'Don't back down': Trump ally DeSantis delivers campaign-style speech
PITTSBURGH — Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, in a campaign-style speech Thursday in Pittsburgh, boasted of his record and said his "fight" has only just begun.
DeSantis spoke at the Allegheny County GOP's annual Lincoln Day Dinner in the key battleground state. He offered the crowd plenty of red-meat rhetoric, taking aim at pandemic-related shutdowns, critical race theory and the mainstream press.
A close ally of former President Donald Trump, DeSantis is seen by some as a potential 2024 GOP presidential candidate, having bolstered his profile during the pandemic. The Conservative Political Action Conference straw poll in Florida earlier this year found DeSantis in second place behind Trump. This week, a Politico/Morning Consult poll of the 2024 GOP primary race found Desantis, who is up for re-election next year, in third behind Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence.
The governor launched his speech with a call to "open your states, open your schools [and] take off these mask mandates." In Pennsylvania, Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf has set the mask mandate to be lifted when 70 percent of adults are vaccinated, with all other mitigation measures to be lifted on Memorial Day.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/don-t-back-down-trump-ally-desantis-delivers-campaign-style-speech/ar-AAKdIZB
Guess he's earned the nickname Ron Death Sentence. Florida has the third highest count of COVID-19 cases. Only one third of the state has been fully vaccinated. Not the time to open things up.