(C) Florida Phoenix This story was originally published by Florida Phoenix and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . An eye on the White House? FL Gov. Ron DeSantis makes his pitch to PA conservatives [1] ['Special To The Capital-Star', 'More From Author', '- April'] Date: 2023-04-02 CAMP HILL, Pa. — A bad case of early presidential fever swept through a ballroom at the Penn Harris Hotel in suburban Harrisburg here Saturday, as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis made a stop as the scheduled headliner at the Pennsylvania Leadership Conference. Important note: DeSantis has not declared a bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination – in fact, by current Florida law he would likely have to resign as governor if he did. And at this point, former President Donald J. Trump still stands at the top of many Republican voter preference polls. But over the last four years the 44-year-old DeSantis has positioned himself – for the moment at least – as the strongest GOP alternative to Trump, and he made sure his audience knew it Saturday in an address peppered with his accomplishments in “the free state of Florida.” To DeSantis, those accomplishments start with an early and controversial reopening from the coronavirus era lockdowns that evolved into and a strong and consistent push back against what he called the “Faucian dystopia” of vaccine and masking mandates. It wasn’t easy, DeSantis recalled Saturday. As the number of COVID cases soared in Florida in the summer of 2020, DeSantis said, even staunch supporters noted that he was getting “hammered” in the press for his positions and many urged him to rethink. “My job as governor is to care more about the jobs of the people that I represent than to worry about my own job,” DeSantis said to applause. “And I didn’t know how it would shake out. I didn’t know if politically i would be long for the role or not. “But I just said as a leader I’ve got to be able to look in that mirror and be satisfied that I’m putting service over self and that I’m making decisions in the best interest of the state, and not trying to protect my own political hide.” DeSantis then pivoted to his Culture War credentials, highlighting Florida’s passage of bills expanding vouchers using public money for children to attend parochial and other private schools, banning teaching of the buzz-worthy “critical race theory” in public school classrooms, and putting a new emphasis on American civics in secondary grades. “Our philosophy is very simple. Our school systems’ purpose is to provide children with a classical education, not a political indoctrination,” DeSantis said. “We’re not going to teach our kids to hate our country or to hate each other. We’re going to treat people as individuals. We’re not going to divvy them up into groups. And we’re going to teach history that is accurate. Not history that is trying to pursue a left-wing agenda.” He also poked the bear of gender identity issues, noting that in Florida doctors who perform gender identity surgeries on minors are now at risk of having their medical licenses revoked. For many of these stances, DeSantis has been gathering strength through the last year as not only a conservative favorite, but, at this early date in the presidential campaign cycle, one of the most formidable contenders for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. The governor, through his staff, did not grant interview requests from the press during this appearance. DeSantis, however, has said in other forums, press aides said, that he will not make a final decision about a presidential candidacy before the end of the current legislative session in Florida. Currently, that session is expected to run through May 5. Appearances like Saturday’s however, are important to a politician testing the waters for a national campaign. Pennsylvania, while not an early state in the presidential nominating process, is one of the largest swing states in the nation and in recent cycles has been seen by presidential campaigns as a critical part of the equation to reaching a majority in the electoral college. [END] --- [1] Url: https://floridaphoenix.com/2023/04/02/an-eye-on-the-white-house-fl-gov-ron-desantis-makes-his-pitch-to-pa-conservatives/ Published and (C) by Florida Phoenix Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/floridaphoenix/