out Disney’s woke excesses, banning Critical Race Theory in schools and workplaces, or defending parents’ rights — the more popular he seems to become. After winning the gover- norship by a mere 0.4 percent of the vote in 2018, many on the left believed that his constant sparring with the media and fiery rhetoric would lead to his ouster in 2022. But Sunshine State voters instead responded by handing DeSantis a 20-point victory last November, one of the biggest wins for Republicans anywhere in the country. Even many who have never cast a vote for DeSantis have expressed their support for his policies in the clearest way possible: moving to his state. Florida ranked as the number one state for net migration in 2020 and 2021, and was in the top five for 2022. Many of those moving to Florida are fleeing liberal states; according to one report, nearly 10,000 people switched their residency from New York or California to Florida in August of 2022 alone.
The young DeSantis matched his athletic success with high marks in the classroom, eventually earning admission to Yale and a spot on the school’s baseball team. As a senior in 1991, the future governor was selected as a captain and led the squad with a .336 batting average. After graduating from Yale with a degree in history, DeSantis taught for a brief time before attending Harvard Law School. During his second year at Harvard in 2004, he was commis- sioned as an officer in the US Navy as part of the Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps (JAG) program. He would eventually deploy to Iraq with SEAL Team 1 in 2007, and later earn a Bronze Star for his service.
analysts at the time credited Trump’s strong support for boosting DeSantis over the top. In campaign ads, DeSan- tis himself leaned hard into his asso- ciation with Trump, becoming one of the early examples of Trump’s “king- making” abilities within the Republi- can Party.
The Anti-Woke Governor
Since winning the governor’s man- sion, however, DeSantis has developed a reputation uniquely his own as an effective executive — particularly when it comes to battling woke influences in government and society. In another blow against the hard left, DeSantis famously led an effort last year to revoke Disney’s special tax status over the company’s embrace of far-left ideologies and public criticism of the state’s paren- tal rights law. Part of DeSantis’s “Stop WOKE Act” prohibits businesses from teaching employees to feel “guilt, anguish, or any form of psychologi- cal stress” due to their race, gender, or sexuality. Perhaps DeSantis’s biggest moment as governor came during the pandemic, when he became one of the first state leaders to lift restric- tions, proving that states could reopen and still protect vulnerable populations. Once Biden took office, DeSantis became a loud opponent of the Biden administration’s mandates and draconian COVID-19 policies. DeSantis has also distinguished himself through his education poli- cies, becoming one of the leading proponents of parents’ rights and removing left-wing ideologies from schools while also boosting teacher
Rise to Political Stardom
DeSantis’s political career began in 2012 when he announced that he would run for Florida’s 6 th Congres- sional District, which stretches from Jacksonville to Daytona Beach. He easily won the primary and then the general election and was reelected by wide margins in 2014 and 2016. In Congress, DeSantis was a founding member of the Freedom Caucus and developed a reputation as one of the most conservative members of the House. He was an early supporter of then-candidate Trump in 2016 and a staunch defender of the president throughout his tenure, even introduc- ing legislation to end funding for the ill-fated Mueller Investigation in 2017. One year later, Congressman DeSantis announced his candidacy for Florida governor to replace the term-limited Rick Scott. Many
A Lifelong Winner
DeSantis was born on Septem- ber 14, 1978, into a middle-class family in Jacksonville, Florida. His mother, Karen, was a nurse, and his father, Ronald, installed Nielsen TV ratings boxes. The DeSantis family eventually settled near Tampa, where Ron soon became a standout on the baseball diamond. His Little League team made it all the way to the Little League World Series in Williamsport before falling in the quarterfinals.
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22 • AMAC Magazine
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