Casey DeSantis was the shining star of her husband’s last Iowa campaign stop Wednesday evening as she called the event ‘date night’ and lauded Ron as the best person to ‘protect our children.’
‘Best first lady in all 50 states,’ Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis responded after his wife addressed the crowd.
DeSantis concluded the first stop of his first official campaign swing by filling up the Hawkeye Downs Speedway & Expo Center in Cedar Rapids Wednesday evening with more than 500 people.
Several lines were well received by the crowd, but perhaps the biggest cheers of the near 60-minute event were delivered when Casey DeSantis was on stage with the governor looking on behind her.
‘This is like date night for us tonight,’ she joked with the crowd, admitting that they were just happy to speak with people older than five-years old while grandma watched their three children Madison, six, Mason, five, and Mamie, three.
Florida first lady Casey DeSantis was the star of her husband’s final campaign stop in Iowa on Wednesday evening – telling the crowd that they saw the event in Cedar Rapids as ‘date night’ because their three kids were left in Florida and they get to ‘speak with someone older than five’
DeSantis sold himself as the best guy to ‘protect our children,’ saying he is ‘sensitive’ to these issues as a father of three: Madison, six, Mason, five, and Mamie, three
‘Best first lady in all 50 states,’ Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis responded after his wife addressed the crowd.
The governor invited his wife on-stage mid-remarks after joking that she got on his case for passing a law to eliminate sales tax for baby products after their children were out of diapers.
‘We’ve permanently eliminated sales tax on every single baby item – no tax on cribs, on strollers, on diapers, on wipes, on clothes, none of it. You get to bring babies into this world tax free in the state of Florida,’ DeSantis lauded. ‘And that’s going to save parents – trust me, the amount of diapers we went through with our three kids, that’s a lot of money.’
‘My wife… we started as governor in 2019 with a two-year-old and a nine-month-old – our kids are now six, five and three,’ he added. ‘So when I signed this into law, she said: ‘That’s a great bill. Why didn’t you do that in 2019? That would have saved us a lot of money.’ Well, we didn’t have Biden-flation in 2019, that’s why.’
More than once during his speech, DeSantis said he was ‘sensitive’ to certain issues involving children because he is a father – and particularly a father to two young girls.
Perhaps the most off-script moment of the Iowa swing was a call-and-response Wednesday evening where the Governor asked the 500 plus crowd if they are ‘happy’ with the direction of the country.
‘Are you happy with having an open border where millions of illegals are pouring in?’ the governor asked to a booming, in-unison ‘no’ response.
‘Are you happy having an economy where insulation has reduced our standard of living?’ he continued. ‘Are you happy China is trying to stop us from being energy independent?’
‘Are you upset that we have a bureaucracy that is totally out of control?’ he questioned, this time getting the desired ‘yes’ response.
The Florida first couple left their kids Madison, 6, Mason, 5, and Mamie, 3, back in Florida with grandma during their Iowa swing
Ron and Casey DeSantis hold their hands over their hearts during the Pledge of Allegiance in Cedar Rapids on Wednesday, May 31
After a quick aside, he continued the new tactic.
‘Are you happy to see institution after institution be infected with the woke mind virus?’ he questioned. ‘Are you happy that the federal government has the authority to try to impose a biomedical security state on this country with mandates and lockdowns? Are we all revolted by how we lost 13 service members in Afghanistan due to the ineptitude of Joe Biden as commander in chief?’
‘Biden and his crew are intent on plunging this country into the abyss,’ he insisted.
DeSantis’ top rival Donald Trump continued his attacks throughout his Iowa campaign swing – posting to Truth Social to bash the governor for the pronunciation of his last name.
‘Have you heard that ‘Rob’ DeSanctimonious wants to change his name, again,’ the ex-president claimed. ‘He is demanding that people call him DeeeSantis, rather than DaSantis.’
‘Actually, I like ‘Da’ better, a nicer flow, so I am happy he is changing it. He gets very upset when people, including reporters,’ he added.
A crowd of more than 500 people listened intently as the governor delivered his stump speech for the fifth time in his two-day swing through Iowa
Trump continued the attacks against his fiercest competitor throughout the Florida Governor’s swing in the early primary contest state of Iowa
The latest attack line was to criticize DeSantis for apparently switching up the pronunciation of his last name
In all five cities in the early caucus state, DeSantis’ events attracted more than 2,000 Iowans – many of whom were on a ‘fact finding’ mission to decide whether they want to vote for Trump or DeSantis as their nominee in 2024.
