JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Governor DeSantis made a stop in Jacksonville Thursday afternoon as a part of his “Florida Blueprint” tour while promoting his new book.
DeSantis spoke to a large crowd of supporters at the Fraternal Order of Police building.
There is a lot of speculation about his presidential ambitions, but the stated purpose of his visit was to promote his new book "The Courage to Be Free".
DeSantis touted a bill signed earlier this week, stripping Disney of what he called “self-governing status in the state of Florida.”
He told the crowd the company enjoyed too many privileges for too long.
“We just said ‘Enough is enough. Okay? We’re not going to have our state governed by some woke company based in Burbank, California. We’re going to do what’s right,’” DeSantis said.
University of North Florida Political Science Professor Dr. Michael Binder said Disney’s relationship with the governor soured when it openly criticized the Florida Parental Rights in Education Act, known by some as the 'Don’t Say Gay' law.
“None of this happened until they came out publicly and opposed his Parental Rights law – the Don’t Say Gay bill last legislative session,” Binder said, “so he was governor for a while before that and didn’t do anything about it.”
One supporter wearing a “DeSantis World” shirt in Disney font said he felt inspired by the governor’s speech.
Casey Jones said he’d been a Trump supporter, but now he thinks DeSantis is the man to lead the country in 2024.
“I like the way he put children first,” Jones said. “I like the way that he kept the state open, you know, when everybody else was still shut down. I like the way he got the kids to go back to school. It’s like he said earlier – he took a lot of heat on that.”
DeSantis said a measure of his success can be seen in how many people are moving to Florida from states like New York and Illinois.