Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told a crowd in Simi Valley on Sunday that the “woke mind virus” infiltrating schools, corporations and other institutions in California and other Democratic strongholds led to an influx of residents to his state, showing the popularity of his anti-liberal policies.
Widely seen as a contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, DeSantis took a mild poke at California Gov. Gavin Newsom, much to the delight of the roughly 1,000 people who came to see him at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, and lashed out at the pandemic shutdowns and vaccine mandates in what has become grist for his rise in popularity within the GOP.
“We have had a great experiment, a great test in governance philosophies,” DeSantis told an auidence in the library’s spacious Air Force One Pavilion. “The American people ... have voted with their feet. And if you look over the last four years, we’ve witnessed a great American exodus from states governed by leftist politicians imposing leftist ideology and delivering poor results.”
