Ron DeSantis teases moving DOJ Civil Rights Division to Iowa

Ron DeSantis told supporters in Iowa that the Department of Justice (DOJ) Civil Rights Division was up for grabs.

The Governor was at a Never Back Down bus tour stop in Atlantic when he made the suggestion.

DeSantis said he would “tell all our Cabinet Secretaries that they must reduce their D.C. area footprint by at least 50%.”

“We’re going to be taking parts of these agencies and moving them to other parts of the country. So if Iowa wants the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, just let us know, maybe we’ll make that happen.”

Iowa, which is nearly 88% White, may seem like an unlikely place to house the Civil Rights Division. But DeSantis has previously pledged to rework the mission of the Justice Department’s subdivision.

In June, he told radio host Hugh Hewitt the Justice Department would branch out its understanding of civil rights to “do all discrimination” as part of “taking some of these agencies and making sure they’re actually doing the things that we would want.”

One of those things, DeSantis noted, would be going after diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

“For example, like the Civil Rights Division, our Civil Rights Division in Justice will do all discrimination,” DeSantis promised.

“Yes, of course, you don’t discriminate against a racial minority. But you also have to look at corporate America, government, academia, how they are wielding things like DEI in a discriminatory manner against other people. And so we will say no tolerance for discrimination of all kind, regardless of whether you’re in the majority or the minority.”

The Governor said as far back as February that  “parceling out federal agencies to other parts of the country could help reduce the negative effects of this accumulation of power.” At least for one early-voting state, this proposal could be a theoretical boon.