Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signaled during a press conference this week that he will stay off the campaign trail for as long as it takes to get his state through Hurricane Idalia.
DeSantis arrived back in Tallahassee from Iowa on Saturday to manage the state’s crisis response as the massive storm prepares to hit the Big Bend area of Florida’s west coast.
During a press conference on Tuesday, a reporter asked the 44-year-old governor: “How long are you planning on staying in Florida and off the campaign trail?”
“Well, this is no different, you remember [Hurricane] Ian, we were in the midst of a governor campaign,” DeSantis responded. “I had all kinds of stuff scheduled, not just in Florida — around the country we were doing different things.”
“And you do what you need to do, so that’s what we’re doing; it’s going to be no different than what we did during Hurricane Ian,” he continued. “I’m hoping that this storm is not [as] catastrophic as Hurricane Ian was, but we’re going to do what we need to do because it’s just something that’s important.”
“But it’s no different than what we’ve done in past iterations of all this stuff,” he concluded.
During his 2022 re-election bid, DeSantis paused campaigning for approximately three weeks to manage the state’s response to Hurricane Ian.
DeSantis received praise at the time for his response to Hurricane Ian, including from President Joe Biden.
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“What the governor’s done is pretty remarkable,” Biden said. “I think he’s done a good job.”
DeSantis says that he is putting managing his state’s response to Hurricane Idalia about his presidential campaign and that “we’re going to do what we need to do because it’s just something that’s important.” pic.twitter.com/Qdw25a3yaz
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) August 29, 2023