In Iowa, Ron DeSantis brags on post-Idalia power restoration, dumps on California

Image via Tampa Electric

Florida’s Governor is back in Iowa, recounting stories of his actions when he was off the campaign trail.

In Red Oak on Saturday, Ron DeSantis took a victory lap about power restoration in the wake of Hurricane Idalia, comparing it favorably to California while answering a question about potential nuclear war.

“I can tell you this, you know, we just had hurricane Idalia come through Florida. And one of the things we do is we stage all the power workers and utility workers in Florida before the storm hits; as soon as the storm goes, they rush, they get the power back on a week after an almost category four storm rammed through Florida. We had a higher percentage of Florida power on than California did because they just have normal blackouts and all this stuff,” DeSantis said at a Never Back Down town hall.

DeSantis has advanced this argument before, including during a recent “tele-town hall” with supporters.

In the call, DeSantis took credit specifically for power restoration, contending other states have more power outages than Florida as part of the “appropriate and overwhelming” response his administration delivered after the Big Bend storm.

“If you look at power throughout the country, there are a handful of states that have more people without power than we do,” DeSantis said. “And we are basically eight days after the hurricane left the state of Florida.”