DES MOINES, Iowa – Gov. Kim Reynolds formally endorsed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for president, marking a departure from the neturality governors in Iowa have typically displayed during the Iowa Caucus.
“Because I am a mother, a grandma, and an American, I could not and can not sit on the sidelines any longer,” Reynolds said, explaining why she decided to endorse after seven months of neutrality welcoming presidential candidates to Iowa.
“If we don’t get this next election right, if we don’t choose right, we are not going to get this country back. So we have to do everything we can to make the right choice. No only do we need to make sure that we elect someone who can win and beat Joe Biden, we need a president who has the skill and the resolve to reverse the madness that we see every single day. We need someone who will fight for you and win for your. We need someone who won’t get distracted but stays disciplined, who puts this country first and not himself. That leader is Ron DeSantis,” she said earlier in her remarks.
Reynolds pointed to DeSantis’ leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic as an example of his leadership pointing out that he did not cave to pressure to issue shelter-in-place orders or close schools down. She criticized former President Donald Trump for allowing Dr. Anthony Fauci lead the administration’s response to COVID-19 instead of follwoing the “real science.”
“Ron is focused, the is principled, he is results-driven, and in short, what I love most about Ron – he gets things done,” Reynolds said. “To be quite honest, he is one of the most effective leaders that I have ever seen.”
She took some veiled shots at Trump, when she stated that DeSantis was someone who knows “when life begins and thinks it is a beautiful thing to save a beating heart.”
Trump had called the fetal heartbeat abortion ban signed by DeSantis, “terrible.”
Reynolds also said the nation needed someone as president who “looks to the future and not the past” and “can win.”
DeSantis praised Reynolds after taking the stage.
“She has shown an ability to stand and fight for you when it is not easy, and that is one of the reasons why Iowa is one of the best governed states in America,” he said.
“I appreciate Governor Reynolds getting involved in the process and when you do that some people don’t like that and they will say this or that, but she understands what I understand, this country has hit the skids,” DeSantis said.
He argued the decline has been inflicted on the nation by technocratic elites and entrenched politicians who have driven up the cost of living through their inflationary spending, allowed terrorists to cross the border, injected indoctrination into education, allowed cities to become ungovernable, and have weaponized the bureaucracy.
“They just want you to sit back and let them to pursue their agenda at your expense. Well, we refuse to do that any longer,” DeSantis said. “The decline of our country is not inevitable. It is a choice. We as Americans have the opportunity, and we must choose a better path. We must reject decline. We must choose American revival,” DeSantis argued.
He said Americans need leaders who will fight for their values.
DeSantis said he was told when resisting pressure to implement COVID-19 protocols that he wasn’t going to have a political future.
“Leadership is about protecting the jobs of the people whom you represent, not protecting your own political hide,” he stated.
“We chose freedom over Fauciism, and the state has never done better as a result of that choice,” DeSantis said.
He said not only do leaders have to fight, but they have to win.
“I will fight for you. I will win for you. I will fight for you, and I will lead America’s revival for you and your families.”
Watch below:
