DeSantis Vows Economy Return, End to 'Woke' Culture

GOP presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, speaking at a campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Saturday, promised a return to economic stability in the United States and an end to the "woke ideology" that is prevalent in today's society.

"We want to restore normalcy to our communities and integrity to our institutions," the Florida governor told the Oklahoma crowd, where he was introduced by Oklahoma Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, who announced he's endorsing DeSantis' campaign. 

"When we go for the White House, we're going to make sure truth is the foundation of everything we do in this country; and we're going to make sure common sense is no longer an uncommon virtue," said DeSantis. "I am not going to lead merely with words. I'm going to lead with deeds, and I'm going to produce results."

DeSantis also promised to reverse President Joe Biden's "disastrous economic policies," stop inflationary policies, and "make sure Congress stops spending us into oblivion."

He pointed out that in Florida, the state runs a budget surplus and has a massive economy with little debt, so "don't tell me it can't be done. You just have to make choices."

Meanwhile, the governor said in Florida, the government has eliminated the teaching of critical race theory in its K-12 schools, as "we're not teaching our kids to hate each other or to hate our country with your tax dollars."

He added that the state has "eliminated the imposition of transgender ideology" in its schools. 

"It is wrong for a teacher to tell a second grader that they may have been born in the wrong body or that their gender is a choice," DeSantis told the audience.

He added that in his state, Democrats as well as Republicans "want the schools focused on education" and "not this other stuff," even if the left, the media, and Disney are not happy. 

"I took an oath to defend the people of my state, not to subcontract leadership out to a world corporation in Burbank, California," DeSantis said. "Not on my watch."

The governor also said his campaign stands to protect children, and "we do battle with anybody that seeks to rob them of their innocence ... if we could do it in Florida, we could do it anywhere."

He also promised as president to "bring the issue of our southern border to a final conclusion."

"We are going to shut the border down," he said. "We're going to build a border wall. We're going to stop mass migration into this country. We're going to hold Mexico accountable, and we're going to hold the Mexican drug cartels accountable."

He also promised to "usher in a reckoning" for the federal government's "disastrous COVID-19 lockdown policies" and "hold agencies like the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention], NIH [National Institutes of Health], and FDA [Food and Drug Administration] accountable for their failures, because we can never let this happen to our country ever again."

And when it comes to "woke" ideology, "we're going to leave woke in the dustpan of history where it belongs," said DeSantis. 

"That means we have no choice but to wage a war on woke ideology, and we're going to do that," he said. "Don't tell me that a man can get pregnant. OK? That is not true. And when we have a society that indulges in that, if you can't even get that right, how are you going to get these bigger things right?

"Woke," he added, "affects people's lives. Woke ideology takes over the economy with things like ESG [environmental, social, governance] policies, and the average American becomes poorer as a result of that."

DeSantis also promised to restore the U.S. military to its "proper glory" and said he will not allow it to remain politicized. "It is not something for social experimentation. It is to create a strong fighting force to deter future conflicts and to win wars when we need to."

• DeSantis Scolds Biden Admin for Trump Indictment
• DeSantis Makes First Trip to Border as Candidate