SB: In Houston and Dallas, DeSantis offers Texas Republicans a dose of Trumpism without the Trump baggage
DALLAS – Yes, he botched the name of an iconic defender of the Alamo during the anniversary of the siege at San Antonio de Béxar . But Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Saturday night electrified the party faithful gathered for the Dallas County Republican Party ’s annual Lincoln Reagan Day Dinner. Republican Party of Texas Chairman Matt Rinaldi and former Sen. Don Huffines were in attendance, waiting in line to get a selfie with perhaps the most talked about GOP officeholder in the country right now. It was also nice to see current Texas lawmakers at the event, including:
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DALLAS – Yes, he botched the name of an iconic defender of the Alamo during the anniversary of the siege at San Antonio de Béxar . But Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Saturday night electrified the party faithful gathered for the Dallas County Republican Party ’s annual Lincoln Reagan Day Dinner.
Republican Party of Texas Chairman Matt Rinaldi
and former Sen. Don Huffines were in attendance, waiting in line to get a selfie with perhaps the most talked about GOP officeholder in the country right now. It was also nice to see current Texas lawmakers at the event, including:
Senators Kelly Hancock , Bob Hall , Tan Parker , and Bryan Hughes along with Representatives Frederick Frazier , Morgan Meyer , and Bryan Slaton . There may have been others I missed.
At the event in Houston, by the way, the 2023 Harris County GOP Lincoln Reagan Dinner "shattered records," with roughly 1400 guests in attendance and $1 million raised. Senators Brandon Creighton , Mayes Middleton , and Paul Bettencourt were there among the crowd at the George R. Brown Convention Center . Back in Dallas: Doug Deason , one of the GOP megadonors now pushing for “school choice” at the Texas Capitol , was honored with the Fred Meyer Leadership Award in a very nice ceremony.
Though the county GOP dinners in Houston and Dallas were said to be “closed to the press,” there didn’t seem to be any real reason for it other than maybe trying to “trigger the snowflakes” in the media. There was nothing particularly revealing about the various speeches.
Gov. DeSantis is generally polished and quite scripted, but the GOP audience loves the script. One attendee said DeSantis “encouraged the people in the room to be bold about their conservative beliefs.” The governor, who former President Donald Trump has called “Ron Meatball” and “ DeSanctimonious ,” talked quite a bit about his culture war battle against a major Florida employer: Disney . But he also delighted in telling the crowd that he and his wife Casey got married at Disney. They are a handsome couple.
DeSantis suffered only one stumble, really. He used the wrong name for one of the defenders at the Alamo. He said William Barret “Thomas” instead of “Travis.” Maybe that shouldn’t be a huge deal, but this is Texas. One congressman in attendance winced when DeSantis said it. But if the rest of the crowd had any similar reactions, they instantly forgave the governor and burst into applause when he proudly proclaimed that both Florida and Texas are where “woke goes to die.”
“Don’t mess with Texas and don’t tread on Florida,” he said, repeating the speech he gave in Houston.
That kind of rhetoric receives essentially the same reaction that Gov. Greg Abbott gets when he says “schools are for education, not indoctrination” during his voucher road show appearances, which this week will include a stop in Bryan-College Station. DeSantis didn’t mention Abbott by name but wished this state luck in expanding “school choice.”
Some Quorum Report readers had this straightforward question about DeSantis: Setting all the Fox News hype aside, does he actually have what it takes to make a credible run for the GOP nomination and the White House with Trump still in the mix?
National pundits will no doubt do a better job of parsing it.
But having now seen the Florida governor in the flesh interacting with Texas GOP donors and activists, it’s helpful to remember that President Trump had a recipe for electoral success in 2016 when he was able to focus on border security, anti-immigrant sentiment, building a wall, blasting the North American Free Trade Agreement , the opioid epidemic, and other arguments designed not only to fire up the Republican base but also to appeal to blue collar Democrats in Rust Belt states.
When Trump himself became the issue – complaining nonstop about how he was treated in the 2016 election (which he won), his alleged ties to Russia, his business dealings, his role in January 6, and how he was cheated in 2020 – three elections in a row resulted in Republicans taking beatings even in places they should have been able to win. That was particularly true during last year’s midterms when Pennsylvania, among other places, swung back to the Democrats in contests for governor and the US Senate .
There is, of course, a long way to go in the nascent GOP nominating contest.
But by focusing on “woke liberalism,” anti-LGBTQ legislation, disdain for the media, school vouchers, and other topics while largely avoiding election denialism and the conspiracy theories of the former president, DeSantis seems to be moving the conversation within the GOP back to a focus on their grievances rather than just the grievances of Donald Trump.