Florida Governor Ron DeSantis delivered a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California on Sunday.
DeSantis' speech highlighted his new book, The Courage to be Free: Florida's Blueprint for America's Revival, as the Florida Governor criticized California Governor Gavin Newsom and other blue states while providing a vision for the country moving forward.
"I knew you guys got a lot of problems out here," DeSantis said of California. “But your governor is very concerned about what we’re doing in Florida, so I figured I had to come by."
"I think if you look over the last four or five years, and you look at the performances of individual states, and you compare Florida versus California, New York, Illinois, some of those other states, we have had a great experiment, a great test in governing philosophies," the Florida Governor said. "Because, of course, you know, we approach things much differently in Florida than you guys have out here, much differently in Florida than they’ve done in New York and in Illinois."
DeSantis noted California residents immigrating to other states across the country citing "leftist ideology."
“If you look over the last four years, we’ve witnessed a great American exodus from states governed by leftist politicians imposing leftist ideology and delivering poor results, and you’ve seen massive gains in states like Florida, who are governing according to the tried and true principles that President Reagan held dear," he said. "From the beginning of this state’s history, all the way until the last four or five years, people beat a path to California. You didn’t beat a path away from California. And yet now, you see the state hemorrhaging population."
He continued:I can tell you, we had families move from the Pacific coast just for the fact that we had schools open in Florida, when you didn’t have them open in many other states. We did things like ban vaccine passports in the state of Florida. States said, “You want to go stay in a hotel, go to a restaurant, you got to cough up your vax papers on these mRNA shots.” And we said that’s none of their business. Everyone has a right to participate in society. That’s a personal choice that you make whether to take that or not, and we’re not going to let you be excluded.
"Now, what ended up happening because we did that, one of the things that ended up happening was in 2021, Florida set a record for domestic tourism," DeSantis said. "If you compare the change in tourism in California from 2019 to 2021, California tourism declined by 22%."
The Florida Governor further reiterated his criticism of leftist ideology.
"It goes back to this woke mind virus that’s infected the left and all these other institutions. I mean, think about the way they have governed their states."
High-profile attendees of DeSantis' speech included former California Governor Pete Wilson and actor Gary Sinise, according to the Sacramento Bee with Fox News Digital citing over 1,300 in attendance.
