SIMI Calif. Valley — Florida Governor Ron DeSantis visited the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on Sunday as he prepares to run for president in 2024. The Republican accused politicians in liberal states like California of acting like “lockdown politicians” and claimed that the nation’s coronavirus crisis served as “a great test in governing philosophies.”

DeSantis praised how Florida has led the nation in net migration, despite the fact that this is a trend that was set into motion long before he became governor, while addressing a sold-out audience with approximately 1,300 tickets sold and close to 1,100 in attendance, according to organisers.

“We’ve seen a massive outflow of Americans from places led by leftist politicians that impose leftist beliefs and produce subpar outcomes. And you can observe significant improvements in states like Florida that are running their governments in accordance with the tried-and-true values that President Reagan upheld, DeSantis remarked. He claimed that as Florida’s population increased, Americans “voted with their feet” by displacing significant numbers of people from some blue states.

However, many analysts contend that the change in migratory patterns, particularly from West Coast states, is partly due to the scarcity of inexpensive housing and the increased flexibility that the epidemic provided for work-from-home or hybrid work arrangements. DeSantis’ comments were the most recent instance of him using reasons to support his record in Florida while concealing far more nuanced discussions.

DeSantis gave a speech to promote his new book, “The Courage to Be Free: Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Restoration,” inside the museum’s vast glass pavilion, where he stood beneath the former Air Force One plane that transported Reagan and six other presidents. But it also served as a tryout for an ambitious governor who many believe will run for president before GOP voters in this state. Next year, on March 5, California will hold its unusually early presidential primary, which could have a significant impact on the choice of the nominee.

BREAKING: John Oliver completely tore apart Ron DeSantis on ‘Last Week Tonight’. While his show was very lengthy, here are my favorite 5 minutes covering DeSantis’ incredibly hypocritical fascism. DeSantis pretends to be all about free speech, anti-cancel culture, and stopping… pic.twitter.com/wQR2ZuKKeq

— Ed Krassenstein (@EdKrassen) March 6, 2023

In California, the Florida governor avoided interacting with the press and did not respond to any inquiries.

DeSantis asserted that the outbreak “forced people to reconsider who is in charge of their state government more than any other event in my experience,” noting that Florida’s customarily low taxes and preference for limited government had also contributed to the Sunshine State’s popularity.

In his words, “Florida stood as a haven of sanity, a bastion of freedom throughout the United States and indeed around the world when common sense suddenly became an unusual virtue. DeSantis received cheers when he declared that he made sure that every school in his state was open in 2020 for in-person education while speaking in a state where several school districts were shuttered for longer than virtually anywhere else in the country during the pandemic.

Also, he bragged that Florida “let people to make their own decisions” regarding immunisations: “Nobody in the state of Florida was going to be forced to pick between the job they needed and the injections they didn’t want to take,” he stated to cheers.

Although DeSantis once praised and promoted coronavirus vaccines, he has gradually shifted towards a more critical tone on the subject since 2021. For instance, he has rejected the approach taken by bureaucrats who sought to enforce vaccine mandates and has suggested that vaccine manufacturers should be investigated for fraud. As he gets ready to court the right-wing voters he will need to win the nomination, he has presented his own position as offering people the choice of what they wanted to do.

Although Simi Valley has historically leaned Republican, roughly 100 protesters were there before the Florida governor came, waving rainbow and Biden flags. DeSantis “is a fascist,” some shouted. The words “Ron DeFascist” were spray-painted on a sign next to the Reagan Library’s entrance earlier on Sunday, according to the Simi Valley Police Department.

When asked about the criticism DeSantis has received, a spokeswoman for him did not answer right away.

He showed up for a book signing that had a cap of 100 attendees and was not open to the press. He sat next to Republican former California governor Pete Wilson at a private luncheon held by the library. The audience was requested to remain seated while he was briskly taken to and from the platform with his wife and two of his children while waving to the throng.

Later on Sunday, he was scheduled to give a speech at a banquet for the Republican Party of Orange County that was attended by roughly 900 people. Even though journalists had access to that event in previous years, it was likewise blocked to them this time.

In order to determine which candidate would have the best chance of defeating President Biden in 2024, a number of audience members indicated they had come to the Reagan Library to get a closer look at DeSantis. According to polls, DeSantis is Donald Trump’s most formidable rival in the Republican primary as he makes his third consecutive run for the presidency. DeSantis has not declared his intention to run for president.

Amber Ellingson, a 46-year-old teacher, claimed to have travelled from Orange County with her family to meet DeSantis in person. Despite the fact that her family considers itself to be “big Trump supporters,” she claimed that DeSantis had won her over with the way he spoke about the future.

“I believe we require new. I think we need to move on from kind of what was going on in the last two, four years,” she remarked, alluding to Trump’s preoccupation with the 2020 presidential election and the tensions caused by the pro-Trump mob’s attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. “I adore [DeSantis’] audacity. I appreciate how he tells it like it is.