Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis told Fox News during a town hall event Wednesday night that people who are moving to Florida are “overwhelmingly” registering as Republicans, including former Democrats who fled blue states.
“The media at the beginning of this said Florida’s bad and I think it’s because they want to damage Trump in Florida, they want to damage me. So, they just kept saying it was bad,” DeSantis said. “And even though the facts didn’t say it, like literally last April, they’re saying Florida is doing worse than New York. New York was like 10 times worse.”
“And so, I think what it did is the people that buy those phony narratives for these media, they probably aren’t coming to Florida. But most people see through it. But the people that see through it, they think like us. And so, I think a lot of these people are coming. I think they are registering as Republicans overwhelming,” he continued. “And I also have come across a lot of people who, quite frankly, were Democrats. The lockdowns turned them into Republicans.”
Florida’s @GovRonDeSantis: “If you have a political party that puts the interests of teachers unions over the interests of kids just being able to access an education at all, that tells you all you need to know about the modern Democratic Party.” pic.twitter.com/hcSO1DJI86
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) May 27, 2021
TRANSCRIPT PROVIDED VIA FOX NEWS:
SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: That’s actually a good point. I remember being out there one summer and I walked outside of a radio station with J.D. Hayworth and I’m like, I can’t breathe. It was — it was really rough.
All right. So, all of you have this problem. And the problem is people from New York, and New Jersey, and California, and Michigan, they’re leaving their states and they’re going to your states.
You’re — Florida seeing a huge impact of migration out of the — out of these blue states. Now, my only fear for all of you — and I’ll let you start first, Governor DeSantis — is that they may bring their liberal policies with them.
RON DESANTIS, FLORIDA GOVERNOR: So, it’s interesting with Florida. Like the media at the beginning of this said Florida’s bad. And I think it’s because they want to damage Trump in Florida. They want to damage me. So, they just kept saying it was bad.
And even though the facts didn’t say it, like literally last April, they’re saying Florida is doing worse than New York. New York was like 10 times worse.
And so, I think what it did is the people that buy those phony narratives for these media, they probably aren’t coming to Florida. But most people see through it. But the people that see through it, they think like us. And so, I think a lot of these people are coming. I think they are registering as Republicans overwhelming.
And I also have come across a lot of people who, quite frankly, were Democrats. The lockdowns turned them into Republicans, because they say, I cannot fathom. I was — people say, I was a Democrat because of education and I’m in California and they’re locking my kids out of school.
I come to Florida, they’re in school. People are free. People are happy.
So, I think this whole process has caused some people to reevaluate some of their prior commitments. And if you have a political party that puts the interest of teachers unions over the interest of kids being able to just access an education at all, that tells you all you need to know about the modern Democrat Party.