He also touted “wins on the board” by conservatives, from the failure of the CNN+ streaming platform - “clearly Americans were not willing to pay for that,” he said - to the pending sale of Twitter to billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Laxalt similarly targeted the “radical left” and the “policies that are crushing our state and our country,” attacking attempts by Democrats to curtail the use of fossil fuels and their move away from Trump-era policies on the U.S.-Mexico border. “Biden would have won, and this state, this country would look like Canada or Australia. “If Florida had not led over the last few years, other states would not have followed,” DeSantis said of limiting COVID mitigation regulations, including mask and vaccine mandates. Sharing the stage with Laxalt at Stoney’s Rockin’ Country - a country-themed bar and club replete with a disco ball above the crowd- DeSantis ran through a laundry list of accomplishments under his tenure as governor, from limiting COVID restrictions in the early phase of the pandemic to running a budget surplus to enacting voter ID laws and banning critical race theory in school curriculums. “Greetings from the Sunshine State, the freedom state, and the state that has done more than any other state to stand up to Joe Biden,” DeSantis said. It also gave DeSantis, the event’s headliner and a potential candidate for president in 2024, a platform from which he spent roughly 20 minutes praising his tenure and achievements in Florida before touting Laxalt’s bid. Ron DeSantis.ĭubbed the “Rise Up” rally, Wednesday’s event took clear aim at the culture war, rousing the crowd of more than 1,000 people with not only attacks on Democratic economic, energy and immigration policies, but also “woke” culture and the “radical left.” In a packed Las Vegas honky-tonk club - and with just a month remaining before early voting begins - Republican Senate hopeful Adam Laxalt sought a campaign boost from the GOP’s fastest rising star and an old naval officer training roommate: Florida Gov.