Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is reportedly set to release an autobiography, The Courage to Be Free: Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Revival, early next year, which “will center on critical issues that brought [DeSantis] to the center of the debate over the future of our country.”
Broadside, HarperCollins’ wing which “specializes in conservative nonfiction,” will publish the book focusing on DeSantis’s life, including his family and his wife’s battle with cancer. According to reports, it will detail the governor’s roots — “growing up in a working-class family, playing in the Little League World Series, working his way through Yale University and Harvard Law School, volunteering for the Navy after 9/11 and serving in Iraq.”
The publisher added that the book will also focus on “critical issues” that brought the governor to the spotlight “over the future of our country.”
“He shares his thinking from when he was fighting back against COVID mandates and restrictions, critical race theory, [and] woke corporations,” per the publisher.
“What Florida has done is establish a blueprint for governance that has produced tangible results while serving as a rebuke to the entrenched elites who have driven our nation into the ground,” DeSantis said in a statement, according to Fox News. “Florida is proof positive that we, the people, are not powerless in the face of these elites.”
However, this is not DeSantis’s first foray into book publishing, as he authored Dreams From Our Founding Fathers: First Principles in the Age of Obama in 2011, prior to his stint in the U.S. Congress.
Nevertheless, former President Donald Trump has taken preemptive strikes.
“I don’t know if he is running. I think if he runs, he could hurt himself very badly. I really believe he could hurt himself badly,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News Digital. “I think he would be making a mistake, I think the base would not like it — I don’t think it would be good for the party.”‘
Trump would later go on to criticize the governor on TruthSocial, claiming that “Ron DeSanctimonious is playing games!”
“The Fake News asks him if he’s going to run if President Trump runs, and he says, ‘I’m only focused on the Governor’s race, I’m not looking into the future.’ Well, in terms of loyalty and class, that’s really not the right answer…” he said.
Despite that, Trump also “retruthed” a post stating that the former president “masterfully started this fake ‘fight’ with DeSantis to reveal the Deep State RINO scum and puppets.”
DeSantis, meanwhile, has not engaged. When asked about Trump’s attacks, the governor simply stated that “incoming fire” is part of the job and proceeded to criticize the establishment media. He addressed the so-called “civil war” the following day, telling reporters that “people just need to chill out.”
All that aside, DeSantis’s post-midterm theme matches that of his upcoming book — that Florida, which saw massive Republican victories statewide, should serve as the “blueprint” for the country moving forward.
“And it wasn’t just the best governor victory, of course, it was that, but we swept in. We swept in super majorities in the Florida Legislature. We have 85 Republicans out of 120 in our state house, we’ve never had that many before,” DeSantis explained.
“The one place I think that people can look to as a blueprint is Florida, because what have we done? I mean, you know, we came in at a very close election. In fact, before I became governor, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, all the major races governor and presidential were one point or less for that time,” he continued.
“And we led and we were on offense, and we didn’t shy away from big issues. We took on those issues, and we won victory after victory for the people,” he said, explaining how they expanded the base.
“You don’t win by a million and a half votes if you only get your own party,” he added.