Historical Figure
Ron DeSantis
b. 1978
Governor of Florida since 2019
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Biography
Ronald Dion DeSantis is an American politician, attorney, and former naval officer serving since 2019 as the 46th governor of Florida. A member of the Republican Party, he served from 2013 to 2018 as the U.S. representative from Florida's 6th congressional district. DeSantis was a candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, withdrawing his candidacy in January 2024.
In Their Own Words (5)
Too many in Washington display a ruling class mentality and congressional term limits would go a long way towards restoring the citizen-legislator ethos of the Founding Fathers, Americans of all political background overwhelmingly support term limits, yet term limits have floundered in Congress. An approach that phases in congressional term limits reconciles the self-interest of members of Congress with the public–s desire to see these changes enacted and gives us the best chance to make term limits a reality.
DeSantis Takes New Approach to Term Limits Press release (May 4, 2015) , 2015
Look, Hollywood is a cesspool. The idea that Wienstein is alone, or even that conspicuous, I don’t think is true, I think this is pervasive behavior in Hollywood, and I think it does implicate the media. I think they’ve been complicit in it, I think businesses have been complicit in it.
"Rep. Ron DeSantis: Hollywood Sexual Misconduct Must Be 'Thoroughly Investigated'" Breitbart (November 2, 2017) , 2017
I think all that has to be vetted in a way that errs on the side of protecting the American people. If there's a chance that someone may be inclined to be an enemy of the country, then I think you have to err on the side of caution.
Rep. Ron DeSantis on refugee debate: 'Err on side of protecting the American people' Fox News (November 26, 2015) , 2015
We looked at the data that we had from other parts of the world as we were getting into March, and we saw that this was a virus that had a disproportionate impact on elderly people and we're the second-oldest state in the country, so that was something that was obviously very concerning to us
"DeSantis: 'Flawed assumptions' led some states to send COVID-positive patients to nursing homes" Fox News (February 28, 2021) , 2021
We're going to have all of these deep state people, you know, we are going to start slitting throats on day one.
At a campaign event in Rye, New Hampshire (August 1, 2023), as cited in "DeSantis vows to 'start slitting throats on day one'", The Hill (August 3., 2023) , 2023
Timeline
The story of Ron DeSantis, told in moments.
Joined the U.S. Navy after graduating from Yale and Harvard Law School. Served as a legal advisor to SEAL Team One and was stationed at Guantanamo Bay in 2006. Deployed to Iraq in 2007.
Elected to Congress from Florida's 6th district. Became a founding member of the Freedom Caucus and an early ally of Donald Trump.
Won the Florida governor's race by 0.4 percent against Andrew Gillum. At 40, he was one of the youngest governors in the country.
Withdrew from the Republican presidential primary after poor showings in Iowa. He'd entered the race as Trump's main rival but couldn't overcome the frontrunner's grip on the party base.
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