As part of his newly unveiled stump speech, DeSantis repeatedly detailed how he was ‘happy’ to give up a higher earning potential to join the Military – but has lamented that it has now ‘gone woke .’
The Florida governor and Casey DeSantis arrived in Iowa Tuesday for the first event in Des Moines to a crowd of about 1,000.
They continued Wednesday morning at Port Neal Welding Co. in Sioux City where DeSantis touted to about 100 attendees his blue collar roots and his decision to join the Navy after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
At an event hall in Council Bluffs he spoke to another 200 people and another 300 at a barn in Pella.
Desantis claimed that the Military’s shift toward ‘woke’ initiatives like implementing use of preferred pronouns is to blame for the massive drop-off in recruitment numbers.
‘We need to restore integrity to our institutions,’ he told the crowd in Sioux City, which borders Nebraska and South Dakota.
‘We look at our Military now and we see them getting caught up in political ideology, gender pronouns, talking about global warming,’ the governor lamented. ‘We need to reorient things like the Military back to its core mission.’
He continued: ‘Is it any wonder why recruiting has suffered? People don’t want to be part of a woke military. They want to be a part of the military that has his eyes on the prize.’
DeSantis donned jeans, cowboy boots with a heel and a blue vest with ‘DeSantis’ written on it over a lighter blue button down shirt for the event. Florida’s first lady was in stilettos, jeans and a white shirt covered by a navy blue zip-up with Florida’s state flag.
DeSantis invited wife Casey up on stage in Sioux City earlier in the day to sit down for a chat in front of the crowd with the backdrop of an American Flag and a tractor. Florida’s first couple discussed serving in the Governor’s Mansion, on the campaign trail and parenting three young children
After his remarks, DeSantis invited his rock star wife on stage to sit-down together and speak to the crowd – with many saying this strategy is to help the couple be more relatable and talk about their normal day-to-day life being parents of three.
‘You’ll see some very interesting moments with us,’ Casey said of likely bringing their three children on the road with them because ‘you can’t get these years back.’
While not with them in Iowa, the Florida first couple often is seen with their children in tow – Madison, six, Mason, five, and Mamie, three.
Sioux City was the first stop of DeSantis’ second day of campaigning in the early primary contest state. He continued on for remarks at an event hall in Council Bluffs, then at a barn often used for weddings in Pella and concluded with his stump speech at the Hawkeye Downs Speedway & Expo Center racetrack in Cedar Rapids.
DeSantis will go to New Hampshire for a four-city tour on Thursday, take a swing through three South Carolina cities on Friday and turn right back around to return to Des Moines for a fundraiser with Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds on Saturday.
Ron and Casey DeSantis walk into the Port Neal Welding Company in Sioux City, Iowa on Tuesday morning for the second-ever official stop on the 2024 candidate’s ‘Our Great American Comeback Tour’
The Yale and Harvard-educated Florida governor is going all-in on appealing more to blue-collar voters, calling back on his youth growing up with a nurse mother and a father who installed Nielson ratings machines on televisions.
He made clear to the Iowa crowd at the Sioux City welding shop that he wasn’t handed anything in life – and is proud to have made the decision to join the Navy over becoming a high-earning lawyer.
‘I’m a Navy veteran, I was proud to have served. I served in Iraq, as was mentioned,’ DeSantis said. ‘I had a lot of opportunities in life, because I had worked hard to put myself in that position, starting off with very little.’
‘I could have made a lot more money – but I wanted to serve,’ he added. ‘It was after September 11 and I thought it was the right thing to do. And, you know, it was something that I was very proud of.’
‘You can have all the money in the world, but that doesn’t match the satisfaction of being able to wear the cloth of your own country and serving a higher purpose.’
DeSantis said people used to be proud to be a member of the Military, but are now put-off by the ‘woke’ agenda and the ‘political ideology’ being pumped into the institution.
‘We also need to reinvigorate the ability of our country to have institutions grounded in truth and facts – not going on ideological joy-rides like so many of them are,’ DeSantis said in Sioux City.
‘You should not have to compete in the Woke Olympics just to qualify for employment, or to get into a college,’ he added. ‘Merit must trump identity politics.’
DeSantis delivers his new stump speech to a crowd in the early primary contest state as he tries to win-over Trump country voters
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