Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, giving the keynote address to the Utah Republican Party’s 2023 organizing convention, stressed leadership, including his own as governor, and spoke out against “some of these Republicans” who “get into office and they’re like potted plants.”
The Florida Republican, without mentioning any politicians by name, including former President Donald Trump, whom he’d square off against if he mounts his expected bid for the White House, said such politicians “wait for all of this stuff to happen.”
“Some of them don’t like making decisions because as a leader, anytime you make a decision, there’s going to be people that like it and then there’s going to be some people that don’t. So one way not to alienate anyone is just not to do anything, but that’s not leadership.”
DeSantis said when he took office as governor, he decided that he would lean into issues rather than wait for them to come to him and that he would not let the left or the media “determine the narrative.”
“Too many Republicans are worried that if you stand strong, that the left will attack you or the media will attack you,” he said. “Of course, they’re going to attack you. If they’re not attacking me, … I must not be doing my job, right?”
DeSantis said he was warned while seeking office that he could “upset the political balance,” but once he won, he intended to use his seat to advance conservative policies and help Florida.
“We would do that by governing on the basis of conviction, not putting our finger in the wind and trying to get ahead of wherever public opinion may blowing,” he said. “We have never taken a single poll about any issue about telling me what to do as governor. I don’t think you govern by polls. A leader is not captive to what a poll may say. A leader gets ahead of public opinion. A leader sets out a vision, executes the vision, and delivers results.”
To that end, he said that when bringing people into the administration, they were told if they were doing anything other than what was in the best interest of the state, “then pack your bags right now. You have no place in this administration.”
“We’re not doing drama,” he added. “We’re not doing palace intrigue. We are focused on executing our agenda … because we’ve had that focus on the purpose of being there, we’ve been able to accomplish more than anybody is able to be able to accomplish in Florida history.”
DeSantis also Saturday touted his administration’s actions during the COVID-19 pandemic and defended the decisions that were made.
“Leaders take the bull by the horns and make the decisions for themselves,” he said. “They don’t subcontract out their leadership to health bureaucrats like Dr. [Anthony] Fauci. We made sure to do what we thought was right. And when we were doing that, a lot of those decisions were very, very lonely. No governor in this country was attacked more relentlessly during then — actually during now, too, but certainly during then — than me.
“Now people look back, and most of the people that oppose what we were doing to have businesses open, kids in school, the whole nine yards — they act like they supported what we did all along, but they didn’t,” DeSantis continued. “But we stood strong, and Florida is better as a result of our leadership during that time.”
The governor also Saturday praised Utah as “one of the best-governed, best-performing states” in the country, and said that success comes from a “commitment to freedom like Florida.”
“We are proud of earning the moniker of the Free State of Florida. But this is not something that was preordained, and we came very close to taking a much different path when I got elected governor in 2018,” he said.
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