Ron DeSantis

Ron DeSantis

Ronald Dion "Ron" DeSantis (* 14. September 1978 in Jacksonville , Florida ) is an American politician of the Republican Party . He has been the governor of Florida since January 8, 2019 . He was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 2013 to 2018 .

Family, education and work

Ron DeSantis attended Dunedin High School in Florida until 1997 and then studied history at Yale University until 2001 . He then completed a law degree at Harvard University until 2005 . Between 2005 and 2010 he served in the United States Navy Legal Department . He was stationed in Iraq from August 2007 to April 2008 .

After the end of his active military service, he became a member of the US Navy Reserve. He also served as an investigator in the Florida Central District Attorney's office and taught military law at the Florida Coastal School of Law . He published a memoir called Dreams From Our Founding Fathers: First Principles in the Age of Obama .

Political career

congress

In the election on November 6, 2012 , Ron DeSantis was elected as the Republican Party candidate in Florida's sixth congressional electoral district against the Democrat Heather Beaven in the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC , where he succeeded Cliff Stearns on January 3, 2013 . He was re-elected in November 2014. He initially did not intend to run for another candidate in November 2016. Instead, he wanted to apply for a seat in the US Senate this year , where he wanted to take over from Marco Rubio . After Rubio was defeated in the presidential nomination of his party and yet ran again for the Senate election, DeSantis gave up this plan and ran successfully for another legislature in the House of Representatives. This would have run as planned until January 3, 2019, but he left Congress on September 10, 2018 to concentrate on his gubernatorial campaign. His successor in the House of Representatives was Michael Waltz .

On August 28, 2018, DeSantis won the Republican primary for governor of Florida. He prevailed with 56.5 percent against the Minister of Agriculture and former Congressman Adam Putnam with 36.5 percent of the vote.

Governorship

In the November 6 gubernatorial election, DeSantis ran against the Democrat Andrew Gillum , the previous mayor of Tallahassee . Observers rated the election as open; Surveys saw Gillum mostly just ahead. DeSantis declared his victory in the gubernatorial election on election evening. The further counting of the votes, especially in the democratically dominated Broward County in southern Florida, made his lead smaller, so that a recount of the votes was ordered on November 10th. The recount did not reveal any significant change, so DeSantis' victory was certified. DeSantis took office on January 8, 2019. During the Covid-19 pandemic , DeSantis pioneered the lifting of restrictions required by Donald Trump to contain the pandemic, opening the country up to sporting events in particular. In April 2020, he ruled that wrestling was systemically important and approved records of the WWE wrestling league .

Positions and controversies

DeSantis drew a lot of criticism when, shortly after his nomination, he said that voters shouldn't make the mistake of "monkeying things up " with Gillum's "socialist" plans , which has often been described as racist and brought Gillum national notoriety. DeSantis was supported by US President Donald Trump , whose policy and leadership style DeSantis had repeatedly expressed positively. In mid-September 2018, he aroused the ire of Trump when he distanced himself from his claim that the number of deaths from Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico was significantly lower than the officially counted and allegedly falsified 3,000.

Web links

• Website of the Governor of Florida (English)
• Ron DeSantis in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
• DeSantis, Ron. In: OurCampaigns.com (English)
• Florida Governors' Portraits

Footnotes

1. ↑ rondesantisfacts.com
2. ^ Florida Primary Election Results. In: The New York Times , August 29, 2018.
3. ↑ Bernie-backed progressive Andrew Gillum will face a Trump-styled Republican Ron DeSantis in Florida's governor's race. In: CNN.com , August 29, 2018.
4. ↑ Aggregated Florida Governor Surveys - DeSantis vs. Gillum. In: RealClearPolitics
5. ^ Matt Dixon, Marc Caputo: Florida readies for massive recount. In: Politico , November 8, 2018; Gregory Krieg, Ryan Nobles, Ellie Kaufman, Dan Merica: Florida recounts begin as tensions escalate across state. In: CNN.com , November 10, 2018.
6. ↑ Ledyard King: With Florida recount over, Andrew Gillum's last chance to become governor rests with the courts. In: USA Today , November 15, 2018.
7. ↑ https://www.fr.de/politik/corona-usa-coronavirus-donald-trump-covid19-sterberate-zr-13787563.html
8. ↑ https://www.spiegel.de/sport/warum-wrestling-in-den-usa-ploetzlich-systemrelevant-ist-a-1538d2a8-4465-451a-a13e-3eb2763caebd
9. ↑ Ryan Bort: This May Be the Most Bizarre 2018 Campaign Ad Yet. In: Rolling Stone , July 30, 2018.
10. ^ Marc Caputo, Matt Dixon: Gillum raises profile - and cash - in Florida as DeSantis gets quiet. In: Politico , September 4, 2018; Alex Isenstadt, Marc Caputo: Trump rails on top Florida ally over Hurricane Maria flap. In: Politico , September 18, 2018.