DALLAS — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis won’t need much of an introduction at Saturday’s Dallas County Reagan Day Dinner.
They know his name. They know his work.
DeSantis is a top cultural warrior for conservatives in Florida and across the country. He’s pushed or copied a cavalcade of GOP policies and legislation praised by conservatives as common sense and blasted by critics as extreme.
“Florida is where woke goes to die,” DeSantis has said.
Now he’s bringing his fighting words to Texas, where Gov. Greg Abbott has been the leader of his own highly publicized cultural war. Abbott is not expected to attend any of the events featuring DeSantis.
The Saturday banquet is billed as a fireside chat in front of conservative activists, donors and elected officials who are not only interested in his ideas, but his standing in the 2024 Republican race for president. As his appearance in Dallas indicates, DeSantis has used hard-right stances to catapult himself as the leading alternative to former President Donald Trump in the Republican primary.
The Dallas trip follows a similar event DeSantis will headline for Houston-area Republicans.
“He’s made that work and he’s put skins on the wall,” said Plano-based GOP political consultant Vinny Minchillo, who’s worked on the presidential campaigns of Utah Sen. Mitt Romney. " He’s gone to war with woke people regarding education, so he is drilling down on some of the really hot topics that primary voters are interested in.”
Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa said DeSantis “engages in these culture wars issues to increase support in the right wing base of the Republican Party because he wants to be the nominee of the Republican Party for president.”
“That’s why you see DeSantis in Dallas,” Hinojosa said. “He wants them to know that no matter how bad their governor is on these cultural issues, he’s worse than the governor and he’s their man.”
Cultural warrior
Abbott and DeSantis have been in an undeclared competition: Which governor can implement the most legislation that appeals to the far right? Both were reelected last year, with Abbott easily defeating former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke. And DeSantis made a bigger statement, trouncing former Gov. Charlie Crist en route to winning Democratic Party strongholds in Miami-Dade County.
DeSantis has impacted Texas politics and public policy, and some of his “anti-woke” policies are being considered by the Texas Legislature.
Texas and Florida have been political twins.
The states reopened during the 2020 pandemic roughly at the same time, though DeSantis got more publicity and Abbott’s initial shutdown and mask mandate were criticized by far-right voices in the Texas GOP.
Abbott was ahead of DeSantis and Florida in passing tough anti-abortion laws. Texas also approved laws that allow Texans to carry guns without a permit, something that Florida lawmakers are now considering.
DeSantis has set the tone for diversity policies in public education — a topic Abbott and lawmakers are dealing with during their 2023 legislative session.
DeSantis and Abbott support proposals that ban the Chinese government and its citizens from purchasing state land. DeSantis announced his support for such a plan five days before Abbott took to Twitter to back a Texas Senate bill.
DeSantis was ahead of Abbott when he moved to block diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at Florida state colleges. A week later, Abbott’s chief of staff sent a letter to state agencies and public colleges warning that it is illegal to make hiring decisions based on DEI .
The Florida governor has also set the conservative tone in his fight to restrict classroom conversations on gender identity and sexual orientation, which is now a topic in the Texas Legislature. This week DeSantis signed a bill to take control of municipal services and development for the special zone encompassing Walt Disney World. The move deals a major blow to the company’s ability to operate with autonomy and is seen as political payback for Disney officials opposing discussions about gender identity and sexual orientation in classrooms.
Abbott took the lead in amplifying the border security issue by busing migrants to Democratic Party strongholds New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C. After that, DeSantis pounced on the issue by flying 49 migrants to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts. Abbott followed that by busing migrants to Philadelphia and then to the residence of Vice President Kamala Harris.
Texas is ahead of the rest of the nation in the fight to ban or restrict drag queen shows, but Florida is not far behind.
But DeSantis is out front on another issue: He’s pushing a tax exemption for gas stoves amid concerns that those appliances may emit dangerous pollutants.
Another similarity between Abbott and DeSantis: Both governors have been calling some of the events “fireside chats.”
Democrats say DeSantis and Abbott are more dangerous than gas stoves.
“It is a total race to the bottom between those two in a way that really negatively impacts Texas families,” said Lisa Turner, state director of the Democratic Party research group called the Lone Star Project. “Culture war is too light of a term. Whether it’s the attack on kids, the attack on women, it’s just this constant attack for political points with their base.”
Winning these battles could be key for influential primary voters.
“It plays to where the Republican Party is right now,” said Dallas-based GOP political consultant Clayton P. Henry. “It’s obvious that he’s running for president and he’s hitting the base really hard by attending these dinners.”
Alternative to Trump
No matter who has been first, DeSantis has bolstered his political standing among conservatives across the country with his dedication to the culture wars.
Most polls show Trump leading the Republican race for president, with DeSantis running second.
With only 2% support in the latest Fox News poll, Abbott is not a formidable contender in the 2024 presidential sweepstakes.
In that survey, Trump is leading DeSantis, 43% to 28%.
That’s why DeSantis’ Dallas visit is important for his prospects because it puts him in front of donors and activists who could support him against Trump. And Texas has a huge delegate haul that could make a difference in the 2024 contest.
“When he’s going to be both in Houston and in Dallas, you know this guy is running for president,” Henry said.
Though they have similar approaches, DeSantis has outflanked Abbott in the presidential race, even in Texas. A straw poll at the 2022 Texas GOP convention had DeSantis running second to Trump and Abbott far off the pace.
“He steps up to the microphone more,” Henry said of DeSantis. “He’s out there all the time. While Abbott is out there, he’s not spreading new messages and he’s not reinforcing conservatives messages like a presidential candidate would.”
DeSantis has been a winning politician in Florida, but it’s unclear how he’ll perform on the national stage. Yet to formally announce a presidential bid, he’s basically been running an underground campaign for president, making speeches and practicing his craft behind closed doors. The Dallas and Houston events are closed to the media.
“When you talk to voters, they describe him in terms of Donald Trump. ‘He’s like Donald Trump, except he’s nicer,’ ” Minchillo said of how activists see DeSantis. “His image is intertwined with Donald Trump and that’s something he has to fix.”
Minchillo said DeSantis is unproven in a national contest.
“He has not been tested on the national stage,” he said. “Let’s see what happens when somebody punches him in the nose.”
Trump, who has a large network in Texas that includes Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, will be tough to beat in Texas.
“I’m a Trump supporter and I want Mr. Trump to win the nomination,” said Robert Reed, a 58-year-old warehouse worker after an Abbott speech in Corsicana. “If he doesn’t make it, somebody like Abbott would be perfect for the White House.”
