Wokeness isn’t welcome in Florida, and the Sunshine State is a place where it “goes to die,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, who was reelected in a landslide, said in a Tuesday night victory speech.
DeSantis defeated Democratic U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist, a former Republican and former governor, by nearly 20 percentage points with 59.4% of the vote, compared with Crist’s 39.9%, NPR reported. The Cook Political Report had rated the race “likely Republican.”
“We reject woke ideology. We fight the woke in the legislature. We fight the woke in the schools. We fight the woke in the corporations,” he said.
“We will never, ever surrender to the woke mob. Florida is where woke goes to die,” DeSantis said, adding:
People have come here because our policies work. Leadership matters.
We refuse to use polls and put our finger in the wind. Leaders don’t follow—they lead.
DeSantis, 44, also said that his state has “maintained law and order” in addition to “[protecting] the rights of parents” and “[respecting] our taxpayers.”
Earlier this month, the Florida Board of Medicine and the Florida Board of Osteopathic Medicine banned “puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and transgender surgeries for minors,” The Daily Signal previously reported.
In April, DeSantis also signed a bill prohibiting critical race theory from being taught in Florida schools, WPTV.com reported.
“In Florida, we will not let the far-left woke agenda take over our schools and workplaces. There is no place for indoctrination or discrimination in Florida,” he said at the time.
DeSantis signed the Parental Rights in Education law in March, which was infamously branded by Democratic opponents as “anti-gay.”
“We will not back down to woke corporations and their same tired tactics that are steeped in hypocrisy,” Florida Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nunez, a Republican, said at the time. “As a mother of three, I am committed to protecting the rights of parents.”
DeSantis also signed a bill revoking Disney World’s special status as an independent special district in what many conservatives saw as a key win against “woke capitalism” after it attacked the Parental Rights in Education law.
This is a breaking story and may be updated.
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