CEDAR RAPIDS — Florida Gov. and presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis honed in on his strong record of delivering conservative results at a visit to Cedar Rapids on Tuesday campaign stop with less than a month before the Iowa caucuses.
DeSantis is delivering his closing pitch to Iowa voters this week holding over a dozen events in Iowa between his campaign and closely-aligned super PAC Never Back Down. DeSantis was joined by U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, at the event sponsored by his super PAC.
DeSantis pitched his presidency to a room of over 60 supporters in a crowded Veterans of Foreign Wars hall in Southwest Cedar Rapids on Tuesday morning focusing on his record as Governor of Florida and the legislative results he helped deliver in the state.
“I’ve delivered as Governor 100 percent of the promises — when I said I was going to do something I did it,” DeSantis said on Tuesday. “I don’t say things idly, when I’m doing it I think about how I’m going to actually get it accomplished.”
DeSantis has a laundry list of legislation that he helped push through the Florida legislature since he was elected governor in 2018.
In a room full of veterans, DeSantis connected his military service to his desire to fight for his values as president and the party’s nominee.
“The reason I joined [the military] after 9/11 was because I believe in this country, and I believe in putting service above self,” DeSantis said. “As your president, it’s not going to be about me, it’s about my issues. It’s going to be about your family. It’ll be about the issues that affect this country.”
Avid DeSantis supporter David Baugh, of Robins, Iowa, said he supports DeSantis because of his clear record of conservative accomplishments in Florida and the strength he showed while doing so.
Baugh said Trump brings too much “drama” and hasn’t delivered like DeSantis has.
“Donald Trump is not a conservative,” Baugh said. “And he didn’t do most of the things he said he was going to do …”
DeSantis touts parental rights measures
DeSantis passed parental rights legislation including the “Don’t Say Gay” law that prohibited Florida schools from teaching about gender identity or sexual orientation in kindergarten through third grade.
DeSantis touted this in his address to supporters at the event on Tuesday.
“We have this craze in this country of trying to sexualize curriculum in schools,” DeSantis said. “As a father of a first grader, kindergartner, and a preschooler, my wife and I believe that kids should be able to go to school, kids should be able to watch cartoons — just be kids — without having an agenda shoved down their throats.”
DeSantis also implemented school choice programs that give families vouchers, similar to Iowa’s program, to attend the private school of their choice.
DeSantis touts Anti-DEI measures
During his Tuesday campaign stop, DeSantis talked about diversity, equity, and inclusion measures used in higher education, calling the acronym for DEI: “discrimination, exclusion and indoctrination.”
In May, DeSantis signed a bill into law that bans DEI initiatives at public colleges in the state.
The state Board of Regents approved recommendations to regent institutions, including the University of Iowa, to restructure DEI offices nonessential to compliance and accreditation.
DeSantis said the initiatives distract colleges and students from academia’s purpose and instead “shoehorn an ideology into all students.”
“I think it benefits the state and the people when you’re focusing the university on its classical mission — the search for truth, academic rigor, preparing students to be citizens of the Republic, not to use it to shoehorn an ideology into all the students,” DeSantis said.
