SMYRNA — “Where woke goes to die.”
That was a phrase Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis used to describe the Sunshine State in a rally at Adventure Outdoors in Smyrna Thursday afternoon.
DeSantis’ phrase accounted for perhaps the loudest ovation of the afternoon, as the 2024 presidential hopeful made a stop in Cobb County to promote his book, “The Courage to Be Free: Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Revival.”
Store Manager Eric Wallace estimated attendance was pushing 1,000 people at the rally.
The governor spent more than an hour blasting COVID lockdowns, decrying the “woke mob” and describing Florida as a bastion of effective, bold governance compared with Democratic-led states like New York and California.
The rally, dubbed “The Florida Blueprint,” was in large part DeSantis’ pitch that the state he governs is on the rise, while states run by Democrats are sliding backward.
“You’ve seen a massive exodus from states governed by leftist politicians to states governed by conservative principles,” he said.
‘Energy in the executive’
One of the reasons that’s the case, DeSantis said, is because of his commitment to governing as a strong executive not beholden to opinion polling. DeSantis leaned on a quote from Alexander Hamilton to illuminate the point: “Energy in the executive is the leading characteristic of good governance.”
The governor said his bold approach to governance is one of the reasons why the Sunshine State is enjoying an influx of people as those “states governed by leftist politicians” are losing out.
He also credited that boldness to the reward of a major shift in his margin of victory from 2018, when he beat former Tallahassee mayor Andrew Gillum by just over 32,000 votes, to 2022, when he took home 1.5 million more votes than Democratic challenger Charlie Crist.
“What it tells us is bold leadership is rewarded. People want to…
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