CLIVE, IOWA — On Tuesday, Ron DeSantis and his wife Casey promised voters at a multi-campus church just outside of Des Moines that they would reshape the federal bureaucracy that has become hostile to conservative values.
“American decline is not inevitable,” said DeSantis, the second-youngest presidential hopeful. “It is a choice, and we must choose a new direction for our country.”
FRESH FACES
In addition to his focus on policy, DeSantis seems to be concentrating on appealing to younger conservatives with families, much like he did during his re-election campaign in Florida.
Engaging the audience, he gave them a forward-thinking view of what his presidency would look like after appointing fresh faces from outside the swamp unfamiliar to Washington insiders.
“We need to inspire Americans from around the country to maybe pick up your family and move to the nation’s capital for two, four, six or eight years because we need people who live in the country to come out to D.C. to reassert the right of ‘We the People’ to run our own government,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis said a leader must have the humility to know that he can’t do it alone. “It’s a team effort,” DeSantis told supporters.
“You can have great policies, you can make good decisions, but you need to have a cadre of people with you that share your values and will put the mission first. You can’t just recycle people from Washington D.C.,” DeSantis added.
COMMON GROUND
Governor Kim Reynolds – who said she would remain neutral – called DeSantis “a candidate who has shown us that he can, and all you have to do is look at his record.”
“I have a hunch they’re going to be here a lot,” Reynolds said as she introduced DeSantis and his wife, Casey. “If I know anything about these two, it’s that they will not be outworked.”
In contrast to former President Trump, who was born into wealth and did not serve in the military, DeSantis described how he worked “minimum wage jobs” through school and decided to risk the “loss of personal income” to enter the military after 9/11. That was “worth more than anything money can buy,” DeSantis said.
HE NEVER BACKS DOWN
After DeSantis told the crowd that the “purpose of our schools is to educate kids, not to indoctrinate kids,” he invited his wife, Casey DeSantis, onto the stage, where she explained that her voice was hoarse because she’s “been negotiating with a three-year-old all day today as to why they cannot color with permanent marker on the dining room table.”
But she also told the crowd that Ron DeSantis should be in the White House.
“He’s a good dad,” Casey DeSantis told the crowd. “He’s a good person. He’s in it for the right reasons. He’s fighting for our children just as much as he’s fighting for your families.”
“I can tell you, Ron DeSantis always stands up for what’s right, he never backs down, he says what he’s going to do and he gets it done,” Casey DeSantis said amid cheers at Eternity Church in Clive, Iowa.
Florida’s first lady – who is expected to be highly engaged in her husband’s political campaign – also mingled with local supporters, including an elderly veteran in his military uniform.
