Ahead of Trump rally, Rubio and DeSantis fire up Central Florida’s GOP faithful

POINCIANA — Republicans are making a full-court press ahead of Election Day with Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Marco Rubio slamming President Joe Biden during a rally Thursday near Kissimmee.

DeSantis and Rubio touted Florida as a freedom success story and took shots at Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and COVID-19 adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci at the Solivita retirement community.

On Sunday, former President Donald Trump will be in Miami with Rubio and a full roster of GOP speakers but DeSantis is notably absent from the list.

DeSantis ran through familiar campaign themes on Thursday, blasting pandemic lockdowns and corporate “wokeness.” The Republican governor and possible 2024 GOP presidential contender didn’t name his Democratic challenger Charlie Crist once but took aim at Biden.

He thanked the president for visiting Florida on Tuesday to stump for Crist and Democratic U.S. Rep. Val Demings, who is challenging Rubio.

“I viewed it as an in-kind contribution to my campaign to see Biden down here because what it does is it reminds every single person in the state of Florida that the Democrats are with him 100% of the time on his failed agenda,” DeSantis said.

The crowd booed Disney when DeSantis mentioned his battle with the entertainment giant over its opposition to what critics called the “don’t say gay” law. Some of the seniors in the crowd listened from golf carts adorned with DeSantis and “Let’s Go Brandon” signs.

DeSantis said Florida would have “descended into a Faucian dystopia” and “you would have had BLM (Black Lives Matter) riots all across roaming wild” if Democrat Andrew Gillum had beaten him in a close election in 2018.

“In the state of Florida, we are the place where woke goes to die,” DeSantis said.

Rubio called on the crowd to help deliver a statement on Tuesday.

“Let’s not just win,” Rubio said. “Let’s win big because when you win big you send a message. And the message is this. We love America. You will not destroy it. We want common sense back in our politics.”

Rubio is leading heading into Election Day with a 7.5 percentage point advantage, according to a RealClearPolitics average of polls. That’s a closer contest, though, than the governor’s race. DeSantis is up by 12 percentage points.

The audience left the event energized and confident about the GOP’s prospects, but they had different views on who would be best to run for president in 2024.

Collin MacDonald, 72, said he likes Trump’s ideas but doesn’t care for his “trash-talking.”

“Four more years of Trump is going to be four more years of bickering and nothing getting done,” MacDonald said. ”That’s what it is going to lead up to — another circus.”

MacDonald said he thinks DeSantis could be a good candidate, along with South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton and others.

George Jackow, 77, said he thinks DeSantis should serve the four full years of his second term as governor.

“Let him take care of the state of Florida and then maybe in the not-too-distant future he would be a great candidate,” said Jackow, a state committeeman for the Osceola County GOP.

Asked who he wants to run for president, Jackow didn’t hesitate.

“Trump!”

sswisher@orlandosentinel.com

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