Ron DeSantis says Idaho isn’t a ‘mature economy’

TALLAHASSEE, FLA. 3/4/25-Gov. Ron DeSantis talks with the media after giving the State of the State speech on the opening day of the 2025 Legislative Session, Tuesday at the Capitol in Tallahassee. COLIN HACKLEY PHOTO

Gov. Ron DeSantis is throwing rocks at the Gem State of Idaho, diminishing the state’s recent economic growth due to its lower population than Florida.

As he has at previous press conferences, the Governor was discussing Florida having the second-best performance in the “economy,” which has grown by more than 30% since he has been in office. He said Florida led “sizable states,” but less-populated “Idaho may be a little bit more than us.”

But DeSantis dissed the comparison between the states.

“Idaho has less people than Polk County does, so it’s a little bit different comparison when you’re talking, and I love Idaho, but it’s just not the same as comparing to a mature economy,” he said at Winter Haven’s Central Florida Intermodal Logistics Center.

Idaho’s lack of a “mature economy” aside, the Governor has reached into the Rocky Mountains to name Boise State Professor Scott Yenor to the University of West Florida Board of Trustees. The pick has caused some legislators, including the Jewish Legislative Caucus, consternation stemming from Yenor’s alleged “history of antisemitic and misogynistic rhetoric.”

The former fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, per The Associated Press, said “independent women” were “medicated, meddlesome and quarrelsome” and said colleges and universities were “the citadels of our gynecocracy.”

After his selection, past comments about whether women should pick motherhood over higher education immediately generated headlines. More controversy in recent months followed when Yenor, in since-deleted social media posts, questioned whether women or Jews should be considered for leadership posts in the U.S. Senate.

DeSantis has defended naming Yenor to the position when confronted with Yenor’s remarks on women.

“I’m not familiar with that. I mean, obviously, I think if you look at the state of Florida, we probably have a higher percentage of women enrolled in our state universities than we do men, and that’s probably grown under my tenure,” DeSantis said during the Jacksonville press conference in January. “But what I don’t do, what I don’t like is cherry-picking somebody saying this, and then trying to smear them.”

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Jacob Ogles and Jesse Scheckner of Florida Politics contributed to this report.