CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) downplayed Florida‘s new six-week abortion ban during his debut trip to New Hampshire as a declared 2024 Republican presidential candidate.
DeSantis’s decision to downplay his Republican-dominated legislature’s bill comes after he played the measure up in Iowa, a state in which the evangelical community could be decisive in next year’s caucuses.
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In New Hampshire, DeSantis underscored that leadership is not about “entertainment,” “building a brand,” or “virtue signaling,” referring indirectly to the 2024 Republican front-runner, former President Donald Trump. Instead, he contended it is about “producing results for the people that you represent.”
“It’s ultimately about producing results for the people that you represent, and in Florida, we’ve done that,” he told an estimated crowd of 1,000 people in Manchester. “We are the fastest-growing state in this country. We ranked No. 1 for net in migration and have every year since I’ve been governor. We just got ranked No. 1 for education by U.S. News and World Report. We’re No. 1 for parental involvement in education. We’re No. 1 for education freedom.”
DeSantis additionally criticized President Joe Biden for trying to reform the 2024 Democratic nomination calendar, demoting New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary status.
“He’s doing that for his own interests,” he said. “I think this is a tradition that’s worked very well, so I’m happy to be participating in this, and I’m glad the Republicans are going to keep it on the calendar.”
But in Iowa, DeSantis cited his six-week abortion ban to an audience of roughly 500 in Cedar Rapids, a rally capping four stops in the opening caucus state.
“We have banned land purchases by the CCP in the state of Florida,” the governor said of the Chinese Communist Party. “We have signed legislation to kneecap ESG,” he added of environmental, social, and corporate governance principles. “We have enacted the ‘heartbeat bill,’ which has the strongest pro-life protections. … We’re also embracing the importance of fatherhood.”
Florida’s six-week abortion ban is contingent on whether the state’s conservative-controlled Supreme Court upholds its challenged 15-week prohibition.
Abortion has become a point of comparison between DeSantis and Trump as they balance competing primary and general election interests. Trump has taken credit for confirming some of the Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade last year but has described DeSantis’s ban as “too harsh.”
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“Ron DeSantis and MAGA Republicans know their extreme anti-choice records are wildly unpopular with the American people, but if DeSantis thinks he can hide from his role passing one of the strictest, cruelest abortion bans in the country, he is sorely mistaken,” Democratic National Committee spokesman Ammar Moussa said. “Democrats will continue to highlight just how dangerous the MAGA agenda is and work to protect the freedom for women to make their own healthcare decisions.”
DeSantis is in South Carolina on Friday after his two-day tour of Iowa, where he made his first in-person appearance as a declared candidate, and one day in New Hampshire. He is scheduled to be in Beaufort, Lexington, and Greenville before returning to Iowa on Saturday for Sen. Joni Ernst‘s (R-IA) annual Roast and Ride fundraiser.
