A viral video shows a man — a self-proclaimed Democrat — in Florida’s Arcadia expressing his support for Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian.
“That gas is here in Arcadia,” the man said as he stood by another man, seemingly celebrating the arrival of gasoline in the area in the aftermath of the storm. “I don’t know about the rest of y’all, but it’s here in Arcadia, so y’all know who we’re voting for.”
“I don’t know about the rest of you motherf*ckers, but I’m voting for DeSantis, and I’m a Democrat,” he said. “So y’all can call him what the f*ck y’all want to call him.”
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According to DeSantis campaign spokesperson Christina Pushaw, the video was taken over the weekend in DeSoto County, which borders Charlotte County — the latter being of the areas most devastated by Hurricane Ian.
“I think this is more common than people realize. He just said what a lot of democrats are thinking to themselves,” she said, adding further context to the clip for others.
“He’s happy that the governor visited his community in person. Keep in mind this place Arcadia is a small rural town of less than 10,000. They got flooded bad. Cities on the coast were hit hard & of course @GovRonDeSantis has been there too but he didn’t forget DeSoto/Hardee,” she explained:
Others on social media expressed similar sentiments, praising the governor for the way he has handled the disaster, which just happened to strike weeks ahead of his midterm election matchup against Democrat Rep. Charlie Crist (FL).
“I live where Ian hit directly and DeSantis has been all over this disaster doing what a great Governor should, 100% voting for him next month,” one said.
“THANK YOU SO MUCH !!!!!!” another wrote. “WE NEEDED THIS! We feel noticed and not ignored anymore. It really helped our morale and spirits to know that we’re seen. Thank you so much to #TeamDeSantis.”
“Watching De Santis [sic] for a long time (I live near fort Myers) but since Ian? The guy is amazing,” another added.
Indeed, the governor has continued to visit communities all across the state, including Arcadia, over the weekend.
“This was a massive, slow moving storm that dumped that historic amount of water on our communities,” he told reporters.
“We understand the significance of what’s happened in communities outside of just kind of what we would consider Ground Zero,” he added, as pictures across social media show the governor surveying damage, distributing food, hugging victims, and even helping out Waffle House in providing hot meals: