Governor Ron DeSantis in his presidential-campaign-kickoff speech in Iowa Tuesday doubled down on his administration’s onslaught against Disney and blasted Republican critics who have argued that it was executive overreach and a violation of free-market principles.
“I’m not backing down one inch,” DeSantis said in Iowa, which hosts the GOP first-in-the-nation caucus in the 2024 nomination process. “We run the state of Florida. They do not run the state of Florida. We stand for the protection of our children. We will fight those who seek to rob them of their innocence and on that there will be no compromise.”
DeSantis noted that some Republicans in the state legislature have protested his decision to crackdown on Disney, which started a war with the governor last year in publicly denouncing the state’s new Parental Rights in Education bill. The bill prohibits the teaching of sexual orientation and gender identity in public schools to students in kindergarten through third grade. Opponents dubiously dubbed it the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. The state board of education this April expanded the bill to include grades four through 12, unless required by existing state standards or as part of sex-ed curricula that students can opt out of.
Retaliating against Disney’s activism, DeSantis signed a bill stripping the corporation of its 56-year-old “independent special district” status, which had granted it the privilege of creating its own regulations, building codes, and other municipal services. Lawmakers later decided against dissolving the district, but voted instead to give the governor the authority to install the district’s board members, our Ryan Mills previously reported. However, before the DeSantis-appointed board assumed control in March, the Disney-controlled board handed control of the district’s development over to Disney.
Flash-forward again to this April, when DeSantis announced that the state legislature was preparing a bill to revoke the development agreements that the Disney-controlled special district board provided to the company before the state-controlled board took over. DeSantis said the agreements weren’t legal, and were in “direct defiance of the will of the people of Florida.”
During his Tuesday night speech, the governor took other veiled shots at his Republican naysayers, such as former president Donald Trump, although he did not call Trump out by name. DeSantis defended his record during Covid, when he kept Florida’s schools open and refused to accept the draconian dictates of Dr. Fauci, whom Trump consulted heavily in the early stages of the pandemic. DeSantis also touted the fact that he served in the military — a historical credential of presidents that Trump did not have.
“Leadership is not about entertaining. . . . It is about results,” DeSantis said, loosely repeating the lines from his campaign announcement that opened his 2024 bid last week.
“Governing is not entertainment,” he said then. “It’s not about building a brand or virtue signaling. It’s about delivering results.”
DeSantis also listed the many conservative accomplishments from his tenure in Florida, such as legislation for universal school choice, for the protection of the unborn from abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected, for new tax relief, for anti-ESG measures in banking and corporate policy, and others. Of all the strides made, DeSantis said he is most proud of Florida’s efforts to protect children from gender ideology and obscene material and to empower parents to exercise oversight over their kids’ education.