Originally published August 30, 2023 4:14 pm PDT
“You do what you need to do,” said DeSantis.
QUICK FACTS:
- Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) is pausing his 2024 presidential campaign to focus on Hurricane Idalia.
- Speaking at a press conference in Tallahassee, the governor noted that he was in the “midst of a governor campaign” during Hurricane Ian.
- “I had all kinds of stuff scheduled, not just in Florida, around the country. You know, we were doing different things and, you know, you do what you need to do. I mean, and so that’s what we’re doing,” he said. “It’s going to be no different than what we did during Hurricane Ian.”
- “I’m hoping this storm is not as catastrophic as Hurricane Ian was, but we’re going to do what we need to do because it’s just something that’s important. But it’s no different than what we’ve done in past iterations of all this stuff,” the Florida governor added.
- Earlier this week, DeSantis said, “There’s time and a place to have (a) political season, but then there’s a time and a place to say that this is something that’s life-threatening. This is something that could potentially cost somebody their life, that could cost them their livelihood. And we have a responsibility as Americans to come together and do what we can to mitigate any damage and to protect people.”
- “[W]hen you have these situations, you got to step up,” he went on to say.
DESANTIS BATTLES DECREASING POLL NUMBERS:
- A recent Yahoo News/YouGov poll found that DeSantis’ campaign fell to 12% support from 23%.
- The anti-woke governor remains ahead of candidate Vivek Ramaswamy by 4 points.
- At the end of July, DeSantis laid off one-third of his campaign staff due to polling failures.
- “Following a top-to-bottom review of our organization, we have taken additional, aggressive steps to streamline operations and put Ron DeSantis in the strongest position to win this primary and defeat Joe Biden,” DeSantis’ campaign manager, Generra Peck, stated.
- The move also follows ongoing campaign donation difficulties.
BACKGROUND:
- More than 240,000 Florida residents have lost power since the beginning of Hurricane Idalia.
- Residents of Taylor, Lafayette, and Wakulla are most affected by power outages.
- The hurricane has since been downgraded to a Category 2.
- Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Deanne Criswell said during a press conference that he knows “the people of Florida are no stranger to storms, and I encourage all Floridians to take this storm seriously.”
