As blizzard warnings are issued in Iowa, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis held a campaign event in Ankeny on Friday, where about 50 people, Gov. Kim Reynolds, and several reporters attended.
DeSantis acknowledged the dangerous conditions, in front of a banner reading, “No excuses. Just results.”
“I’m going full speed ahead with whatever we have, but we want people to be safe,” he said.
Never Back Down, the super PAC backing DeSantis, postponed events today in Clear Lake and Marshalltown, Iowa due to unsafe weather conditions in the area. It’s unclear if the two remaining events in Pella and Coralville will go on as scheduled.
“Our five-year-old son is with us. A month ago, he had never even seen snow,” DeSantis said, telling the crowd that he promised him a snowball fight later.
As snow flurried outside, DeSantis said he was “impressed” that people showed up to his Friday morning event.
Taking questions, DeSantis was asked by a younger person how he’d approach LGBTQ issues and how it differs from other candidates.
“The approach I take is simple, you know. I treat people as individuals not as members of groups. I think we need to get away from this idea of trying to put people in different groups. I don’t think it’s healthy for society,” DeSantis said.
Without addressing LGBTQ issues, DeSantis went on to rail against Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) at universities, which he likened to “ideology that’s trying to aggressively divvy people up in different categories in different groups.”
“We will end the DEI cartel,” DeSantis said.
