Ron DeSantis

Ronald Dion DeSantis was born on September 14, 1978, in Jacksonville, Florida, the son of Karen DeSantis (née Rogers) and Ronald Daniel DeSantis. His only sibling, younger sister Christina, died in 2015 at age 30 from a pulmonary embolism.

DeSantis spent most of his childhood in Dunedin. He was a member of the Dunedin National team that made it to the 1991 Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. DeSantis attended Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School and Dunedin High School, graduating in 1997.

After high school, DeSantis studied history at Yale University. He was Yale’s varsity baseball team captain and joined the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. He was an outfielder on that team; as a senior in 2001, he had the team’s best batting average at .336. While attending Yale, he worked various jobs, including as an electrician’s assistant and a coach at a baseball camp. DeSantis graduated from Yale in 2001 with a B.A., magna cum laude.

After Yale, he taught history and coached at Darlington School in Georgia for a year. He subsequently attended Harvard Law School, graduating in 2005 with a Juris Doctor, cum laude.

Military Service

In 2004, during his second year at Harvard Law, DeSantis was commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Navy and assigned to the Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps (JAG). He completed Naval Justice School in 2005. Later that year, he reported to the JAG Trial Service Office Command South East at Naval Station Mayport, Florida, as a prosecutor. He was promoted from lieutenant, junior grade, to lieutenant in 2006.

In the spring of 2006, DeSantis arrived at Joint Task Force Guantanamo (JTF-GTMO), working directly with detainees at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. According to the Navy, the records of his service in the Navy were often redacted upon release to the public to protect personal privacy.

In 2007, DeSantis reported to the Naval Special Warfare Command Group in Coronado, California, where he was assigned as a legal adviser to SEAL Team One; he deployed to Iraq in the fall of 2007 as part of the 2007 troop surge. He served as legal adviser to Dane Thorleifson, the SEAL Commander of the Special Operations Task Force-West in Fallujah.

DeSantis returned to the U.S. in April 2008, reassigned to the Naval Region Southeast Legal Service. The U.S. Department of Justice appointed him to serve as a Special Assistant U.S. attorney at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Middle District of Florida. DeSantis was assigned as a trial defense counsel until his honorable discharge from active duty in February 2010. He concurrently accepted a reserve commission as a lieutenant in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps of the U.S, Navy Reserve.

During his military career, DeSantis was awarded the Bronze Star Medal, the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, and the Iraq Campaign Medal. He was still serving in the U.S. Navy Reserve as of his transition to the governorship. His U.S. Navy service ended on February 12, 2019, a month after his gubernatorial inauguration, with the rank of lieutenant commander.

U.S. House of Representatives (2013–2018)

DeSantis defeated six candidates in the 2012 Republican primary for Florida’s 6th congressional district and defeated Democratic nominee Heather Beaven in the general election. He was reelected in 2014 and 2016.

In May 2015, DeSantis announced his candidacy for the 2016 United States Senate election in Florida. He ran for the seat held by Marco Rubio, who initially did not file to run for reelection due to his 2016 presidential campaign. When Rubio ended his presidential bid and ran for reelection to the Senate, DeSantis withdrew from the Senate race and ran for reelection to the House.

As a member of Congress, DeSantis spoke out in defense of Israel, criticized U.S. officials for calling the West Bank “occupied,” and advocated the relocation of the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. In 2017, he called for defunding the United Nations until the Security Council revoked a resolution condemning Israeli settlements as a violation of international law.

Gubernatorial Campaigns

On January 5, 2018, DeSantis filed to run for governor of Florida to succeed term-limited Republican incumbent Rick Scott. President Donald Trump had said the previous month that he would support DeSantis should he run for governor. On August 28, 2018, DeSantis won the Republican primary, defeating his main opponent, Adam Putnam.

On September 5, he announced state representative Jeanette Núñez as his running mate. He resigned his House seat on September 10 to focus on his gubernatorial campaign. On election night, initial results had DeSantis winning, and so Gillum conceded. Gillum rescinded his concession when the margin narrowed to 0.4 percent, and an automatic machine recount began with a November 15 deadline. Although three counties missed the deadline, it was not extended. DeSantis was confirmed as the winner and Gillum conceded.

