PONCA, Okla. (AP) — Ron DeSantis strayed from the usual presidential campaign format Saturday and turned up at an Oklahoma rodeo to prove he is the leading alternative to Donald Trump — even as the accusation against him Former president threatens to upset 2024 Republican primary contest.
The Florida governor sought to project strength by campaigning in one of the more than a dozen states scheduled to hold Republican primaries next March’s Super Tuesday, weeks after the states’ first ballot. He also won the endorsement of Oklahoma’s Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, the first governor to formally announce his endorsement of DeSantis.
DeSantis says his record has put him at the forefront of the next generation of Republicans. But addressing a sweat-drenched audience fanning themselves with signs on the lawns, the governor addressed a higher issue, asking Americans to accept his call for a new national leadership.
“Our duty is to preserve what the founding fathers of the country called the sacred fire of liberty,” DeSantis wearing cowboy boots told an audience at a ballroom outside Tulsa, the state’s second-largest city.
He reviewed the Declaration of Independence, the Battle of Gettysburg and the Normandy invasion during World War II as moments when Americans came together in times of crisis.
“Our current generation is destined to carry this torch. It’s a responsibility we shouldn’t shy away from,” DeSantis said. “It is a responsibility that we should be grateful for. We have to stand up for the truth, and we have to remain resolute in upholding lasting, fundamental American principles.”
Later, DeSantis stopped at a rodeo in Ponca, about 75 miles (120.7 kilometers) northwest of Tulsa, and posed for pictures with his wife, Casey, and their 3-year-old daughter, Mamie, who was wearing a sombrero. pink cowboy
“Freedom is a generation away from extinction,” he said at the rodeo whose grandstands were draped in red, white and blue.
The Trump legal drama represents both an opportunity and a challenge for DeSantis and other campaign rivals of the former president. Multiple criminal cases, while initially boosting Trump’s polling numbers and fundraising efforts, could ultimately undermine Trump’s argument that he is the best candidate for the presidential election against Joe Biden.
But direct criticism of Trump over the criminal indictment could alienate the former president’s main supporters, voters his rivals want to attract. That is particularly true for DeSantis, who continues to criticize Trump for his policies but also chose to criticize the case against the former president rather than openly trying to capitalize on it.
The governor lamented Saturday what he called “the increasing use of weapons by these federal agencies against people they don’t like.”
“The first day, they will have a new director of the FBI. We are going to use our authority to hold people accountable,” DeSantis said to a raucous audience outside of Tulsa.
