Ron DeSantis receives several standing ovations during the first major GOP 2024 presidential call

LAS VEGAS – Florida Governor Ron DeSantis highlighted his landslide re-election victory and his conservative brutality against what he calls “woke ideology” in a forceful speech that repeatedly got a crowd of activists to their feet and from prominent Republican donors.

“We have accomplished more in a four-year period than anyone ever thought possible,” DeSantis boasted while delivering the keynote address Saturday night in Las Vegas at the annual meeting of leaders of the Republican Jewish Coalition, which is considered as the first great republican cattle. call for the race for the White House of 2024.

DeSantis, who at 44 is 32 years younger than former President Donald Trump, won his first gubernatorial election in 2018 with major help from the then president. But he has become a force in his own right as he has built a political brand that stretches from coast to coast.

The Florida governor has seen his popularity skyrocket among conservatives across the country over the past two and a half years, thanks to his forceful resistance to restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic and his aggressive actions as a warrior. culture wars, as he targeted the media and corporations.

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While DeSantis for more than a year has steadily sidelined talks of a 2024 White House bid as he remains focused on his re-election as governor, the governor on Saturday repeated his well-used promise that “we have a lot more to do and I’ve only just started to fight.”

Highlighting his landslide election victory, DeSantis pointed out that “we achieved record margins with Hispanic voters. We swept through suburbs all over the state of Florida. Our margins with rural voters defied gravity. We won by two numbers Miami-Dade County.”

And the governor pointed out that “we won the largest share of the Jewish vote for any Republican candidate in Florida history.”

DeSantis highlighted his record in the fight against anti-Semitism and his support for the State of Israel. He spoke of holding public events “in Judea and Samaria”, making him the first American politician to do so and said to thunderous applause “I don’t care what the State Department says – what is not occupied territory, it is contested territory”.

The governor, highlighting his battle against coronavirus restrictions at the height of the worst pandemic to hit the world in a century, stressed that “we are the nation’s citadel of freedom.” He argued that when people immigrated to Florida, “they felt like they were coming to West Berlin from East Berlin.”

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DeSantis, to a standing ovation, highlighted his fight against “gender ideology” and the Disney Corporatin.

“It’s wrong to teach a child that he was born in the wrong body. It’s wrong to teach him that sex is a choice,” he argued.

And he bragged that “the state of Florida is where the revival is going to die”

While DeSantis has seen his numbers in the 2024 Republican presidential polls begin to rival Trump, and his fundraising prowess matches that of the former president, Trump has targeted the Florida governor in recent months. And Trump has increased the volume of his attacks on DeSantis in recent weeks, launching a new nickname for the governor: “Ron DeSanctimonius.”

DeSantis refused to take the bait, choosing not to engage in taunting Trump. And he didn’t mention the former president during his address Saturday night.

Trump received a very warm welcome as he addressed the same crowd from a distance earlier in the day, in a speech that was added to the schedule at the last minute.

People listen to former President Donald Trump speak from a distance during an annual meeting of leaders of the Republican Jewish Coalition Saturday, Nov. 19, 2022, in Las Vegas.
(AP)

But DeSantis appeared to be the star of the three-day conference, garnering the most applause from the speakers.

“When you show people you’re ready to fight for them, they’ll walk barefoot over broken glass to come vote for you and that’s exactly what they did to me,” the governor said.

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Before DeSantis, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, who served as an ambassador to the United Nations during the Trump administration, spoke.

Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley speaks during an annual meeting of leaders of the Republican Jewish Coalition Saturday, November 19, 2022 in Las Vegas.
(AP)

Haley repeatedly teased a possible 2024 Republican presidential race, telling the crowd that “between us, I’m just getting started.”

“A lot of people asked me if I was going to run for president,” Haley said to cheers. “Now that the midterm reviews are over, I’ll give it some serious thought.”

She repeated that “I’ve never lost an election and I’m not going to start now” and that “when people underestimate me, it’s always fun”.

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Haley also touted her record of supporting Israel, saying, “I was proud to stand up to the bullies and enemies of Israel at the UN. It was the right thing to do.”

And she received a standing ovation when she repeated her phrase that if President Biden “manages to get back into the Iran deal, I’ll make you a promise. I’ve said it before: the next president will shred him on first day in office.”