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By: Terri Wu
Fresh off signing a six-week abortion ban into law the day before, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis vowed to continue fighting the “war on woke” to about 9,000 students before receiving an honorary degree of the Doctorate of Humanities at Liberty University on Friday.
Speaking to young evangelicals at the twice-weekly convocation service, which the school calls “the world’s largest gathering of Christian students,” DeSantis touted Florida as the “refuge of sanity” and “a ray of hope” when “freedom and our very own way of life… withered on the vine” in the country.
In his view, Florida’s population growth and his landslide reelection victory last year are a direct result of his fight against woke ideology—what he called “cultural Marxism”—and Americans “voting with their feet.”
“We have made Florida the state where woke goes to die,” he declared as the audience burst into a loud cheer.
His statements against gender ideology—prohibiting using puberty blockers or sex change operations on minors in Florida and criticizing biological males competing in women’s sports—were also well-received by the crowd. “Because woke represents a war on truth, we must wage a war on woke,” he added.
The governor started his speech by thanking Liberty University students for praying for his wife Casey’s recovery from breast cancer. Casey was diagnosed in 2021 and became cancer-free late last year. “The prayers that we received as a result of that lifted up our spirits,” he said. “The prayers have been answered.”
In closing, he said he “looked forward to the battles ahead” in the “war on truth,” “I will fight the good fight. I will finish the race. I will keep the faith.”
‘Uplifting’ and ‘Inspiring’
Giulia Nicole, a homeschooled high school senior, said DeSantis’s speech was “uplifting.” She has been on dual enrollment at Liberty University online and will attend the college full-time in August, majoring in accounting.
“A lot of times when you hear people speak, you kind of leave feeling like the world is just going downhill, and there’s not a lot of hope,” she told The Epoch Times. “Gov. DeSantis was very uplifting. He was a breath of fresh air because I feel encouraged right now. I don’t feel worried about the future. So I really enjoyed his speech.”
She attended the convocation with her mother Carla Nicole, grandmother Maria Shoemaker, and a friend Savannah Dudzik, a Floridian in Lynchburg, for just the weekend for a pro-life event.
“I would just say I was impressed. Every time he speaks, I’m a little bit more impressed. He’s so genuine. And we need people like that in politics,” Dudzik, a resident in the Tampa Bay area, told The Epoch Times. “We need people who are genuine, people who you can tell he’s not there for the crowd. He’s not there for the applause. He’s there for the people. He’s there for us.”
The governor’s description of the current state of affairs resonated with Shoemaker. She said she had worried about the societal trend for the past 15 years. “It looks like Marxism to us,” she said, adding that she fears for her children and grandchildren.
“Today was very inspiring to me. Because there are still champions out there that are willing to stand for what is right,” she told The Epoch Times. “And if we can just work together and somehow band together and get men into government that can really change things in this country, I think we have a chance.”
‘A Lot of Buzzwords’
Sydney Steele, a senior majoring in business administration–humanitarian aid and graduating this spring, said DeSantis used “a lot of buzzwords.”
“I think he could have focused more on the policies instead of Democrat versus Republican because, ultimately, the church is made up of all kinds of people,” she told The Epoch Times, adding that she would welcome more diverse speakers, including maybe a mediator facilitating a two-sided discussion, at future convocations.
“DeSantis is very good at getting reactions from people. So in that way, he’s very charismatic and able to connect instantly with a crowd,” said Steele, who also attended Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s speech in May 2022. “I think Youngkin is more on a personal level.”
“[DeSantis] had the opportunity in a very large school that’s faith-based to share his own faith and connect with students on that level. And I think that would have been really cool,” she said, adding that Youngkin made more reference to faith.
DeSantis came across as “very bold” to Steele. She said that was needed. “Fixing schools and just returning to the foundation that our country was built on” is important to her.
She voted for Youngkin in the gubernatorial election in November 2021 and hasn’t voted in any presidential election yet due to age. When asked to pick between DeSantis and Youngkin, the self-described conservative and Republican responded, “I don’t know. I’m a Virginian.”
‘New Fresh Blood’
It was the first time for Carla Nicole, co-founder of Culture of Life 1972, a fashion company that supports pro-life charities, to listen to DeSantis live. She said she found him “very approachable.”
In addition to Giulia, she has a daughter who graduated from Liberty’s law school and another daughter studying nursing at Liberty. “I enjoyed hearing him say that he is going to lead even if he is the only one leading in Florida,” she added.
“I love Trump, and I also Like Younkin—we’re here in Virginia,” she told The Epoch Times. “But I think that we need new, fresh blood. And I think DeSantis is that.”
‘More Fit’
For Connor Watkins, a junior at Liberty University with a major in criminal justice and a minor in psychology, DeSantis would make a good presidential candidate. He said the recent Trump indictment for falsifying business records didn’t affect his opinion, “I think culturally, they are trying to make him [Trump] look in a certain way.”
But Watkins, born in Florida and currently lives in Virginia, said DeSantis was “more fit” than Trump, who “as a person has probably made some questionable choices” and is “getting pretty old.” He said he would vote DeSantis over Trump and DeSantis over Youngkin, who’s “also a good fit.”
Tyler Maxwell, however, welcomed both Trump and DeSantis to run for president. “What they bring to the table are very different, but at the same time, that’s what we need,” the sophomore majoring in youth ministries and sport outreach told The Epoch Times. “We don’t need two people agreeing on the same thing because, at the end of the day, if you don’t have a good Christian inside the White House or [on] the governor seat, or the Senator seat, any seat, that just makes it harder for us.” (TheEpochTimes.com)
