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DeSantis Releases Campaign Launch Video; Twitter Launch Crashes App As Servers ‘Strained’

   DailyWire.com
TAMPA, FL - NOVEMBER 08: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis gives a victory speech after defeating Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rep. Charlie Crist during his election night watch party at the Tampa Convention Center on November 8, 2022 in Tampa, Florida. DeSantis was the projected winner by a double-digit lead.
Octavio Jones/Getty Images

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced Wednesday evening on Twitter that he is running for President of the United States.

DeSantis filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission earlier in the afternoon and released his official launch video at 6 p.m. EST on the platform, which glitched initially as hundreds of thousands of users attempted to tune in.

“Our border is a disaster. Crime infests our cities. The federal government makes it harder for families to make ends meet. And the president flounders,” DeSantis said in the video. “But decline is a choice. Success is attainable. And freedom is worth fighting for.”

“Righting the ship requires restoring sanity to our society, normalcy to our communities, and integrity to our institutions. Truth must be our foundation — and common sense can no longer be an uncommon virtue. In Florida, we proved that it can be done,” he continued. “We chose facts over fear, education over indoctrination, law and order over rioting and disorder. We held the line when freedom hung in the balance.”

“We showed that we can — and must — revitalize America. We need the courage to lead and the strength to win,” he concluded. “I’m Ron DeSantis, and I’m running for president to lead our Great American Comeback.”

WATCH:

DeSantis also joined a special event on Twitter with the platform’s owner, Elon Musk, which Musk said received so much interest that it crashed the event due to the servers being overloaded.

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“The servers are straining somewhat,” Musk said at one point as 700,000+ people logged into the event.

DeSantis’ campaign is expected to be largely centered around his achievements as governor for the state of Florida, dubbed the “Florida Blueprint,” and on how he can transfer that experience to the national level as President of the United States. While recent polls have shown former President Donald Trump holding sizable leads over the rest of the field, the DeSantis team hopes to close the gap as his campaign fully kicks into gear.

The governor really began to rise in prominence in the Republican Party as result of his handling of the COVID pandemic, which included bucking the Trump administration’s lead public health voice in its pandemic policy, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and rejecting draconian “lockdown” measures. As a result, the state led the country in net-in migration over the last couple of years.

DeSantis has largely worked in concert with the state’s legislature in implementing a conservative agenda. Some of the key legislative initiatives his office has highlighted include several children- and school-related laws, including banning permanent transgender surgical procedures on children, barring gender identity politics in schools, and prohibiting sexually explicit adult performances in front of children. DeSantis has also signed laws prohibiting institutions from spending federal or state dollars on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, and he has supported expanding school choice options in the state.

Another focus of DeSantis’ administration has been working against the environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) movement, which the administration calls “a worldwide effort to inject woke political ideology across the financial sector, placing politics above the fiduciary duty to make the best financial decisions for beneficiaries.” One particular corporation that has played prominently in his administration is Disney, which the governor stripped of its special status in the state.

DeSantis has also recently signed a heartbeat bill into law that bans abortion the moment that a heartbeat can be detected — a move that former President Trump called “too harsh,” saying he is a “believer in exceptions.”

Of the 113 Republicans in the Florida legislature, 99 of them endorsed DeSantis for president last week while one, state sen. Joe Gruters, endorsed the former president. While Gruters is backing Trump, he’s also noted that Florida’s move toward conservatism in the last few years has been pronounced. “We’ve had conservative leadership in Florida for the past 23 years, but we’ve passed more conservative bills in the past two years than the previous 20, and more this year than the past 22,” he said. “It’s a rocket ship, a steam engine.”

James Uthmeier, a former official in the Trump administration who now serves as DeSantis’ chief-of-staff, said he’s never seen someone get as hands-on as DeSantis when it comes to crafting legislation and getting it passed. “He sits and talks through the nitty-gritty of policy and the budget,” Uthmeier said. “He’s ingrained in the process in a way I haven’t seen working in the Trump Administration or with other public officials.”

This article has been updated to include more information and revised for clarity and emphasis.

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