In September 2021, DeSantis announced he would run for reelection. In the general election, he faced Democratic nominee Charlie Crist, a U.S. representative and former Florida governor. DeSantis won the November 8 election in a landslide, with 59.4%. He claimed to have received the highest Jewish vote share of any Republican candidate in the state’s history

Jacob Kornbluh noted, “As governor of Florida, home to the third-largest population of Jews among U.S. states, DeSantis has earned praise for expanding Florida’s school choice program, boosting security funds for nonprofits and Jewish institutions, and signing a hate-crimes bill that would make publicly displaying a swastika a felony…. DeSantis signed a law in 2020 requiring public schools to certify that they teach about the Holocaust, but he also drew criticism for allowing parents to remove Holocaust literature they don’t like from school libraries.”

Personal Life

DeSantis met his wife, Casey Black, on a golf course at the University of North Florida. She had been a television host for the Golf Channel and then a television journalist and news anchor at WJXT. They married on September 26, 2009. They have three children.

He is a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion. In 2022, DeSantis appeared on the Time 100, Time’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Trips to Israel

DeSantis, who pledged to be the “nation’s most pro-Israel governor,” visited Israel in 2017 to scout possible sites in Jerusalem to move the U.S. Embassy “to create a sense of inevitability.” In 2018, he brought his cabinet for a meeting at the embassy.

DeSantis visited Israel in April 2023, a time when large demonstrations were held to protest proposed government reforms of the judiciary. “We must also, in America, respect Israel’s right to make its own decisions about its own governance,” he said. “You’re a smart country. You figure it out. It shouldn’t be for us to butt into these important issues.”

During the trip, he also signed a law providing new enforcement mechanisms to punish perpetrators of anti-Semitic incidents and those who target religious communities. He also signed a proclamation to celebrate the 75^th anniversary of Israel’s independence.

He also spoke about how his wife filled a bottle with water from the Sea of Galilee during a prior visit, which they used to baptize their children.

Presidential Campaign

On May 24, 2023, DeSantis officially launched his bid for president.

In July, DeSantis fired speechwriter Nate Hochman, who produced a pro-DeSantis video that drew condemnation from Jewish groups because it featured a Nazi symbol embraced by white supremacists. DeSantis also raised eyebrows around the same time when he said he’d consider nominating Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to run the Food and Drug Administration or Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after the Democrat suggested the COVID pandemic was engineered to spare Chinese and Jewish people.

By the time of the Iowa caucuses on January 16, 2024, the 11-person Republican field had been reduced to three: Trump, Nikki Haley, and DeSantis.

Pundits initially believed DeSantis would pose the most significant challenge to Trump, but his lackluster campaign and unwillingness to criticize Trump led to growing doubts about the viability of his candidacy. After a distant second-place finish in the Iowa caucuses, he dropped out of the race.

Policy Positions

Views on Israel

• Regarding mass removal of Palestinians from Gaza: “As President, I am not going to tell them to do that; I think there’s a lot of issues with that,” DeSantis said. “But if they make the calculation that to avert a second Holocaust, they need to do that — I think some of these Palestinian Arabs, Saudi Arabia should take some, Egypt should take some.” (JTA, January 11, 2024)

• “Israel is a rock-solid ally of ours. They’re the strongest ally we have in the Middle East. As president, I will stand with Israel – in word and in deed, in public and in private. The Oct. 7 attack represented more Jews being killed than at any time since the Holocaust. Israel’s not just fighting a run-of-the-mill enemy, they’re fighting an enemy that wants a second Holocaust, that wants to wipe them off the map. So not only do they have the right, they have the responsibility to protect their people and end Hamas once and for all.” (Jewish Insider, January 10, 2024)

• Regarding the Gaza War: “I will be telling Bibi finish the job once and for all with these butchers. They’re terrorists. They’re massacring innocent people. They would wipe every Jew off the globe, if they could.” (JTA, November 9, 2023)

• “I think we just need to be supportive of them publicly. I think privately we want to say, ‘Do what you gotta do.’ Yes, whatever ongoing military support we have with Iron Dome and all that, we should continue that. But I don’t think it’s going to be a situation where America’s going to need to take a lead in that. I don’t think we should. I don’t think it’s our war. I do think it’s Israel’s war.” (Jewish Insider, October 27, 2023)

