Vice President Mike Pence stopped in Jacksonville last Thursday, Oct. 25 to garner support for Republican gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis at a rally held at the Prime F. Osborn III Convention Center downtown.
The event was attended by several noteworthy Republican officials, including Rep. John Rutherford, Rep. Ted Yoho, State Rep. Cyndi Stevenson, St. Johns County Republican Executive Committee Chairman Jerry Cameron and Clay County Sheriff Darryl Daniels.
Also in attendance was Kellyanne Conway, counselor to President Donald Trump, who helped to fire up the crowd.
“Elections are fundamentally about choices,” Conway said, “and as I look across … the political landscape this year at different races, I can think of very few where there’s such a stark contrast in the policy positions and the vision that is being put forth by the two candidates as I see in your governor’s race this year.”
The vice president agreed with that sentiment, stating: “My fellow Americans, the choice in this election in Florida couldn’t be more clear. In Ron DeSantis you have a principled leader with a proven record who is ready to lead on day one to take Florida to even greater heights, and in his opponent, Andrew Gillum, you’ve got just one more voice in the resistance.”
Adding that the Tallahassee mayor’s policies were “more like Bernie Sanders’ Vermont than the Sunshine State,” Pence contrasted them against those of DeSantis, whom he characterized as a “champion” for Florida and the Trump agenda.
“It’s a choice between tax hikes and tax cuts,” Pence said. “It’s a choice between jobs and mobs, between open borders and border security, dependence and independence. The truth is, it’s a choice between resistance and results in the State House in Florida, and Florida needs to choose Ron DeSantis to get more results, and more jobs and more security in the next four years.”
Also pointing to Gillum’s support for the idea of abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Pence assured attendees that DeSantis would be an advocate for law enforcement in Florida, stating: “With President Donald Trump in the White House, with Rick Scott in the Senate, with Ron DeSantis as your governor, we will never abolish ICE. We will stand with the men and women of Immigration and Customs Enforcement as they enforce our laws, and I promise you, we’ll secure our border, we’ll build the wall and we’ll fix this broken immigration system once and for all.”
But even in noting the stark contrast between Florida’s two gubernatorial candidates and their respective political parties, the vice president also took a moment to call for civility in a time of great political turmoil and division.
“In these challenging times in the life of our nation, where it seems like there’s more division these days than any time in my adult life, it seems like people on television particularly focus all the time on what divides us as Americans,” he said. “But we’ll always believe — I know Ron believes — there will always be more that unites us in these United States of America than will ever divide us.”
Closing out his remarks, Pence encouraged attendees to get out and vote, stating: “I truly do believe with renewed Republican majorities in Washington, D.C.; with Rick Scott in the United States Senate; with Ron DeSantis and Jeanette Nuñez in the State House; with President Donald Trump in the White House; and with God’s help, we will make Florida and America more prosperous than we could possibly imagine, we will make Florida and America safer than ever before and, to borrow a phrase, we will make America great again.”
