DeSantis in West Palm: He notes that once-true blue Palm Beach County helped re-elect him

After releasing his book outlining his proposed plan on "America's revival" by drawing a comparison to his own political achievements, Gov. Ron DeSantis hosted a "fireside chat" in West Palm Beach on Wednesday evening in the early onset of his national book tour.

"We were able, for the first time in almost 40 years, to have a Republican governor win Palm Beach County," DeSantis said in his early remarks to the crowd of more than 500 people at the Palm Beach County Convention Center.

Many believe DeSantis will join the race for president in 2024, likely after Florida's Legislative session, which begins next week. That would put him in a head-to-head battle with his former mentor, and now tormentor, former President Donald Trump, whose Mar-a-Lago estate is only four miles from the site of DeSantis' speech.

DeSantis has been a frequent visitor recently to traditionally Democratic-leaning Palm Beach County, which he mentioned frequently in his book, "The Courage to be Free," which was released Tuesday. These Palm Beach County shoutouts in the book included him touting his removal of former elections supervisor Susan Bucher after accusing her of inaccurately reporting elections data. Another mention in his book was to former Palm Beach County Mayor Dave Kerner, who was recently appointed by DeSantis to lead the state's Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, to bring vaccines to places like Publix to reach out to senior communities.

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At Wednesday's event, DeSantis lauded the recent swing of a Republican majority on the Palm Beach County Commission — the first since 2006 it is GOP-controlled — without naming the commissioner who he appointed to fulfill this majority, Michael Barnett.

Barnett, who was at the event, is a known ally of Trump and is the chairman of the Palm Beach County Republican Party. He replaced Kerner, a Democrat, on the board.

Barnett said Wednesday that Palm Beach County is a very important visit for DeSantis since Republican voters turned out in large numbers in his favor during last year's gubernatorial race, including independents.

"Palm Beach County is catching up like Dade County, hopefully maybe Broward County in a couple of cycles, if not the next cycle," Barnett said. "Palm Beach County is not just important for the votes we turn out, but for the dollars candidates raise here."

DeSantis' "fireside chat," a nod to former President Franklin D. Roosevelt's radio talks about issues of public concern in the 1930s and '40s, is one of a few visits from the governor to Palm Beach County recently. At Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach on Feb. 15 he announced a legislative proposal for a "digital bill of rights" that targets TikTok and proposed barring access from the platform in networks serving local governments, schools and universities.

The governor also held a three-day retreat at the Four Seasons Resort Palm Beach last weekend, just a few miles from Mar-a-Lago, with large donors and supporters that comes ahead of a likely presidential campaign announcement. This weekend, the governor will be heading to the Breakers hotel in Palm Beach for the annual retreat for the Club for Growth, a conservative economic organization. He'll be joined by former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley and former Vice President Mike Pence, who also is rumored to join the presidential race.

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The national book tour launched Tuesday in Venice, and The New York Times reported Tuesday that DeSantis also has plans to go to early primary state Iowa this month and additional stops in Nevada and New Hampshire.

The book, which reads like a memoir, outlines the governor's road up to and including his time as governor, for which he was re-elected to a second term in November. Starting with early tales of his baseball days in Dunedin through his military career, all the way up to his political career as a U.S. representative and as governor.

While DeSantis did not mention his presidential ambitions during his speech Wednesday or in his book, the release of his book reflects similarly to other presidential candidates, like Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, who released books prior to jumpstarting campaigns.

"It is teasing a presidential run," said Nicolas Giacalone, a former administrative liaison for U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio's campaign and a candidate for Florida's House District 90 in 2024. "He came from humble beginnings, and I think that's very relatable to many Floridians, let alone Americans."

DeSantis marks Florida as a "blueprint for America's revival" in book

DeSantis' book often mentioned the campaign slogan used during his midterm reelection campaign: "Make America Florida."

During his speech Wednesday, DeSantis touted his efforts to protect parental rights, combat "woke" corporations like Disney and keep the state open throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Following his speech, his wife and First Lady Casey DeSantis posed questions to her husband about references in his book, such as how they first met and his campaign for U.S. representative in 2012.

"There's a lot of hope in the book," the governor said. "I've always enjoyed being a Floridian, but I think that we have some mojo here in Florida as being the free state of Florida, being willing to buck these elites and being proud that we're doing it our own way, and that is a way that I think could succeed in all 50 states."

Danny Zapata, Hispanic activist and former Republican candidate for House District 89, said that DeSantis' most compelling message during his reelection campaign was that he focused on "doing the right thing" instead of getting reelected, and that "people will have your back" if you focus on what's right.

"Sticking to the right thing, you'll always have a better outcome," Zapata said.

DeSantis, "a good relationship" with Trump, with careful mentions

In his book, DeSantis made references to the Trump administration and the former president's endorsement of him when he initially ran for governor, but they were somewhat downplayed, not too praising or critical. The neutral mentions of Trump in the book fall in line with how, publicly, DeSantis has carefully avoided engaging with Trump, who has made direct attacks against the governor. The fact that DeSantis is getting an increasing amount of national press and that Trump's attacks are becoming more frequent, likely are not coincidental.

Trump brought these callouts of the governor to a meeting of conservative activists and leaders in West Palm Beach on President's Day.

"Ron did good in Florida, but I did great," Trump said, in reference to DeSantis' 2022 landslide re-election victory and the former president's own turnout in winning Florida's 29 electoral votes in the 2020 election.

During that speech, Trump, who likes to refer to the governor as "Ron DeSanctimonious," also accused DeSantis of not instituting proper election integrity measures in Florida.

In his book, DeSantis mentioned times dealing with Trump in which the former president seemed to pressure the governor into supporting him publicly.

He wrote that frequent conversations with Trump often began with talk about legislative proposals and ended with Trump asking DeSantis to praise him in public.

"Ron, you better make sure I win Florida," Trump said to DeSantis, as accounted in the book, after DeSantis requested Trump's help in getting the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to help handle toxic algae blooms in Lake Okeechobee.

And after asking Trump for 100% federal government reimbursement for 45 days of hurricane aid for the Panhandle following Hurricane Michael in 2018, Trump told the governor, as accounted in the book, "Make sure you let everyone know that the president has their back!”

But the governor mentioned as well in the book that he had developed "a good relationship" with Trump after supporting him through investigations of potential Russian interference in the 2016 elections. DeSantis also acknowledged the help and "exposure" that Trump's endorsement brought to his 2018 gubernatorial campaign.

"I do not think Republican primary voters are sheep who simply follow an endorsement from a politician they like without any individual analysis, but I do believe that a major endorsement can put a candidate on the radar of GOP voters in a way that boosts a good candidate’s prospects," DeSantis wrote.

Stephany Matat is a politics reporter for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY-Florida network. Reach her at smatat@pbpost.com. Support local journalism: Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Ron DeSantis touts book during "fireside chat" in West Palm Beach.