• “Florida has placed Morningstar-Sustainalytics on our List of Scrutinized Companies that Boycott Israel for penalizing companies that support Israeli communities in Judea & Samaria. Companies that discriminate against Israel will be held accountable.” (@GovRonDeSantis, October 26, 2023)

• Regarding someone on a visa who expressed support for Hamas: “You don’t have a right to be here on a visa, you don’t have a right to be studying in the United States.” (CNN, October 17, 2023)

• “Israel has been one of the most exceptional developments in the modern history of our entire world…Israel has weathered repeated attempts at annihilation…yet it stands strong as a beacon of freedom and a home to amazing achievements and advancements the likes of which other countries cannot match.

  I’m asked, “You’re a stalwart for Israel and a strong U.S.-Israel relationship. Why, why Israel?”
  
  Well, it’s something that’s personal to my wife, Casey. And to me, it comes from our faith in God. It comes from the visits, and I’ve done a number of visits to Israel over the years where you can walk with a Bible in your hand…Where people like David and Jesus stood thousands and thousands of years ago. The Bible comes to life when you’re in Israel.

  It also comes from us knowing historical facts and historical truth about the thousands and thousands of years of connection between the Jewish people and the land of Israel. It comes from us knowing that the United States and Israel are in the same fight against the same tyrannical forces, including forces fueled by international terrorism.

  And it comes from the recognition that the United States of America was founded on Judeo-Christian values. The United States and the state of Israel have a unique bond, and I will always stand with the State of Israel.

  I was a U.S. congressman for a few terms…one of the things we did was we stood for Israel and a strong U.S.-Israel relationship every day.

  I fought to defund tax dollars going into Palestinian Arabs because they do not recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. And we should not be funding anybody who doesn’t recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state.

  We also spoke very clearly and forthrightly about the fraud that is typically perpetrated in international organizations like the United Nations. They spend so much of their time sanctioning Israel and ignoring all these other significant problems throughout the world. And we led efforts to defund UN agencies like UNRWA that are fomenting terrorism and that are anti-Semitic and anti-Israel.

  We also always stood up for Israel’s right to defend itself. They are besieged with terrorism. You have Iran looming, you have all these problems that they have to face and yet when they act to defend their own people, you have all these people in the cheap seats that are criticizing Israel just for having the temerity to defend their own people. They have a right to self-defense.

  I was also the leading voice in Congress to urge both the Obama and Trump administrations to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. And that has been finally done. And we need to keep that.

  We recognize and were very strong in saying that Jerusalem is the eternal and indivisible capital of the Jewish people, and U.S. policy must recognize that as such….Every single person I talked to from State or CIA claimed if you move the embassy to Jerusalem, there’s going to be World War III….Every one of them was wrong about that. We knew that that was not going to happen, and we also knew it was the right thing to do.

  One of the things that I said was that if you elect me as governor back in 2018, that I would be the most pro-Israel governor in the United States. And we have kept our word and kept our promise on that. My first year as governor…we launched a massive trade mission from Florida to Israel. We had over 100 people on the delegation that went. I actually conducted a Florida cabinet meeting in the American Embassy in Jerusalem, which was a historic meeting for the state of Florida. We engaged in 20 memorandums of understanding between businesses, universities, to really make that Florida and Israeli connection even stronger. And I was the first major public official to do public events in Judea and Samaria at places like Ariel University and Gush Etzion.

  Judea and Samaria are not occupied territory. These are some of the most historic lands going back to biblical times. The Arabs were offered a partition plan in 1948; they rejected the partition plan, and they went to war against Israel. And so I understand there are still disputes, but Israel has the strongest claim to Judea and Samaria, and we have to be willing to say that because it’s true.

  I think we’re in dire need of repairing the U.S.-Israel relationship. What this Biden administration has done, I think, has been disgraceful; the way they treat a strong ally like Prime Minister Netanyahu has been disgraceful.

  You have different things that go on in Israel. Like with this judicial reform, Biden needs to stay out of that and let Israel govern itself. I can tell you this as President, I will welcome Prime Minister Netanyahu to come visit the White House, and we will go to Israel to have bilateral meetings. We have to reject the efforts of the Biden administration to undermine Israel’s claim to a unified Jerusalem. Israel has a right to a unified capital…. So we will be unequivocal that Jerusalem is the eternal and indivisible capital of the state of Israel.

