Ron DeSantis’ Rust Belt identity began with the Steel Curtain

Florida’s Governor continues to play up his Rust Belt roots.

On Friday’s Hugh Hewitt Show, the Governor discussed his early years, when he briefly was incubated into Pittsburgh Steeler fandom.

“Well, Hugh, there are baby pictures of me, unfortunately for you, because I know your allegiance, in Pittsburgh Steeler regalia. You remember, I was born in ’78. That was the heyday of the 1970s Steelers dynasty. So that was kind of what my father set me up as,” DeSantis said.

The Steeler fandom ultimately didn’t take though.

“Now, truth be told, I grew up in the Tampa Bay area. And I became a long-suffering Bucs fan at a very young age when they were in the orange uniforms and they would lose pretty much every year with losing seasons. And we were able to follow them through winning a Super Bowl 20 years ago, and then of course with Tom Brady coming. So I’m a Bucs fan. That’s just what ended up happening.”

DeSantis has made note of his Rust Belt roots more of late, including during a trip to Ohio last month.

The Governor, addressing the Butler County Republican Party’s Lincoln Day Dinner, said Thursday that he represented so-called “Ohio values.”

“I can stand here representing Ohio values because the two most important women in my life (are from Ohio),” DeSantis said. “My mother is from Youngstown, and my wife is from Troy, and so my family reflects your family.”

One quote from his book, “The Courage to Be Free,” has gotten renewed exposure of late.

“I was geographically raised in Tampa Bay,” DeSantis writes, “but culturally my upbringing reflected the working-class communities in western Pennsylvania and northeast Ohio — from weekly church attendance to the expectation that one would earn his keep. This made me God-fearing, hard-working and America-loving.”

During a recent appearance touting the book with the Fox News Channel’s Mark Levin, DeSantis explained how the region’s values formed him and buoyed his innate sense of conservatism.

“My father’s from western Pennsylvania, my mother’s from Northeastern Ohio. So that is, like, steel country. That is like blue-collar, salt-of-the-earth and, as you know Mark, Florida’s very eclectic. People kind of come from all over, we do have a culture and so I grew up in that culture, but really it was kind of those Rust Belt values that raised me.”