DeSantis’ pitch to New Hampshire is all about a state 1,000 miles south

At his first New Hampshire town hall event on Tuesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis spoke about illegal immigration in Texas, crime in Chicago, disorder in the streets of San Francisco and the wonders of nearly every aspect of Florida — a state he’s mentioned about 80 times.

About an hour into the event, Mr. DeSantis finally got around to saying “New Hampshire.”

His relentless focus on Florida has been well received at times in a state that will play a key role in deciding who will lead the Republican Party in the 2024 election against President Biden. Mr. DeSantis’s comments seemed to resonate especially when he related his actions at home to issues of concern to New Hampshire residents, such as the influx of fentanyl and other deadly drugs into their communities.

Still, his confident talk about his record as Florida governor gave the clear impression that he believes Republican voters need what he offers them more than what he might learn from their questions.

“Every year I’ve been governor, we’ve lowered the assumptions in our pension fund,” he boasted, digging deep into the weeds about Florida’s policies. “In other words, you know, whatever it was when I came in, it was rosier. And we’ve always cut to make sure that whatever happens, our pension system is funded. I think that puts us eighth in the country.

Even his jokes were Florida-centric, sometimes to the point of oblivion for the crowd of about 250 people who packed a carpeted banquet hall in Hollis, a few miles from the Massachusetts border. The public’s reaction was muted when he joked about rising real estate prices in Naples, Fla., to make it clear that Chicago residents are fleeing south to his state.

The main ideological skepticism in the public was about Mr. DeSantis’ hardline stance against abortion—a stance popular in heavily evangelical states like Iowa, but less so in more secular New Hampshire.

Like several other Republican women in attendance, Jayne Beaton, 65, of Amherst, NH, said she came with questions about the candidate’s stance on abortion and the six-week ban he signed in Florida.

“I predict it will be a problem for him,” she said. “With everything else” on his platform, she added, “I’m on board and excited, but I’m less sure about abortion and the six-week ban.”

After facing criticism in recent weeks for not answering voter questions at his rallies, Mr. DeSantis has held town hall-style events in South Carolina, Texas and now New Hampshire since Thursday. While he’s seldom faced with awkward questions, he seemed relatively comfortable in these unscripted moments, asking voters for their names, thanking military veterans for their service, and occasionally cracking jokes .

Such casual interactions are especially important in New Hampshire — the nation’s first primary state whose residents are accustomed to vetting presidential candidates in intimate occasions over and over again.

“It’s a little bit different here than in any other state,” Jason Osborne, the New Hampshire House Republican Majority Leader who has supported Florida’s governor for president, said in a telephone interview ahead of Tuesday’s event. “We are so small, we are the first, so most candidates will hit the state than everyone else.”

Mr. DeSantis, who has a reputation for being a bit socially awkward, works hard to make up for a deficit of about 30 percentage points in the Granite State against former President Donald J. Trump, the Republican frontrunner. He spent more time answering questions from voters in Hollis than at least since announcing his candidacy in May.

The public, including many foreigners who had traveled hours to see Mr. DeSantis, seemed to appreciate his showing up. Several told him they admired his handling of Florida’s coronavirus pandemic. In a state with many veterans, he was also thanked for his military service and applauded when he said he was the only veteran to run in the Republican field.

Mr. DeSantis dodged only one question. A teenager invited him to condemn Mr Trump’s attempts to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power on January 6, 2021. DeSantis refused to do this. All he wanted to say was that he didn’t “enjoy seeing, you know, what happened” that day, but that he had nothing to do with it and that the Republicans should look forward, not backward, because if they were in If the past stood still, they would lose elections.

When finally asked about Florida’s six-week abortion ban, Mr. DeSantis seemed comfortable answering the question and, unlike Mr. Trump, made no effort to wring himself to appeal to more moderate voters. He said he believed that in America “life is worth protecting,” and that it was important to provide services to support low-income single mothers.

Doreen Monahan, 65, of Spofford, NH — who asked Mr. DeSantis the question about abortion and the burden placed on taxpayers when women who can’t have an abortion have unwanted children — later said she was reassured by his answer, including are mentions of enhanced postnatal care and adoption programs.

“It’s nice that they have some options,” she said. “I have friends who have waited years to adopt.”

She said she contacted Mr. DeSantis’ campaign to ask about exceptions to the six-week ban, and felt more comfortable after hearing the details.

Mr. DeSantis made two main arguments against Mr. Trump, without naming him. The first was that there could be no change in Washington if the Republicans kept losing the election. The second was his theme of “no excuses” — a shot at Mr Trump’s failure to deliver on core promises, such as completing a wall along the southern border.

An elderly man told Mr. DeSantis that he voted twice to “drain the swamp,” but it never happened. He wanted to know what Mr. DeSantis would do differently than Mr. Trump.

Mr. DeSantis opened his response by recalling how exciting it was in 2016 to hear the rally chants of “drain the swamp”. But then he took two unsubtle shots at the former president.

DeSantis said that “the swamp” in Washington is now worse than ever and that to “break through the swamp” a president must be disciplined and focused, and have the “humility” to understand that he can’t do it alone. The crowd cheered when he promised to fire Trump-appointed FBI director, Christopher A. Wray, and turn the Justice Department “inside out.”

Mr. DeSantis seemed most animated towards the end of the meeting when a woman asked him about Covid vaccines. In response, the governor denounced the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration, calling their efforts to promote vaccines a “total disaster.” He also attacked major drug companies and highlighted a Florida health department study that claimed to show increased health risks for young men using mRNA vaccines. but that was widely criticized by scientists.

“These Covid restrictions and mandates were not about your health,” Mr. DeSantis said. “It was about them controlling your behavior.”

The DeSantis campaign leaned heavily on criticism of Mr Trump’s handling of the pandemic, seeing widespread anger among Republicans over vaccines, masks, school closures and social distancing measures as an opportunity to draw voters away from the former president.

The audience responded approvingly to Mr. DeSantis against what he called “the medical quagmire.”

Mark Pearson, a New Hampshire Republican state representative who has supported Mr. DeSantis, said in an interview this month that he had seen the governor become more confident as a retail politician.

In May, Mr. Pearson said, he told Mr. DeSantis to contact New Hampshire voters directly.

“I told him, ‘This is what I suggest you do: you walk the rope line, you drop into the diners, you go to the small venues,'” he shared. “‘But it better be real, Ron, because we can smell fake from a mile away, because we’ve been doing this for a hundred years.'”