
The Florida Republican offered the bombshell revelation after being asked at a Blaze Media Summit event whether he believes President Joe Biden will be the Democrat nominee.
“Honestly, I go back and forth because it’s an incumbent president, and unless he’s willing to step aside, I don’t think they can get him out of there,” he began.
“On the other hand, I’m fully prepared to have a Florida-California showdown and let the people choose what’s the better vision for the United States of America because I’m very confident that the freedom in Florida is what more people would choose rather than the public defecation on the streets of San Francisco,” he added.
Listen to some of that below:
As evidence of his upper hand, he talked about the exodus of Americans from California (and other far-left states/cities) to Florida, according to Breitbart.
“So here’s the truth: When I became governor, and I was born and raised in Florida, I had never seen a California license plate in the state of Florida in my life. And all of a sudden, we start seeing California plates,” he said.
“My supporters are like, ‘Uh oh, who are these people?’ Because, remember, I may have won by 20 points in November, but the Florida races were one percent. So if you bring in 50,000 Californians, 50,000 people from New York, all of a sudden, it could be a blue state,” he added.
Thankfully, that didn’t happen, as the people migrating to Florida from blue states have for the most part chosen to vote red.
“We would have supporters go to supermarkets in like Palm Beach, find every New York or New Jersey license plate, put a flyer in the windshield and say, do not vote down here the way they vote up there,” DeSantis explained.
“But what ended up happening was, I think we drew people who believe what we were doing, it wasn’t just these were liberals who just wanted no state income tax. There may have been some of those, but I think most of these people said you know what? Florida is a free state. I’m not dealing with these lockdowns,” he said.
The comments come amid a deepening rivalry between the two governors — one a Republican (DeSantis), and one a Democrat (Newsom).
The feud started last year when Newsom suddenly started talking and tweeting endless trash about his Florida counterpart:
Hey @GovRonDeSantis, clearly you’re struggling, distracted, and busy playing politics with people’s lives. Since you have only one overriding need — attention –let’s take this up & debate. I’ll bring my hair gel. You bring your hairspray. Name the time before Election Day. @CNN https://t.co/vTJHQxfArW
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) September 16, 2022
In the category of can’t make it up — DeSantis literally hired an undocumented migrant to round up migrants to fly to Martha’s Vineyard.
Does that make him a hypocrite… a fraud… or both? https://t.co/aobEUhnuGq
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) October 22, 2022
Observers believe Newsom perhaps expects DeSantis to win the GOP presidential primary and is therefore preparing to do battle with him.
The problem is that Newsom hasn’t declared his candidacy for office. If anything, he’s vowed to not run this election cycle, EVEN if President Biden bows out of the race for whatever reason.
“His message to Ron Klain and Jill Biden over the summer — when he visited Washington amid growing speculation, and considerable West Wing irritation, that he was plotting a primary challenge — was to count him as a firm supporter of Biden’s reelection: ‘I’m all in, count me in,’ he said he told them. Newsom relayed the same to Biden himself on election night,” Politico reported last November.
And so it’s not clear why he’s obsessed with attacking DeSantis.
That said, a poll conducted last year found that in California — Newsom’s own state — DeSantis would win between the two.
“In a hypothetical matchup, DeSantis beats Newsom in California where 85 percent of the state’s Republican voters would choose the Florida governor, who is also taking the lead among independents, Latinos and voters who are between 40 to 49 years old,” Newsweek reported last September, citing a Probolsky Research poll.
“We have seen Newsom’s weak support among Latino voters before, most notably in his Recall Election. California Latinos were among the hardest hit by Covid-19 lock-downs and school closures and likely blame the governor for his handling of the pandemic,” the pollster’s president said at the time.
“To be clear, there is virtually no chance a Republican candidate for president will win California in 2024,″ Probolsky added. “But these numbers should be a warning sign for Newsom’s team as he branches out to other states trying to build a national coalition.”
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.
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