Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is continuing his tour of Iowa after earning an endorsement for president from the state’s Republican governor, Kim Reynolds.
"We have to bring this country a new birth of freedom, and we need to win in order to do that," DeSantis said at an event in Davenport on Tuesday morning.
"Iowa shows that it can be done. Florida shows that it can be done. If you look, Republicans haven't done very well recently in recent elections. We don't have as many success stories as we should have. But these are two states to show that it actually can be done. And how do you do it? Well, I think you got to do a few things. One, you got to fight for people. Two, you got to win for people. And three, you gotta be willing to lead especially when things are not easy."
DeSantis’ trip to Davenport comes one day after Reynolds endorsed the Florida governor over former President Trump for the 2024 presidential election. His visit to Iowa comes as local elections are being held in the state, as well as across the country, one year before the 2024 presidential election.
"We have to do everything we can to make the right choice," she continued. "Not only do we need to make sure that we elect someone who can win and beat Joe Biden, we need a president who has a skill and a resolve to reverse the madness that we see every single day," Reynolds told a crowd in Des Moines on Monday evening.
"We need someone who will fight for you and win for you. We need someone who won’t get distracted but will stay disciplined who puts this country first and not himself. That leader is… Ron DeSantis," she continued.
Trump hit back at news of the endorsement earlier this week, arguing it would end Reynold’s political career.
"If and when Kim Reynolds of Iowa endorses Ron DeSanctimonious, who is absolutely dying in the polls both in Iowa and Nationwide, it will be the end of her political career in that MAGA would never support her again, just as MAGA will never support DeSanctimonious again," Trump said. "Two extremely disloyal people getting together is, however, a very beautiful thing to watch."
DeSantis continued at the Tuesday Davenport event that if elected president, he would continue fighting for conservative values as he has done as governor.
"Everything I said I would do, we've delivered on. We enacted a parent's bill of rights. We protected women's sports in Florida. We banned the gender surgeries for the minor kids in Florida. We enacted universal school choice. We eliminated the theology, the CRT and the gender ideology in schools. We made sure to expand Second Amendment rights with constitutional carry. We did the Heartbeat Protection Act," DeSantis said.
DeSantis added that under a potential presidential administration, he will make America "more prosperous, and we will have left her to the next generation better than we found her."
