Ron DeSantis tells Iowans he was fighting ‘woke’ with his latest State Attorney suspension

Ron DeSantis continues to be the leading warrior against “woke” in the Republican presidential race, and on Thursday he told Iowans how he won his most recent battle against the concept.

During a Never Back Down tour stop in Coralville, DeSantis told a crowd how his suspension of elected Orlando-area State Attorney Monique Worrell, the only Black female State Attorney in Florida, was his latest triumph in that ongoing conflict.

“When (woke) overtakes criminal justice, you see these prosecutors who say they’re not going to prosecute people, they’re not going to hold them accountable in places like Los Angeles and Chicago and communities end up less safe as a result of that,” DeSantis said.

“You know, in Florida we just acted, we had a prosecutor in Orlando. She wouldn’t prosecute cases. She’s putting people out back on the street. And this one guy shot two police officers because he should have been in jail and he’s out there. So I removed her from her post,” DeSantis added. “I’m not going to just sit there and take that.”

The Governor took a break from a Hawkeye State intensive campaign schedule Wednesday to suspend Worrell during a press conference in Tallahassee, after first leaking the news of his second suspension of an elected State Attorney to Fox News.

Worrell won election as State Attorney in Florida’s 9th Judicial Circuit in 2020 and recently announced she would seek a second term in 2024. However, she has been replaced in the near term by former Judge Andrew Bain.

An executive order specifically takes Worrell to task on seeking mandatory minimum sentences on crimes involving firearms. It notes the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office referred 58 non-homicide robbery with a firearm cases to prosecutors in 2021 and 2022. But as of May, only one of those cases resulted in a minimum mandatory sentence of 10 years.

The order also notes the judicial circuit had one of the lowest prison admission rates in the state for robbery with a weapon, armed burglary and weapons possession.

“Worrell’s practices or policies of avoiding minimum mandatory sentences for gun crimes not only defies the expressed will of the Florida Legislature, it also subjects the residents of Orange and Osceola Counties and surrounding areas to increased risk of harm as violent criminals in the community are too often left on the streets or prematurely returned to the streets to cause further violence and mischief,” the order reads.

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Jacob Ogles of Florida Politics contributed to this report.