Florida Governor Ron DeSantis confronted a heckler at a campaign event in South Carolina on Friday, who accused him of running a ‘police state’, before adapting one of the most famous for Winston Churchill’s “War on Revival”.
DeSantis arrived in Palmetto State after stops in Iowa and New Hampshire earlier in the week.
He used his stump speech to launch a 30-minute attack on front-runner Donald Trump, never using his name, promising that ‘focus’ not ‘entertainment’ would get him the job done.
But he was momentarily stopped in his tracks at a rally in rural South Carolina when a rowdy woman interrupted him as he described what he called ‘bad stuff’ and ‘pornography “entering the schools.
He could be heard accusing him of interfering in health care for children and imposing a “police state”.
Ron DeSantis arrived in South Carolina on Friday as he continued his tour of the early states. Gilbert’s biggest cheer came as he confronted a heckler who accused him of being a ‘police state’
After the speech, he sat down with his wife Casey, as she described his job and what it’s like to have a young family in the Florida governor’s mansion.
As she was shoved out of the barn by security guards, he responded by saying, “We’re not going to let you impose a program on our children. We will defend our children.
It drew the biggest cheers from the speech in front of about 500 supporters and DeSantis lookers.
The rest of the speech included a list of the greatest successes of his accomplishments during his tenure.
And it contained some not-so-subtle research on Trump, outlining how “focus” was key to getting the job done in the office rather than short-term decision-making.
“Leadership is not about entertainment. It’s not about building a brand. It’s not about signaling virtue,” he said.
“Leadership is about delivering results for the people you represent.”
DeSantis also deployed one of Winston Churchill’s most famous turns of phrase as he spoke about his involvement in the “war on revival.”
“We will fight the revival in the schools; we will fight revival in companies; we will fight the revival in the halls of Congress,” he said, echoing Churchill’s World War II speech.
“We will never surrender to the awake crowd.”
DeSantis signed books, posed for selfies and chatted with attendees after the event
About 500 people heard him speak at The Grove, a wedding venue outside of Columbia. Some were supporters, others just ‘curious DeSantis’ as they weighed who to support
DeSantis was on a three-stop swing early in the state primary. But he arrived after learning he had lost ground to Trump since entering the race.
A new poll shows the former president has increased his lead over DeSantis by eight points since early May.
The data will be a blow to DeSantis, who last week used an online interview with Twitter owner Elon Musk to enter the race. But problems on Twitter Spaces meant the event started late and listeners were repeatedly kicked off the stream.
A Yahoo News/YouGov of 1,520 adults found that Trump had increased his share of support from 48% in early May to 53%.
DeSantis’ share fell from 28% to 25%, giving the former president a 28% lead.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis visited early states Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina this week, but new polling shows he has lost ground to Donald Trump
A new poll shows DeSantis has lost ground to front-runner Trump over the past month, despite launching his campaign last week. He now trails by 28 points, down from 20 at the start of May
However, only 13% said the botched launch gave them an “unfavorable” impression.
Even so, the data will pose a headache for the DeSantis campaign which hammers home the message that the Florida governor is more eligible than Trump.
Against that backdrop, DeSantis will hold three events in South Carolina on Friday, following jumps to New Hampshire and Iowa — three of the most important states in the primary race.
His Never Back Down super PAC is stepping up in Palmetto State to coincide with the visit. Solicitors will be knocking on doors this weekend and the group has a series of endorsements to roll out in the coming days, according to a source familiar with the plans.
Analysts say all is not lost at this early stage and say DeSantis still has some way to go to win the Republican nomination.
James Johnson, co-founder of pollsters JL Partners, said his firm’s data suggested Trump’s command could prove soft in the coming weeks.
So although his poll found DeSantis trailing 15 points in Iowa and 33 points in New Hampshire, nearly half of Trump supporters said the Florida governor was their second choice.
And they used the same word to describe him – “strong” – as they used for the former president.
Casey took to the stage alongside her husband during her first campaign stop in South Carolina
Trump appeared Thursday night at a Fox News town hall and used it to beat his rivals
“Trump voters don’t use the same slurs he uses at rallies,” he said.
“Trump has so far failed to negatively define DeSantis in the minds of Republican primary voters.”
Additionally, he beats Trump on the three questions most important to Republican voters in New Hampshire: “Can beat Joe Biden in an election,” “Is competent,” and “Meets woke values.”
“It’s pretty unique for a poll where the other candidate has such a big lead,” Johnson said.
Even so, Trump said Thursday night that he believes DeSantis will pass away soon.
“You know, I’m really chasing whoever is second and I think whoever is second has gone down so much and so quickly that I don’t think he’s going to be second for much longer.” I think he’s going to be third or fourth,’ Trump told Sean Hannity in a Fox News town hall.
The two spent their time poking each other.
Trump used his time in Iowa to push back against DeSantis’ argument that he can serve two terms to advance his agenda, while his opponent would be limited to just one more.
“Who the hell wants to wait eight years? Trump said, insisting he only needed six months to unravel President Joe Biden’s policies.
For his part, DeSantis said Trump had already tried to solve the country’s problems.
He asked, “Why didn’t he do it in his first four years?”
