PHILADELPHIA — When the parental rights group Moms for Liberty held the Joyful Warriors summit in Philadelphia in early July, they were met with left-wing protesters who vandalized a museum hosting one of the group’s events and mobbed attendees shouting threats at women and children. One of the speakers at the conference was Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), a 2024 presidential contender who has embraced the flashpoint causes of parental rights in education and medicine. In a wide-ranging interview after his speech, DeSantis explained why he has done so. The following has been edited for clarity and space.
Washington Examiner: In your speech, you said, “Moms are going to be a key force in this election.” I want you to talk a little bit about that because I think they had a significant impact in your reelection in Florida, this underestimated force, even with Glenn Youngkin in his governor’s race.
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Gov. Ron DeSantis: Well, if you look at how Moms for Liberty has been treated by the media, they’ve been treated very hostile. So, one of the points I made was: That tells you you’re making an impact because they would not be doing that if you weren’t making an impact. Because I think they recognize that the majority of moms agree with what this group, and our policies in Florida, that you know what? Parents do have a right to direct the education and upbringing of their kids.
Yes, schools are [an] important part of the community. They don’t supersede the rights of parents. Parents have a right to know what curriculum is being used in their kids’ schools. They don’t have to sit there and have an agenda imposed on kids, particularly these very young kids.
Schools can’t be doing things behind parents’ back like “changing the gender” of a student without informing the parents. And so, I think a lot of parents have seen, we need a seat at the table again, and they’ve seen the Left — and the Left’s actually honest about this. They will say: “Parents should really just butt out of this. They don’t really know enough about education. We are going to handle it, and the parents should just be thankful about it.”
It’s a very arrogant position, but it is a position rooted in the recognition that the more parents are involved, the harder it is for the Left to use the school system to advance an agenda.
Washington Examiner: What was interesting to me, in doing interviews with women here, dozens of them told me that they were really not involved in politics beforehand. And they voted. They sort of had a smorgasbord of votes: They voted for Democrats, they voted for Republicans, sometimes they just didn’t even vote at all. But this galvanized them, and they have not only started voting and paying attention but also have started running for school boards, getting involved. And like the Tea Party, which was underestimated in 2009 when it first started, do you see this movement having that kind of force for the conservative movement?
DeSantis: I think it’d even be more potent electorally. Ultimately, that 2010 cycle, a lot of that was — these were traditional conservatives who were rebelling against the Obama administration. There was a lot of energy, and it was a big, big win. But I think because of what you say, you’re actually bringing people to the table who may not have been involved at all politically prior to this. And I think it’s just a huge swath of people when you’re talking about parents with children, and it cuts across party lines.
When we did parents’ rights and education in Florida that said we’re not going to do the gender ideology in the schools, the media had … pitched a fit, the Left pitched a fit, but the parents were with us. And it wasn’t just Republican parents because these parents are looking at it saying, wait a minute, why aren’t we worrying about reading? Why aren’t we worried about math and science?
Why are we getting into all these social and political things that most parents are not going to want for their kid anyways? And so I think in that sense, we probably can reach a broader coalition of voters because of this parents’ rights movement. And I really believe — like, in my election in Florida, I mean, we were fortunate to win by almost 20 points. But you know, we won 50% of single women. Republicans never do that. And I think the reason is the single moms were for us because they saw that we cared about their role in education. We made sure the schools were open when many people were telling us we couldn’t do that and they had difficulty putting food on the table if they had to also be the teacher at home.
So, we did a lot, I think, that connected with those folks, and I think we’ll do the same nationally. And I think there’s a lot of parents around there that haven’t been as fortunate to have policies like Florida. And I think they want to have somebody that’s going to be a champion for their rights.
Washington Examiner: Let’s talk a little bit about the recent Supreme Court decisions.
DeSantis: Well, I think the idea that we should treat students based on race, rather than merit, violates the law and the Constitution. In Florida, we don’t have that. We have colorblind admissions. And that works very well, and it’s fair. And we also say, because we understand some schools may be better than others, [if] you finish in the top 10% of your class in high school, you can get into a Florida university, and we’ll make sure you have a spot for that. But we’re not giving up [spots] on the basis of race, and I think that that’s important. So I think it was a good ruling.
Now in Florida, we’ve gone even further with our universities because, yes, we don’t have race-based admissions, but we actually eliminated this whole idea of DEI. They say it’s diversity, equity, and inclusion. In reality, it’s ideology being imposed on the institution. And it’s really division, exclusion, and indoctrination the way it’s done. We don’t think that has a part in our public institution, so we nixed it.
