Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will visit Kansas next week to campaign for Derek Schmidt
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will come to Olathe next week to campaign for Attorney General Derek Schmidt, the GOP nominee for governor.
DeSantis will headline an event hosted by Turning Point Action alongside Schmidt at the Embassy Suites in Olathe on Sept. 18.
The rally comes as the Florida Republican governor and potential 2024 presidential contender is holding “Unite and Win” events for Republican candidates across the country.
Last month, DeSantis visited Arizona, Pennsylvania and Ohio. After visiting Kansas, DeSantis will host a rally in Wisconsin later that day. DeSantis has courted national attention — and controversy — for his frequent clashes with President Joe Biden over COVID-19 mitigation and LGBTQ rights among other issues.
Turning Point Action is the political campaigning arm of Turning Point USA, a non-profit that recruits young Americans into right-wing politics. The group’s founder Charlie Kirk called DeSantis “America’s Governor” and said his support for “Derek Schmidt in Kansas will go a long way toward energizing the grassroots base.”
Schmidt’s contest against incumbent Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly has been identified as one of the most competitive races in the country this year. Kelly is the only Democratic governor up for reelection in a state former President Donald Trump won.
In a statement, Schmidt described DeSantis as a model for how a Kansas governor should lead.
“Governor DeSantis has done an incredible job in Florida defending freedom and liberty when it was challenged unlike ever before,” Schmidt said. “His leadership stands in stark contrast to Laura Kelly’s failures in Kansas. He kept Florida’s economy open, kept kids in schools, and Backed the Blue and kept Floridians safe. As a result, Florida is booming - and we need that kind of leadership here in Kansas. That is what I will provide as our governor.”
DeSantis has been a controversial figure as governor. While he is a popular figure on the right, DeSantis has also drawn ire for his anti-LGBTQ policies.
In March, he signed a law that opponents criticized as “Don’t Say Gay” legislation. The law bars teachers from discussing sexual orientation or gender identity with students in kindergarten through grade 3. It also gives parents of students in older grades the ability to sue school districts if they think instruction in older grades is not age appropriate.
Tom Witt, executive director of Equality Kansas, said Schmidt campaigning alongside DeSantis was a “slap in the face” to LGBTQ Kansans. Last week, Schmidt announced that he wanted lawmakers to send him a bill banning transgender athletes from girls sports to his desk within the first 100 days of his administration.
“In the past couple years since he’s decided he wants to be governor, he has decided that beating up on LGBT kids in school is a way to get elected. And now he’s bringing one of the biggest anti-LGBT bullies in the country to Kansas,” Witt said. “I couldn’t be more disappointed in Derek Schmidt than I am right now.”
DeSantis is seen as a potential contender with Trump, who resides in his state, for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.
State Rep. Bill Sutton, a Gardner Republican, said he didn’t think DeSantis would change any minds in Kansas but his presence would be a powerful tool for energizing Republican voters.
“I think it’ll have a better impact on getting out the vote than it will have on winning hearts and minds,” Sutton said. “The liberal voters I think might be turned off, but I don’t think they were going to be voting for Derek to begin with.”
This story was originally published September 9, 2022 at 1:20 PM.
