Gov. Ron DeSantis hit the stage in Tallahassee, delivering his State of the State address that doubled as a thinly veiled pitch to Iowa's caucus-goers. With the Florida Legislature's session now underway, DeSantis swapped his governor's hat for a presidential hopeful's cap, touting the state's gains and taking aim at the policies of other states that, in his view, have caused a migration toward Florida's sunnier governance. "Florida now has millions more residents than New York, yet New York's budget is twice the size of Florida's. They have a $4.3 billion budget deficit. Florida now has more manufacturing jobs than New York, and added twice as many jobs as New York in the past year, and our unemployment rate is 1.4 percentage points lower," DeSantis said. Notably omitted was much in the way of specific legislative goals for the Sunshine State, suggesting his eyes were set on larger, more Midwestern prizes, according to CBS Miami.
The address closely echoed DeSantis' campaign trail rhetoric, pulling out all stops to present Florida as a bastion of "freedom and sanity." "The failures are not a result of chance but of choices made by elected officials to put ideology over sound policy. In this time for choosing, Florida has chosen well. We have chosen facts over fear. Education over indoctrination. Law and order over rioting and disorder. Fiscal responsibility over debt and profligacy," he asserted, as per CBS Miami.
Meanwhile, his critics accuse him of playing hooky on state matters to woo out-of-state voters. "He’d rather be on the ground in Iowa than he would be in Florida,” House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell remarked. Despite the digs and the fact that recent polls show DeSantis trailing former President Trump in key early-voting states, such as Iowa and New Hampshire, DeSantis seems resolved to press ahead with his "Florida blueprint" as the model for national leadership, according to NBC Miami.
And he's not letting the current legislative session or a skeleton crew in his Capitol office distract from those presidential aspirations. Flaunting his influence over a Republican-dominated Legislature willing to fall in line, DeSantis appears to prioritize steering clear of state-level controversies.
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