Ron DeSantis continued his Iowa tour in Sioux City Wednesday, where he explained that he had given up higher earning potential to join an army that has now “awakened.”
Florida Governor and his wife Casey DeSantis arrived at Port Neal Welding Co. Wednesday morning. to promote DeSantis’s blue-collar roots and his decision to join the Navy after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
Desantis claimed that the military’s shift to “wake up” initiatives, such as the use of preferred pronouns, is responsible for the massive drop in recruiting numbers.
“We must restore the integrity of 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 complained. “We have to reorient things like the army to its core task.”
He continued, “Is it any wonder why recruitment has suffered? People don’t want to be part of a waking army. They want to be part of the army that has its eyes on the prize.”
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis made his second campaign stop Tuesday morning at a Welding Company in Sioux City, Iowa
DeSantis invited wife Casey on stage to make a small talk to the crowd with an American flag and tractor in the background. Florida’s first couple discussed serving at the Governor’s Mansion, on the campaign trail, and raising three young children
DeSantis wore jeans, heeled cowboy boots, and a blue vest with “DeSantis” written on it over a lighter blue button-down shirt for the event. The first lady of Florida wore stilettos, jeans and a white shirt with a navy zip with the Florida flag on it.
Following his comments, DeSantis invited his rock star wife onstage to sit down and talk to the audience — many said this strategy is to help the couple be more relatable and talk about their normal day-to-day lives as parents of three.
“You’ll see some very interesting moments with us,” Casey said of probably taking their three kids on the road because “you can’t get these years back.”
While not with them in Iowa, the first Florida couple is often seen with their kids in tow: Madison, six, Mason, five, and Mamie, three.
Sioux City is the first stop of DeSantis’ second day of campaigning in the early state primary. He will continue for remarks at an event hall in Council Bluffs, speak at a barn often used for weddings in Pella, and finish with his stump speech at the Hawkeye Downs Speedway & Expo Center racetrack in Cedar Rapids.
DeSantis heads to New Hampshire on Thursday for a four-city tour, makes a three-city tour of South Carolina on Friday, and returns clockwise to return to Des Moines for a fundraiser with Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds on Saturday.
The Yale and Harvard-educated governor of Florida is doing everything he can to appeal to working-class voters and recalls his childhood growing up with a nursing mother and a father who installed Nielson slot machines on televisions.
He made it clear to the Iowa crowd at the Sioux City welding shop that he got nothing in life — and he’s proud that he made the decision to join the Navy to become a high-earning lawyer.
Ron and Casey DeSantis walk into the Port Neal Welding Company in Sioux City, Iowa, Tuesday morning for the second-ever official stop on the 2024 candidate’s “Our Great American Comeback Tour.”
DeSantis delivers his new stump speech to a crowd in the early state of the primary as he tries to win over Trump Country voters
“I am a veteran of the Navy, I was proud to have served. I served in Iraq, as I said,” DeSantis said. “I had a lot of opportunities in life, because I worked hard to get myself in that position, starting 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 I was very proud of.’
“You can have all the money in the world, but it’s nothing compared to the satisfaction of being able to wear the clothes of your own country and serve a greater purpose.”
DeSantis said people used to be proud to be members of the military, but are now put off by the “woke” agenda and “political ideology” being pumped into the institution.
“We also need to revive our nation’s ability to have institutions based on truth and facts — not ideological pleasure rides like so many,” DeSantis said in Sioux City.
“You shouldn’t be competing in the Woke Olympics just to qualify for a job or to get into university,” he added. “Merit should trump identity politics.”