  We also have to reject the Biden administration’s attempt to force a two-state solution with pre-1967 borders. First of all, those borders are indefensible. They want to carve up Jerusalem and all that. But here’s the thing, you can’t do peace with people that don’t believe you have a right to exist as a Jewish state. And we must...reject the notion that somehow Judea and Samaria are occupied territory, the connections with the Jewish people go back thousands of years, and they have every right to have very strong communities in those areas.

  With respect to our relationship with the United Nations. There will be a new sheriff in town. We are not providing tax dollars to United Nations entities that are targeting Israel. We reject things like the Human Rights Council that brings in all these really bad regimes, and they just attack Israel. We reject things like UNESCO that doesn’t even recognize the connection of the Jewish people to places like Jerusalem.

  We will also move very quickly to expand the Abraham Accords....these Arab countries understand the top threat to the Middle East is not Israel; the top threat to the Middle East is Iran, and having a good relationship with both the United States and Israel means a much more peaceful and secure region.

  We should be able to do a peace agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia. We need to get that done, and it just shows you how the foreign policy elite in this town always missed the mark because, for decades, they said Middle East peace goes through the Israeli-Palestinian Arab conflict. You can never have peace in the Middle East unless you solve that problem. I think the Abraham Accord showed just the opposite. And this is something that people like me have been saying for years, you go around, you want to make peace with these countries, make peace with them. You don’t need to worry about the Palestinian-Arab-Israeli conflict; worry about the rest.

  I believe if we do a U.S.-brokered Saudi-Israel peace agreement that that effectively ends the Arab-Israel conflict for good. And that will be huge for the cause of a peaceful Middle East. So, let’s get that done. And by getting that done…it’s going to put other Middle Eastern nations in the best possible posture to counteract the top threat to the region, which is Iran.” (Speech to Christians United for Israel Conference, C-SPAN, July 17, 2023)

• “I was the first major elected official as governor in 2019, to do public events in Judea and Samaria. at Ariel University, and we wanted to break the stigma that somehow this is not appropriate to be doing and when we have imposed our anti-BDS sanctions on companies that have targeted Israel, it’s usually been they’ve been targeting Jews living in Judea and Samaria. And so, we said that’s unacceptable. So, whether it was Ben & Jerry’s or Airbnb, and then we most recently just did legislation. Morningstar tried to include BDS criteria for ESG. And we said, ‘Absolutely not, that’s not going to fly in the state of Florida.’”

  “The U.S.-Israel relationship should be ironclad. We have no better ally in the Middle East. And we have such strong cultural and religious ties to the State of Israel, for them to be treating Israel really with the back of their hand. I think it’s a mistake, but I think it’s part and parcel of how this administration sees the world.... my view as president would be we’re going to have a really strong US-Israel relationship, and that’ll be something that Americans can be proud of.”

  “So just on the embassy, I don’t think Biden’s fully committed to keeping the embassy there. He doesn’t believe Jerusalem is going to be the undivided capital of Israel, but I think that their [Biden’s] view would be pre-1967 and we reject that. I mean, Jerusalem is the indivisible, undivided capital of the Jewish people. And so, with me, it would be very clear that that’s just the way it’s going to ride.”

  “Now in terms of Judea and Samaria, I’ve always rejected this idea that it’s occupied territory. I mean, these are some of the most historic Jewish lands going all the way back to biblical times. Yes, there was a partition plan with the UN in the 1940s. But the Arabs rejected the Partition Plan. It’d be one thing if they accepted it. Israel was willing to accept, they rejected it. And then they chose to wage war for many decades.”

  “And so it’s not occupied territory. It is disputed territory, and I think Israel’s claim is the most superior in terms of anybody else for it.” (Israel Hayom, June 22, 2023)

• “Israel is also one of America’s most valued and trusted allies. Maintaining a strong Israel relationship has been a priority for me during my time in elected office, and I know it’s been a priority for the overwhelming majority of the American people.”

  “Our alliance with Israel rests on unique cultural and religious affinities.”

  “The Judeo-Christian values that trace back thousands of years to the Holy Land and which have been essential to the American experiment.”
  
