Ron DeSantis isn’t a fan of American cities, if comments at the Iowa State Fair are illustrative.
During a “Fair Side Chat” with Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds Saturday, the Florida Governor groused that urban areas were “war zones,” all of which are “decaying.”
“You look at these urban areas in this country. Some of them are like war zones. You can’t be successful if every urban area is decaying,” DeSantis said, as part of comments making the case for “school choice.”
“Part of the reason it’s decaying is because the schools are horrible in places like Chicago and Los Angeles,” DeSantis added.
The Governor has made attacks on reliably Democratic cities part of his campaign pitch since even before he became a formal candidate.
Chicago has been a reliable target.
“I just look at real estate values in Naples,” DeSantis quipped. “When those are going up, I know Chicago has done something stupid again and people are fleeing. So that’s what’s happened. They had a horrible run under their Mayor (Lori Lightfoot) and how do they respond? They elect somebody even more left than the current Mayor,” DeSantis said in New Hampshire in June, referring to the recent election of Brandon Johnson.
His favorite target has been San Francisco, which the Governor did not mention in Iowa but has previously.
“I was just in San Francisco. I saw — in 20 minutes on the ground — people defecating on the sidewalk. I saw people using fentanyl. I saw people smoking crack right there in the open, right there on the street. It was a civilization in decay,” the Governor said at a Faith & Freedom Coalition event in June.
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