I think this decision may open the door for more equal treatment in corporate America because I think corporate America divvies up based on race. Look, we’ve got to focus on merit, focus on achievement. There’s so many things that can unite us. When you elevate things that divide, that’s not healthy for society. So, I think this whole project of trying to socially engineer a superficial diversity has not worked. Here’s the thing, what I’ve found in some of these elite institutions: Yeah, they may generate diversity in skin color, but they tend to promote uniformity of thought.
What about diversity of life experience? Diversity of viewpoints on things? I think a lot of these organizations that go whole hog with DEI, they end up creating a conformity, which I don’t think is something that’s very appetizing.
Washington Examiner: Let’s pretend you’re president. What’s some of the criteria you want for a good Supreme Court justice?
DeSantis: You want somebody that understands the proper role of the court, that’s going to apply the law and Constitution as it’s written and originally understood, not as they would like it to mean, and no legislating from the bench. That’s kind of the intellectual framework. I think what separates the great justice from justices who may not reach that level is: Do you have the fortitude and the backbone to rule the way the Constitution demands, regardless of how that’s going to be received by elite media, by the law professoriate? So, if you look at somebody like Justice Clarence Thomas, if you look at Justice Samuel Alito, they would really be the models because I think what they’ve shown over the years is an ability to issue principled rulings regardless of what way the wind blows. I think Justice [Antonin] Scalia, the late Justice Scalia, was another one of those.
But Clarence Thomas, you cannot rattle him. They’ve been smearing him for decades. And he is just strong as a bull. He believes in the Constitution, and he’s just fearless in what he does. And nobody’s perfect. But man, anytime there’s a decision, 99.9%, he’s probably in the right spot. But I do think it’s just because, again, elite society is going to pull these justices to the Left. You’ve got to have somebody that really has that firm foundation.
And I’ve heard from justices, from people that have worked the Supreme Court, this building, they say it does things to people. I mean, you come in, and then it can kind of change you. You don’t want someone that’s going to change based on that. You want them to be the same person, and you want them to be able to rule the way the Constitution demands. It’s not an institution that was designed by the founders to follow public opinion. Because the time when you’re upholding constitutional rights, when it really matters, is when that’s not necessarily popular.
Washington Examiner: How do you as president bring the country back together?
DeSantis: I think the vast majority of Americans are interested in the country going in a better direction. But it’s got to be rooted in truth and common sense and reality. And we can’t be going on these ideological joyrides like we’ve seen in these liberal jurisdictions and, of course, like we see with the current administration. And I think there’s a big, big market for that. It’s not going to be easy to do. But I also think that we’re probably in a position right now, more so than any time since 1980 when President Reagan was elected, where the country recognizes, hey, we’re off course here, let’s try something different.
Washington Examiner: You were just at the border. What was that experience like to you to actually see it on the ground?
DeSantis: So I’ve been fortunate [to go] down there a bunch of times. I’ve sent people for years now to help Texas. The No. 1 thing I feel is just humiliation that our country has ceded control of its borders to Mexican drug cartels. Because that’s exactly what has happened.
So we need to stop the invasion. We do need to build the border wall. We need to reestablish the sovereignty of this country. So, that’s what we’ll do on day one. We’ll do a state of national emergency. I’ll move resources, including military, there. But one of the things I saw when I was in Arizona a couple weeks ago — there, obviously, there’s not a border wall that protects the whole wall. There are pieces of wall, and there was one place where there was a piece of wall, and it’s big concrete beams. And the cartels would actually cut through the border wall. They got backpacks on, and they’re bringing drugs. And they’re just allowed to do that with impunity. What kind of a country are we?
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So, what I said at the border is, if the cartels break through our walls and they’re running poison into this country, we’re going to have rules of engagement that that’s the last thing they will ever do. Because those cartel operators are going to end up stone-cold dead. We’re going to defend this border like we would defend our homes or like we would defend our businesses. And yet that is not what happens. It’s basically just a free for all. And what’s the cost of that?
In the drugs alone, we have tens of thousands of Americans who are dying because of fentanyl overdose. And this is impacting communities all across the country. It’s impacting people in Florida. It’s impacting people in New Hampshire. I was at the southern — when I was at the border, we did a town hall with people from South Texas. We had 10 angel moms who had lost kids to fentanyl overdose. That would not have happened … but for us allowing this to come in. So, we’re going to have the most assertive policy in American history on interdicting that and holding the cartels accountable.
Salena Zito is a national political reporter for the Washington Examiner.
