DeSantis a Midwesterner? Governor, allies tout ‘Rust Belt’ ties before possible 2024 run

Keith Rothfus had one mission when he introduced Ron DeSantis at an event earlier this month: Convince the audience that a governor from Florida — one born and raised in the Sunshine State — was really a Midwesterner at heart.

Rothfus, speaking at a conservative conference in Pennsylvania, noted the governor’s dad grew up in an old “Rust Belt” steeltown, mentioned his mom was from nearby southeast Ohio, and even bragged that the former college baseball player had once visited the state to play in the Little League World Series.

“This isn’t just a man from Florida,” said Rothfus, a former Pennsylvania congressman. “This is a man who’s from the heart of America.”

It was a point DeSantis’ supporters have been making a lot lately.

As he prepares for a potential presidential campaign, the governor and allies have emphasized how DeSantis’ family roots extend beyond Florida and into Midwestern states like Pennsylvania and Ohio, a connection they argue both shapes his values and gives him a special understanding of the region.

The burgeoning strategy also includes repeated references to Casey DeSantis, who grew up near Cincinnati, Ohio, and has played out across books, social media posts, TV ads, and speeches delivered across the country.

“I can stand here representing Ohio values because [of] the two most important women in my life: my mother was from Youngstowon, and my wife is from Troy,” DeSantis said during a mid-April speech in Butler County, Ohio. “And so our family reflects your family.”

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STEELWORKER GRANDFATHER

Florida’s first family visited Casey Desantis’ elementary school while the governor was visiting Ohio, ostensibly as part of his nationwide book tour. On Instagram afterward, Casey DeSantis wrote that she hoped “the great midwestern values instilled upon me as a child will hopefully live on in my children.”

The attempt from DeSantis, who has not yet decided whether he will run for president, is part of a time-honored tradition from politicians seeking higher office, who traditionally highlight connections they or their families possess to towns and states beyond their home. President Joe Biden, for one, talked frequently about his early childhood in Scranton, Pa., where he lived before moving to Delaware.

DeSantis, of course, doesn’t hide his connection to Florida, either: His book literally touts the “Florida blueprint” on its cover, and the bulk of the speech he makes across the country highlights decisions he made as governor.

But the emphasis on his family roots also dovetails with a possible political objective for the governor, who is trying to win over the GOP’s blue-collar base of supporters in a potential matchup with former President Donald Trump.

It’s a group that has proven reluctant to back him so far, according to hypothetical polls of the 2024 GOP primary, with most supporting former President Donald Trump instead. (DeSantis performs better among Republican voters with a college degree, the same surveys find.)

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DeSantis allies might already be eyeing his personal biography as a way to close the gap: Never Back Down, a super PAC encouraging DeSantis to enter the presidential race, unveiled a TV ad this week highlighting in part how the governor’s grandfather was a steelworker in Pennsylvania.

In a statement, Erin Perrine, spokeswoman for the group, cited DeSantis’ working-class background as part of the story it wanted to start promoting to Republican voters.

“Ron DeSantis is the most popular leader in the country right now and many Americans don’t even know his personal story of a blue-collar upbringing, his life of hard work and service, and his work as a conservative fighter and winner yet,” she said.

Some DeSantis supporters say outright that his ties to the country’s blue-collar regions are a political asset.

In an interview this week, Rothfus cited DeSantis’ connection to the Midwest as evidence he could win states like Pennsylvania, Wiconsin and Michigan, all three of which swung against the former president in the 2020 election.

If Trump had won the trio of battlegrounds in 2020, he would have won reelection.

“DeSantis has the ability to connect with people in those states that Trump won in 2016 and, for whatever reason, where he was unable to repeat in 2020,” said Rothfus, who praised the governor as an “authentic, common-sense, regular” person.

“You couldn’t think of a guy who is more ingrained and forged out of what this country is all about,” he added.

PENNSYLVANIA ROOTS

In his book, DeSantis describes how his father was raised in Aliquippa, the site of an old steel mill near Pittsburgh. The Republican recalled visiting the small town in his youth, seeing the rusted out steel mills that had long since closed.

It made an impression on him.

“In my youth, this just seemed to be the way that it was, but as I grew older, I came to realize the role that politicians played in hollowing out what came to be known as the nation’s Rust Belt,” DeSantis wrote.

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DeSantis’ parents met at Youngstown State University, in southeast Ohio, near where his mother grew up. His maternal grandfather, he added, once worked in a foundry in Lowellville, Ohio, after returning home from fighting in Europe during World War II.

DeSantis himself was born in Jacksonville and moved to Orlando before settling in Dunedin, in Pinellas County. He’s also spent most of his adult life in Florida, after attending school at Yale University in Connecticut and joining the U.S. Navy.

But his family’s history, he wrote, was nonetheless rooted in states farther north — so much so the governor recounted seeing pictures of his younger self dressed in the uniform of the Pittsburgh Steelers, an NFL team with a devoted fanbase in the region.

“I was geographically raised in Tampa Bay, but culturally my upbringing reflected the working-class communities in western Pennsylvania and northeast Ohio — from weekly church attendance to the expectation that one would earn his keep,” DeSantis wrote. “This made me God-fearing, hard-working, and America-loving.”

The Midwest isn’t the only region where the DeSantis family highlights its connections: On a trip to South Carolina in April, Casey DeSantis mentioned how she attended the College of Charleston and how her parents lived nearby. South Carolina hosts one of the early nominating contests in the Republican presidential primary and has long been pivotal to deciding the party’s ultimate nominee.

Back in Pennsylvania earlier this month, the governor recalled his visit to the state during the Little League World Series. It was one of many trips he took to the Keystone State in his youth.

“Keith mentioned my family’s Pennsylvania roots,” DeSantis said, “and we’re proud of that.”