Ron DeSantis says ‘reforming’ universities could help GOP press voter registration gains

Gov. Ron DeSantis, addressing the Republican Party of Florida during a breakfast meeting at Milwaukee’s Republican National Convention, heralded registration trends that are going the GOP’s way in once purple Florida, where Republicans have a 963,000 voter advantage over Democrats.

And he suggested that one outlier could somehow be resolved through executive policy.

“Really the only places that we haven’t really outpaced them are the places that have universities in them. Orange (County, home of) UCF, Gainesville (the home of the University of Florida, and) Tallahassee (the home of Florida State University),” DeSantis said. “But I will tell you no one is doing more on reforming universities than we are.”

DeSantis, of course, has made moves to reorient universities in a more conservative direction, in efforts to create a higher education system in the state that is the “Harvard for the unwoke.”

Some of them have included administration choices, like the restructuring of New College from a “Marxist commune” to the “Hillsdale of the South” through purging the board and installing President Richard Corcoran.

Other moves have included banning diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, which he calls “discrimination, exclusion and indoctrination.”

Beyond those college towns, DeSantis is bullish on progress elsewhere, saying “pretty much everywhere has moved in our direction.”

“Palm Beach, even Broward — I mean, we’ve got a long way to go in Broward — but it has moved,” DeSantis said.

“Hillsborough County is on the brink. We’re not there quite yet. But we will definitely get there. We’re going to have more registered Republicans in Hillsborough than Democrats very soon. That’s never happened. We weren’t even close for many years. It had been just viewed as a blue county and so we were able to win that.”

The Governor also cited gains in Pinellas, Osceola, and Duval County, which is “trending to where I think we’re going to be able to hopefully take that over.”