  “The history and the connection are simply incomparable and that’s one of the reasons why, when I was a U.S. Congressman, I was an outspoken proponent, an advocate of relocating our embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.”

  “Part of the thing that really was compelling to me was, you see how important these religious sites are to people, not just Jews, but to Christians and Muslims, and I can tell you, with Israeli sovereignty over the city of Jerusalem, people have the ability to practice their religion freely. They have the ability to visit sites freely. That would just actually not be true if that were in other hands.”
  
  “Jerusalem is in fact, going back thousands of years, the eternal capital of the Jewish people. U.S. policy should recognize the truth.”

  “The U.S. has been proud to stand with Israel in the face of Israel being singled out for unprecedented and unfair international criticism and political attacks.”

  “Since 2015, the UN has passed 125 condemnatory resolutions against Israel, but only 55 such resolutions for the entire rest of the world.”

  “How could you possibly justify that type of action?”
  
  “We have [an] Israeli company in Lake Okeechobee combating the algae that’s growing with their technology.”

  “We have companies from Israel, who are involved in our medical space, they are involved in their path-breaking research on things like Alzheimer’s and helping with different types of brain tumors, so this is something that’s very significant.”

  “We have a great relationship with Israel with respect to space. Florida is the epicenter of space launches in the entire world in Israel. Israel now has a big part of doing that, and so this is been a great relationship with the state of Florida.”
  
  “So the task before us as Americans, is standing strongly and forthrightly with Israel and with the Jewish people.”
  
  “We must support Israel’s right to defend itself, and that includes strong military and intelligence cooperation.”
  
  “It also includes supporting Israel [and] maintaining its qualitative military superiority with system[s] such as Iron Dome.”
  
  “We must also ensure that, however, the future political winds may blow, the US embassy will always be right here in Jerusalem. That’s never going to change.”
  
  “The U.S. must defend Israel against disfavored treatment by the United Nations and other international bodies and agenda-driven international advocacy organizations.”
  
  “We must reject those who reject Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state.”
  
  “That is Anti-Semitism.”
  
  “We must also, in America, respect Israel’s right to make its own decisions about its own governance.”
  
  “You’re a smart country, you figure it out. It shouldn’t be for us to butt into these important issues.”
  
  “The U.S. should also recommit to the framework of the Abraham Accords and build a strong alliance between the U.S., Sunni- Arab states and Israel, against the threat posed by the Iranian regime.”
  
  “This vision for a strong U.S.-Israel relationship is one that enhances regional cooperation, stability, and security.”
  
  “So let’s hope that the next seventy-five years will be just as good as these previous, and that people will look back and identify the strong partnership between the U.S. and Israel as a major factor in the continuing vitality of the Jewish state.” (Speech by Ron DeSantis, April 27, 2023)

Iran

• “I was one of the leading opponents in the entire United States Congress of the Obama-Khamenei nuclear deal with Iran, which was a total disaster.

  They’ve taken every opportunity they have since the Iranian revolution in 1979 to hurt Americans. If they could hurt another 100,000 Americans, they would do it without question. So, this is a hostile regime. This is a regime that wants to see the destruction of the United States and the destruction of Israel. And we cannot go on with policies that are appeasing this dictatorial and theocratic regime. We have to recognize the threat. We also have to recognize when you have combined Islamist fanaticism with potential acquisition of nuclear weapons. We are in a different world entirely because they may very well understand that if they were to use such a weapon against Israel that they could face a counterattack. And that may be something that they would want to live with because it furthers their apocalyptic ideology.

  Biden is appeasing the Iranians….He’s trying to seek the reinstitution, maybe even worse than the Obama Iran deal and maybe do it under the table where there’s not even a written agreement that would do more to empower Iran than anything else that has happened.

  On day one, the days of appeasing Iran will be over. We will stand with Israel, we will stand with our allies, and we will pursue a policy of accountability when it comes to this regime.” (Speech to Christians United for Israel Conference, C-SPAN, July 17, 2023)

• “They’re more interested in kowtowing to Iran than standing by our allies.”
  
