DeSantis leans on anti-woke rhetoric during Moms for Liberty event at RNC

MILWAUKEE — The rhetoric on the first night of the Republican National Convention was focused on the economy, and the second night was designed to spotlight immigration. But in remarks to the group Moms for Liberty on Tuesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis focused on a tried-and-true issue of his gubernatorial tenure: anti-wokism.

“It used to be that you would send your kid to school and they would learn math and science and stuff, and maybe not everything was perfect, but you didn’t have to worry about your kid going into kindergarten and being told that they should change their gender,” DeSantis told an audience of several hundred people at an event sponsored by a group that provided crucial backing for his legislative agenda. “We put the kibosh on that in Florida.”

The “Giving Americans a Voice” town hall in Milwaukee, held hours before DeSantis’ scheduled address on the convention’s second night, also included Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders. It was moderated by Moms for Liberty co-Founder Tiffany Justice and Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts. (Democrats recently criticized Roberts for saying on Steve Bannon’s podcast that “we are in the process of the second American revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.”)

Speaking to a few hundred attendees, DeSantis took a victory lap over his fight with Disney, which began when the corporate giant opposed his socially conservative agenda.

“I’m just sick over the years that so many Republicans, anytime some big bad corporation opposes what they want to do, they cower in the corner like little scared kitties. And so we said no.”

He also touted his efforts to turn New College of Florida into an example of a conservative institution of higher education, a project that drew loud applause.

“The media will sometimes be like, oh, there’s a brain drain professors are leaving Florida,” DeSantis said. “Wait a minute. If Marxist professors are leaving Florida, that is not a bad thing.”

DeSantis offered one policy that has gained wider support: curbing students’ cell phones in classrooms. Jabbing a frequent target, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, DeSantis said, “Now, states like California are even having to do it.”

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