In pitch to Tennessee GOP, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis vows to fight 'woke ideology'

Gov. Ron DeSantis touted his record fighting "woke ideology" in Florida and took swings at his GOP primary rival, former President Donald Trump, as he sought to win over a room of Tennessee Republicans on Saturday night.

“We’ve made the state of Florida the place where woke goes to die,” the Republican presidential candidate said. “And now, it is our mission as Americans to ensure that in January 2025 ... we leave woke ideology in the dustbin of history where it belongs.”

About 1,800 people from all of Tennessee's 95 counties gathered for the $300 per plate annual Statesmen’s Dinner fundraiser at the Music City Center in Nashville.

Not among them were the state’s three statewide Republican elected officials, Gov. Bill Lee, and U.S. Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty.

Lee was unable to attend due to “a previously scheduled commitment,” and sent a video message welcoming DeSantis. “Tennessee and Florida have been standing shoulder to shoulder pushing back against the federal government,” Lee said.

Blackburn and Hagerty are both on Trump’s state leadership team. They recorded a video message for the event.

DeSantis takes aim at Trump 

In front of tables full of Trump leadership team in Tennessee – DeSantis took not-so-veiled swings at his rival, at one point arguing that he successfully “drained the swamp” in Florida, firing “the sheriff in Broward County who bungled the Parkland massacre,” and removed a district attorney who said he would not enforce state laws he disagreed with. But he said that there’s still work to do in Washington, even after four years of Trump. He pledged to replace FBI Director Christopher Wray, and fire U.S. Army Gen. Mark Milley as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“You can’t coddle bureaucrats like Dr. (Anthony) Fauci,” DeSantis said. “There’s one way to deal with people Dr. Fauci, you say ‘Anthony — you’re fired.’”

DeSantis also tacitly accused the former president of not doing enough to protect individual freedoms during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“That is the key to Florida’s success. When the country lost its mind during COVID," he said, angling at the president's leadership during that time, "Florida stood as a citadel of freedom and a refuge of sanity – not only for our citizens but for people throughout this country."

“We fought the media, we fought the left, we fought unelected bureaucrats like Fauci," he said.

DeSantis makes his pitch

DeSantis made a nationally focused presidential pitch to the crowd, but made few appeals specifically to Tennesseans to earn their vote. His campaign has an uphill climb in Tennessee: a recent poll by the Beacon Center of Tennessee found that only 13% of Tennessee Republicans support DeSantis, compared to Trump’s 58%.

Tennessee's Republican primary election is on March 5 in what is known as Super Tuesday.

He started with swings at President Joe Biden, quipping that while he’d visited two states on the campaign trail Saturday, Biden had also been in two states “confusion and disorientation.” DeSantis called the president “a custodian of decline,” and said that he would reverse the country’s decline.

DeSantis outlined an agenda focused on fighting “woke ideology” in American institutions – from schools to the military – cutting back the federal bureaucracy, and restoring U.S. sovereignty against what he called an “invasion” facilitated by Mexican drug cartels.

He pledged to “rip out Biden’s electric vehicle mandates on day one,” ban land purchases by the Chinese Communist Party, block institution of a central bank digital currency, and secure the southern border.

He touted his record as governor banning critical race theory and “gender ideology”  in schools, and his policies on curriculum transparency and parent’s rights.

“It is wrong to tell a second grader that she might have been born in the wrong body, or that her gender is a choice,” he said.

He also cited his record fighting Disney, calling the giant a “woke corporation” that in Florida politics “has gotten every single thing they wanted, until me.”

His wife, Casey DeSantis, made a brief appearance on stage to wave at the crowd. The pair then departed to head back to Iowa.

A slight to Trump? 

Some Republicans have seen DeSantis’ appearance at the event as a tacit endorsement by the party, but GOP Chair Scott Golden said that is not the case – the party also reached out to the Trump team about the event, and the headliner pick came down to scheduling.

Nearly all Republicans in Tennessee’s Congressional delegation are on the former president’s state campaign leadership team. A small stack of “Trump 2024” stickers were near the door as guests arrived, though not many wore them.

U.S. Rep. Diana Harshbarger, R-Kingsport, told the crowd that America needs “a proven warrior who is going to lead.”

“We need somebody who’s going to put America First,” Harshbarger said. “I know somebody who’s done it once and who will do it again – that’s President Donald Trump.”

Golden has called the event “a key stop in the presidential primary process,” but this is the first time in recent years it has hosted an actively campaigning presidential contender. DeSantis’ appearance marked the first time since 2007 that an actively-campaigning GOP primary candidate (Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney then) has appeared at the event.

Saturday’s event was the second most-attended Statesmen’s Dinner in the party’s records, netting nearly $1 million in donations, Golden said.

Reach reporter Vivian Jones at vjones@tennessean.com.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis headlines Tennessee Republican Party fundraiser