DeSantis: Florida a Model for Republican Success (Newsmax)
By Charlie McCarthy | Monday, 21 November 2022 09:34 AM EST
Gov. Ron DeSantis said the country should look to Florida to learn "a way out of this morass and this mess" created by Democrat leadership and the Biden administration.
DeSantis sounded like someone emerging as a national leader as he spoke Saturday night at the Republican Jewish Coalition's annual leadership meeting in Las Vegas.
"Florida really is showing a way out of this morass and this mess, but you got to be willing to do it and you got to be successful in implementing it and in times like these, there is no substitute for victory," DeSantis told the crowd, Politico reported.
DeSantis, fresh off winning reelection by defeating former Gov. Charlie Crist by nearly 20 percentage points, said Florida should be a model for those seeking to move on from the progressive policies implemented and sought under President Joe Biden.
"When you stand up for what's right, when you show people you're willing to fight for them, they will walk over broken glass barefoot to come vote for you,” DeSantis said, drawing a standing ovation, Bloomberg reported. "We've got a lot more to do, and I have only begun to fight."
DeSantis said that he and his team have been "about exercising leadership and delivering results for people that we represent."
"I did not take any polls when I became governor all the way through this entire term," he said, Florida Politics reported. "The job of a leader is not to stick your finger in the wind and try to contort yourself to wherever public opinion may be trending on one given moment.
"No, the job of a leader is to set out a vision, to execute that vision, to show people that it's the right vision and to deliver concrete results."
DeSantis, should he run for the Republican 2024 presidential nomination, widely is considered to be the top opponent for former President Donald Trump, who officially announced his candidacy last week.
Trump, via satellite, also addressed the Republican Jewish Coalition conference.
DeSantis said that his landslide reelection victory partly was the result of Jewish support.
"We won the highest share of the Jewish vote for any Republican candidate in Florida history," DeSantis said, The Times of Israel reported. "There's a lot of reasons for that. It's not just Jewish issues if you look at everything we've done, but I will say if you look at our record on issues related to Israel and supporting the Jewish community, it is second to none."
DeSantis also discussed foreign policy issues in Israel, referencing an official trip he took to Israel in his first year as governor.
"We were the first statewide elected officials to do public events in Judea and Samaria," said DeSantis, using the biblical names for the West Bank, The Times of Israel reported. "We understand history. We know those are thousands of years of connection to the Jewish people.
"I don't care what the State Department says. They are not occupied territory, it is disputed territory. You gotta know the history."