DeSantis holds town hall in Osceola

Florida Governor and Republican presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis held a town hall meeting at Revelton Distillery in Osceola Thursday evening as a stop with the Never Back Down movement to elect DeSantis as president in 2024; he had visited Chariton and the Wayne County Fair earlier in the day.

Owners of Revelton Distillery Rob and Christy Taylor gave a welcome to the crowded room, followed by an invocation by Pastor Sheldon Lorensen and the Pledge of Allegiance led by Jim Hume, Clarke County Chair for Never Back Down.

Iowa District 12 Senator Amy Sinclair spoke in support of DeSantis, sharing that several of her reasons for that support were his ability to accomplish in Florida are in line what a lot of what she and others are working on in Iowa - rights of parents, lower taxes, lower regulation, better education and a better economy. Sinclair had endorsed DeSantis in May.

“We’ve got a choice before us - we’re going to select the next President of the United States of America and it starts right here in Iowa and it starts with our caucus process,” said Sinclair, who welcomed the governor to the stage.

“It’s wonderful to be here. I am ready to send Joe Biden back to his basement in Delaware,” said DeSantis.

DeSantis began by speaking about the decline of the country under the current government, specifically in regards to the economy, the culture and the military.

Economy

He said that a lot of the decline began during the COVID19 pandemic, with many parts of the country being shut down and Congress’ borrowing money at a high rate that drove inflation up, which in turn hurt the working class citizens.

“That is a government induced problem that we have to work ourselves out of,” said DeSantis.

DeSantis talked about China having a great majority of industry and a growth in military, which is bad for the United States from an industrial and military standpoint. To help ease the United States’ reliance on China, DeSantis said there needs to be more production and manufacturing here, which will in turn grow the economy for the future.

Education and border control

Culturally, DeSantis spoke on the topics of education and border control.

“We told kids for a generation that you have to go to college and get a degree. The reality is, we have kids that will go to school, go $100,000 in debt…would it have been better for a lot of those students to go into workforce education and vocational education? The answer is yes,” DeSantis said.

DeSantis does not support taxpayers bearing the burden of paying off student loans for others, but suggested that universities should be held accountable for taking the loan money and offering degrees that aren’t sustainable for a living wage.

“If they’re on the hook for this…they’re going to be offering courses that go to gainful employment,” said DeSantis.

With the southern border, DeSantis’ Day One priority is to declare a national emergency and mobilize all available resources including the military to the border. He will build the wall at the border, and hold the Mexican drug cartels accountable for the human trafficking, sex trafficking, and fentanyl that is coming across the border.

Military, families and government agencies

A Navy veteran, another of DeSantis’ priorities for his first day in office will be to take the politics out of the military, and get it back to being about the “mission first.”

For DeSantis, families are the building blocks of the country, and allowing parents to have the rights to do what they feel is best for their children is something he has strove for in Florida and will do as president, particularly when it comes to education.

“Schools are important, school systems…they do not supersede the rights of parents. It’s the parents that have the fundamental obligation,” DeSantis said.

For the government as a whole, DeSantis spoke of holding various agencies accountable, including how different health organizations handled COVID policies, “clean house” with a new director of the FBI and a new Attorney General, and get back to utilizing the three branches of government as laid out in the constitution.

“End of the day, this bureaucracy for far too long has been imposing its will on us. When I become President, we will impose our will on it for a change and this country will be freer as a result of us doing that,” DeSantis said.

Audience comments and closing statement

DeSantis spent a few minutes taking questions from the audience, answering questions such as those about income issues for those on disability, artificial intelligence, renewable fuels, social security, bipartisan leading and ended with a question about why one should vote for him. He replied with three points:

“One, I think my background being blue collar…he’s not running to be somebody, he’s running to do something for the country…second, you’re not going to find anybody running…who has a better record of accomplishment in office than I have in Florida…[third] we’re not just running to run. We’re running to be able to deliver results to people…I’m a leader. That’s what you’ll get from me, somebody that will deliver results.…if I tell you I’m going to do something you can take it to the bank, I’m going to do it.”