  “Well, the whole Obama-Khamenei [nuclear] deal was a total disaster and Biden is trying to resuscitate that and basically, when you give concessions to the Iranians, they use that money to be able to foment terrorism. They will put that money into weapons development. And so I think squeezing Iran, making sure that they understand that their pursuit of this is going to be bad for them economically, diplomatically, and potentially even militarily, that is the way the only thing that the mullahs understand – strength. You can’t try to cozy up to them. It just doesn’t work. So, we would be supportive of Israel’s predicament. And obviously, we would have a much stronger posture against Iran.”

  “But given Israel’s geographic proximity to Iran, Israel’s relatively small size, they could potentially – if armed with nuclear weapons – try to completely annihilate Israel in a way that they may not have the capability to go after us yet. So I think for Israel, you don’t get a more significant threat.”

  “Using a nuclear weapon on another country is something that you would not want to do because you could get a nuclear response so why would you want that mutually assured destruction that kept the nukes in check during the Cold War, and it keeps most civilized countries in check from wanting to do that? However, this Iranian regime with the ayatollahs may view that as positive because it may coincide with their apocalyptic vision for the end of time. So, I think from that perspective, Israel has a right to defend itself and the US should be supportive of them taking whatever action they need to defend themselves.” 

  Iran has killed more Americans, whether it’s the Marine barracks in Beirut, they killed at least 1,000 US troops in Iraq by funding Shia militia, and so the idea that we’re going to have some understanding, I just don’t see that in the cards.” (Israel Hayom, (June 22, 2023)

• “The U.S. and Israel [have] many common interests. We also have many common enemies. There is perhaps no adversary more hostile to both Israel and the United States than the Islamic regime in Iran.”
  
  “If you look at this, the strategic challenges that we see in this region, Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons creates a risk unlike you have not seen in this region.”
  
  “Their ideology, an apocalyptic ideology, combined with the ability to use humanity’s worst weapons, represents an existential threat to the state of Israel, and it represents a threat to the United States of America.”

  “They got billions and billions of dollars flooded into their coffers [from the nuclear agreement]. What did they use that money to do? Did they make the citizen lives better in Iran? Of course not.”

  “They used that to fund terrorism all around the Middle East, and so we opposed it.”

  “The deal failed and I think it’s important going forward, we learn from that and learn that you cannot approach them in a way that is going to empower the regime. You must hold the regime accountable and that’s what U.S. policy should do.” (Speech by Ron DeSantis, April 27, 2023)

American Jews

• “We’ve really seen a historic migration of American Jews and Israeli Americans moving to southern Florida....It’s really, really boomed, and I think Florida’s policies have really reinforced that.” (JTA, April 27, 2023)

Anti-Semitism

• “Today, I am directing Florida’s Colleges and Universities to make it easier for Jewish students to transfer to a Florida higher education institution. While leaders of “elite” universities enable antisemitism, we will protect Jewish students and welcome them to Florida.” (@GovRonDeSantis, January 9, 2024)

• “We led efforts to combat the so-called BDS movement against Israel…. Maybe you don’t like some of Israel’s policies to each their own. But when you concoct a movement that focuses all of your ire at the only Jewish state in this world, at the exclusion of all these other things that are going along, you don’t care about boycotting the CCP. You don’t care about boycotting all these rogue regimes. You only care about applying disfavored treatment to the state of Israel. That is anti-Semitism, and that is wrong.”

  “We also have stood strongly as a state against the BDS movement...even before I took office, Airbnb had enacted a policy to discriminate against Jews living in Judea. And so we said, when I take office, this shall not stand. We’re going to take action. I took office, we immediately moved to impose our anti-BDS sanctions against Airbnb and, lo and behold, they reversed their policy. We’ve also taken similar action against Unilever based on what Ben and Jerry’s was doing to go after Jews in Judea and Samaria. And this most recent year legislative session, I was able to sign legislation expanding Florida’s anti-bds law.”

  “I’m happy to announce for everybody that Florida has formally instituted an investigation against Morning Star for violations of our anti-BDS law. We’re not letting them target Israel and get away with it.”

