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Ron DeSantis brings Vegas to its feet at GOP’s first major 2024 presidential cattle call

November 20, 2022 | | Print Article

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis lit up Las Vegas on Saturday, taking the stage at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership meeting, considered by many to be the first major GOP cattle call of the 2024 race for the White House.


(Video: YouTube)

The fearless Floridian received a standing ovation from activists and donors alike as he touted his overwhelming re-election win and railed against “woke ideology.”

“We’ve accomplished more over a four-year period than anybody thought possible,” the governor said as he delivered the much-anticipated keynote address.

DeSantis, considered, should he choose to run, to be the only serious challenger to former President Donald Trump, has consistently energized America First conservatives, fighting in Florida everything from the government’s authoritarian COVID lockdowns to the indoctrination of children in school and from so-called “family-friendly” corporations like Disney.

His decisive actions along the way — including during the destructive assault on the Sunshine State from Hurricane Ian — have pushed him into the spotlight, and, while the governor has not formally launched a 2024 campaign, insisting his focus is on Florida, it’s hard to believe any politician would allow this kind of momentum to go unharnessed.

 

Still, DeSantis stated on Saturday, in Florida, “we’ve got a lot more to do and I have only begun to fight.”

DeSantis pointed to the diverse group of Floridians who showed up for the midterm elections and gave the nation what was arguably the only “red wave” of the cycle.

As the governor noted, “we secured record margins with Hispanic voters. We swept the suburbs all across the state of Florida. Our margins with rural voters were gravity-defying. We won by double digits Miami-Dade County.”

And among Jewish voters, “we won the highest share of the Jewish vote for any Republican candidate in Florida history.”

On the subject of antisemitism and support of the state of Israel, DeSantis discussed the public events he held “in Judea and Samaria.” As the first American politician to hold such events, the crowd erupted in appreciation.

“I don’t care what the State Department says – it’s not occupied territory,” DeSantis stated, “it’s disputed territory.”

 

The governor reminded attendees that, while other states imposed Orwellian COVID measures on their residents, Florida was “the nation’s citadel of freedom.” Those who fled the blue states for Florida beaches “felt like they were arriving in West Berlin from East Berlin,” he said.

But nothing brought the crowd to its feet like DeSantis’s fight against “gender ideology.”

“It is wrong to teach a kid that they were born in the wrong body. It is wrong to teach them that gender is a choice,” he stated unequivocally.

Florida, he declared, “is where woke goes to die.”

His message carried with it a simple truth: “When you show people you’re willing to fight for them, they will walk over broken glass barefoot to come vote for you, and that’s’ exactly what they did to me.”

Melissa Fine
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