Benzinga - Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, has essentially been hitting the campaign trail without declaring an official White House bid.
The most recent pitstop was Sunday in California, where the GOP hopeful addressed a crowd at the Reagan Foundation and touted Florida's tax policies, education system and resistance to "Faucian" ideals — a jab at Anthony Fauci, the former chief medical advisor to President Joe Biden.
"I know you’ve got a lot of problems out here, but your governor is very concerned about what we are doing in Florida," DeSantis said, throwing shade at California Gov. Gavin Newsom. "So I figured I had to come by." See video below.
Although DeSantis has not yet announced his candidacy for the 2024 U.S. presidential election, he has seemingly jolted former Republican President Donald Trump, who is officially running and continues to drum up support.
Trump has even come up with various putdowns for his likely opponent, referring to DeSantis with nicknames like "DeSanctimonious" and "Meatball."
Trump’s former ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, announced her candidacy last month, telling Republicans if they were "tired of losing" that they should "stand with her."
Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and ex-secretary of state Mike Pompeo are also expected to run in 2024.
Despite what's expected to be a long list of Republican primary candidates, DeSantis' popularity within the party continues to rise partly do the frequency of his speeches and the attention he gets from Fox News. For example, from the week of the 2020 election through February 2021, Fox News asked DeSantis to appear on its airwaves 113 times, per the Tampa Bay Times.
Perhaps what sets DeSantis apart from the others in the race is his penchant for attacking "wokeism," declaring Florida as a state "where 'woke' goes to die."
As for what "wokeism" is, DeSantis' own general counsel, Ryan Newman, defined the term as “the belief there are systemic injustices in American society and the need to have policies that address them."
In his speech, DeSantis condemned "wokeism" as something that "foments activism" and is "shoved down throats."
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