  “We’re also going to reverse Biden’s BDS policy of prohibiting funding for scientific cooperative projects in Eastern Jerusalem, the Golan and Judea and Samaria.” (Speech to Christians United for Israel Conference, C-SPAN, July 17, 2023)

• DeSantis criticized Airbnb after it delisted properties in the West Bank and, after Ben & Jerry’s said it would stop selling ice cream in the territory, called on the State Board of Administration to “immediately place Ben & Jerry’s and Unilever on the Continued Examination Companies that Boycott Israel List and initiate the process to place both companies on the Scrutinized Companies that Boycott Israel List.” (Forward, May 21, 2023)

• “If you look at the movement to boycott, divest and sanction the state of Israel, so-called BDS, we in Florida have stood against that from day one of our administration.”

  “It’s fine to criticize policy of any government. You can criticize Israel policy. You can criticize the state of Israel, but when your focus is only on one Jewish state, and, you hold them up to a different standard than you hold up every other country in the world and indeed, when you work to excuse bad conduct from so many rogue regimes throughout the rest of the world, when you have that frame of reference, that is anti-Semitism. You are targeting the one Jewish state for disfavored treatment.”

  “In Florida we made it very clear even before I took office, this was when Airbnb was going to penalize folks here in Israel, and we made it very clear that that’s not going to stand with the state of Florida.”

  “We made clear that in Florida, BDS is DOA.”

  “We proceeded to make sure that our pension funds would not be investing in any of these companies. So we put AirBnB on our a disfavored companies list and guess what? They reversed the policy. What we did worked.”
  
  “My first year as governor, when we actually were here on our trade mission, I signed legislation to combat anti-Semitism in our public universities and that’s been a huge problem throughout our country.”

  “In Florida we treat anti-Semitism the same way we treat racism.”

  “If it’s not appropriate to attack someone on the basis their race, which it is not, it should not also be okay to engage in anti-Semitic tropes.”

  “In Florida, we’ve stood on the side of combating anti-Semitism, as was mentioned, we’ve provided millions and millions of dollars since I’ve been governor for security at Jewish day schools.”
  
  “We’ve also led a nationwide effort to enhance education standards for the Holocaust.”

  “We funded millions and millions of dollars for Holocaust museums throughout Florida.” (Speech by Ron DeSantis, April 27, 2023)

*AICE does not rate or endorse any candidate for political office.

Sources: “Ron DeSantis,” Wikipedia.
“Governor Ron DeSantis Delivers Keynote Address in Jerusalem to Commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the Founding of Israel,” Ron DeSantis, (April 27, 2023)
Ben Sales, “Visiting Jerusalem, Ron DeSantis tries out his Jewish stump speech,” JTA, (April 27, 2023).
Patrick Kingsley, “In Israel, Ron DeSantis Promotes His Foreign Policy Credentials,” New York Times, (April 27, 2023).
“Governor Ron DeSantis Signs Legislation in Israel Further Combatting Antisemitism,” News Release, (April 28, 2023).
Jacob Kornbluh, “For Jewish Republicans, DeSantis enters race with bona fides – and baggage,” Forward, (May 21, 2023).
Ben Samuels, “From BDS to Settlements: Where DeSantis Stands on Israel and the Jewish Community,” Haaretz, (May 22, 2023).
Ariel Kahana, “DeSantis says Iran ‘only understands strength’; backs Israel in ‘whatever action’ needed to defend itself,” Israel Hayom, (June 22, 2023).
Speech to Christians United for Israel Conference, C-SPAN, (July 17, 2023)
Alex Thompson, “DeSantis team fires aide who secretly made video with Nazi symbol,” Axios, (July 25, 2023).
Nathaniel Weixel, “DeSantis floats RFK Jr. to run CDC or FDA,” The Hill, (July 26, 2023).
Kate Sullivan, “Trump, citing Hamas attacks, vows sweeping immigration crackdown if elected,” CNN, (October 17, 2023).
@GovRonDeSantis, (October 26, 2023).
Matthew Kassel, “Nikki Haley leans into fighting campus antisemitism ahead of RJC summit,” Jewish Insider, (October 27, 2023)
Ron Kampeas, “‘Finish them’: GOP presidential candidates unite over what they’d advise Netanyahu about Hamas,” JTA, (November 9, 2023).
@GovRonDeSantis, (January 9, 2024)
“Daily Kickoff,” Jewish Insider, (January 10, 2024)
Ron Kampeas, “DeSantis: Israel may need to remove Palestinians from Gaza if it faces a ‘second Holocaust,’” JTA, (January 11, 2024).

Photo: Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.