Presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis visited Tulsa  Saturday, June 10, at an event sponsored by Never Back Down (a DeSantis SuperPAC).  The event, was the fourth stop of DeSantis’ Great American Comeback Tour and was held at the Creek Event Center. The building could not accomodate the crowd of people who showed up to see DeSantis.  Before the event started in the building, Bridenstine, Stitt and DeSantis spoke briefly from the bed of a pickup truck to the crowd outside.

First former U.S. Rep. Jim Bridenstine gave his endorsement and then Gov. Kevin Stitt gave DeSantis his first endorsement from a governor for the 2024 presidential race.

Bridenstine spoke of DeSantis as a friend and a colleague who he met in the House of Representatives.  They were elected to Congress the same year and had worked together there. They had both served in the Navy as well. He called DeSantis a leader and gave him his full endorsement.

Gov. Stitt spoke of DeSantis as a fellow governor, who had stood up to the Biden administration and Anthony Fauci during the Covid-19 pandemic, keeping schools open, refusing the mask mandate, and allowing people to work.  He said that DeSantis and he had the same moral values. Both have a similar transgender policy for the schools. Both have sent the National Guard to the Southern Border.  Both desire energy independence. Stitt spoke of the country needing a new president for eight years, not just four. He gave DeSantis a hearty endorsement and is the first governor to endorse DeSantis. Stitt had previously endorsed Donald Trump in the 2020 election, and had been endorsed by Trump in both of his gubernatorial elections.

Presidential hopeful DeSantis then spoke for about 30 minutes on a variety of subjects. He began with saying that America as a country is in decline, but it is not an inevitable decline, there is still time to reverse it: “to choose facts over fears, education over indoctrination, and freedom over fascism.”

He spoke on what being a leader meant.  That a leader was not just a popular person, he was someone who would stand up for what he believed and take the attacks that might come with it – from without or within his own party.  He related some of his experiences about standing up to the Biden administration on Covid-19, but he pursued what was right for Florida and his constituents.

He stated that Florida had come out of the pandemic  in much better shape than states’ that went with the Biden administration’s recommendations such as California and New York.  DeSantis claimed that Florida is now ranked number one as fastest growing state, best state for business, best in education and parental involvement.

DeSantis cited some of his achievements as governor through signed legislation or directly as governor.  Florida now has school choice much like the new Oklahoma bill, they have banned land purchases by the Chinese, no ESG (ESG is Environmental, social, and corporate governance which would mean only dealing with businesses that agree with leftist views on these issues), and no social credit scores (instead of financial ones).  He went on to name that Florida has no income tax, they passed tax relief measures, they eliminated sales tax on baby items and they have instituted constitutional carry.

He has appointed seven new conservative Florida Supreme Court Justices.  Florida has a low crime rate and enacted a new fentanyl law making murder a possible charge and they have passed a law making death penalty a possible sentence for pedophiles.  There was a left wing prosecutor who stated he would not enforce the law and DeSantis had him removed from office.

DeSantis, as president, would like to restore sanity and common sense to our country with strong action.

He would reverse the Biden administration’s economic policy, strive for energy independence, and institute  policies that would benefit small businesses and the working people.

He would say no to federal mandates (i.e. mask mandates, transgender mandates, etc.)

DeSantis would clean up the Southern Border and create a new border policy.

He would wage a war on woke ideology in government, which is used to make people poorer, indoctrinate instead of educating children and make us all less safe from crime.

The military would be restored, and used for protection of our country and not social experimentation.

His biggest battle would be to make sure that the country has only three branches of government instead of the four it now has.  He claims the fourth branch is the bureaucracy in Washington.  The bureaucracy issues the rules and they were not elected to do so. He wishes to hold them accountable.

One of the first ways to do that would be to replace the Director of the FBI.  He would strive to end the weaponization of federal power.

He concluded with that this will take time, focus, discipline and humility to achieve these ends. His final statement was that freedom is fragile and he fears if the Democrats win the next presidential election then much of our freedom will vanish.