NORTH VENICE, Fla.—When Ron DeSantis arrived in Tallahassee in January 2019 after winning Florida’s 2018 gubernatorial race by 32,000 votes—less than a half-percent of 8 million ballots cast—he was told by insiders, experts, and pundits that the narrow victory was cause for cautious moderation in managing the swing state.
“I rejected that advice,” he said.
While “[I] may have only won the election with 50 percent of the vote, I have 100 percent of the executive power. My duty is to put that to best use.”
And so he did—early and often, as DeSantis explained to about 1,500 people at PGT Custom Windows + Doors in North Venice on Feb. 28, the first of four speaking engagements for the day, including in Leesburg and The Villages, with at least three more planned in Naples, Miami, and Palm Beach on March 1….