Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) largely focused on Florida during his controversial stop in Hollis, New Hampshire, on Tuesday, taking roughly an hour to even mention the Granite State after spending most of his time speaking about other areas and corresponding issues, according to reports.
DeSantis’s Tuesday town hall in Hollis was already under scrutiny due to the fact that his campaign scheduled the event on the same day as the New Hampshire Federation of Republican Women’s (NHFRW) 76th Lilac Luncheon, which featured former President Donald Trump as the special guest. The luncheon took place in Concord, while DeSantis’s event took place roughly 40 miles away in Hollis. The decision to hold a dueling event drew ire from the NHFRW, as its fundraiser focuses on raising money to elect, empower, and educate Republican women running for office in the Granite State.
The organization’s president, Elizabeth Girard, asserted that the DeSantis campaign’s “attempt to pull focus from our Lilac Luncheon only diminishes the efforts of the Republican women in New Hampshire who are volunteers, working hard to provide opportunities for our membership to have access to all the candidates.”
Events director Christine Peters added that it has “always been a New Hampshire hallmark to be considerate when scheduling events,” emphasizing that the governor’s move to hold an event the same day was “unprecedented.” Secretary Emily Tomasi shared that view, noting that other presidential hopefuls were courteous and “graciously scheduled around” the event.
Despite the organization’s leaders requesting DeSantis reschedule, his campaign failed to do so, and the presidential hopeful proceeded with his town hall event, which had about 250 attendees.
According to reports, DeSantis focused largely on Florida throughout the event, mentioning it over 80 times. He also discussed the illegal immigration crisis in Texas and crime-ridden cities across the nation, but according to the New York Times, it took the presidential hopeful about an hour to say the words “New Hampshire.”
Per the outlet:
“Every year I’ve been governor, we’ve decreased the assumptions in our pension fund,” he boasted, digging deep into the Florida policy weeds. “In other words, you know, whatever it was when I came in was rosier. And we always reduced down to ensure that no matter what happens, our pension system is going to be funded. I think we’re like eighth-best in the country with that.”
Even his jokes were Florida-centric, sometimes to the point of obscurity to the crowd of roughly 250 people who packed a carpeted banquet hall in Hollis, a few miles from the Massachusetts border. The audience reaction was muted when he joked about property prices rising in Naples, Fla., to make a point about Chicago residents fleeing south to his state.
“The one place I think that people can look to as a blueprint is Florida … 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,” DeSantis said following his gubernatorial victory.
According to the Times, DeSantis also “pitched two main arguments against Mr. Trump, without naming him”:
The first was that change could not come to Washington if Republicans kept losing elections. The second was his theme of “no excuses” — a shot at Mr. Trump’s failure to deliver on core promises such as completing a wall along the southern border.
DeSantis also answered questions on abortion and did not deter from his position that “life is worth protecting,” despite critics who believe his state’s six-week abortion ban is too extreme. The Times cited one New Hampshire resident, Doreen Monahan, who indicated that she felt more comfortable about the abortion law when she learned more details.
The town hall coincides with the release of the latest Saint Anselm College Survey Center poll, which found former President Donald Trump leading the crowded field in New Hampshire by 28 points, or 47 percent to DeSantis’s 19 percent. Notably, Trump’s 47 percent reflects a five-point increase from March, whereas DeSantis’s 19 percent reflects a ten-point drop in the same time frame.
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