DeSantis celebrates GOP school board victories: 'Florida is the state where woke goes to die'

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declared victory against the left when it comes to education, celebrating Republicans' school board wins on the state's primary day.

DeSantis, addressing a crowd at a Florida GOP event in Hialeah, Fla., noted that because he, Attorney General Ashley Moody, and Sen. Marco Rubio ran unopposed, the party was able to focus on other races like school board positions. As a result, he said, conservatives won races all over the state, including flipping the Sarasota school board.

"Parents are sick of the nonsense when it comes to education," DeSantis said. "We want the schools to educate kids, we are sick of the indoctrination. We want to make sure that they’re teaching them the basics, teaching them to read, write, add, subtract all the important subjects, not trying to jam woke gender ideology down their throat, not trying to do divisive rhetoric like CRT that's teaching kids to hate each other and hate our country."

DeSantis was the target of attacks from Democrats and the media earlier this year when he signed the Parental Rights in Education Act, which prohibits teachers from discussing sexual orientation and gender identity with children until after third grade. Democrats accused the law of being anti-gay. DeSantis rejected that notion, asserting that it was merely meant to keep children from being exposed to certain subjects at a young age unless parents decided to address them on their own.

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"We want true education and parents want to play a role in the schools," DeSantis said Tuesday. "We believe in a parent's bill of rights. We believe that parents have a fundamental role in the education and upbringing of their kids. And as long as I'm governor, the state of Florida is going to be standing with the parents throughout this state."

The governor went on to slam the left for being soft on crime and embracing socialism.

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"At the end of the day, we're not going to let this state be overrun by woke ideology," he said. "We will fight the woke in the businesses, we will fight the woke in government agencies, we will fight the woke in our schools. We will never, ever surrender to the woke agenda. Florida is the state where woke goes to die."

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That night, DeSantis learned that he will be facing Rep. Charlie Crist, D-Fla., in November's general election. Crist defeated Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Nikki Fried by 24 points in Florida's Democratic primary.