BANDON, Fla. (WFLA) — Gov. Ron DeSantis and First Lady Casey DeSantis held a roundtable celebration in Brandon on Wednesday to praise Florida. This is the First Lady Signature Welfare Support initiative to avert Floridians from public financial support and instead rely on private organizations and faith-based groups.
The Florida Foundation, which oversees funds donated to the program to distribute as grants, was at the heart of the Florida home investigation.
“We are not discouraged by critics who are fascinated by intentional ignorance,” Casey DeSantis said.
This is a reference to the investigation that is now closed after the Medicaid Settlement Fund filed accusations that $10 million has been donated to the Florida Foundation. The state legislator who led the investigation said it later ended with the Political Action Committee, previously run by Florida Attorney General James Usmair.
“We do not allow petty politics to drown out the family voices that we have told us for the first time.
One critic is a Tampa Bay Republican lawmaker and said the governor distributed critical material to the $10 million mark of money.
“All these things that are put out there, many of them, are intentionally injustice,” the governor said.
Rep. Karen Gonzalez Pittman is a Republican who represents South Tampa.
“Karen Gonzalez Pittman took the propaganda done by the Democrats on the left. She had rebranded it and handed it over. It’s a scam,” the governor said.
The Republican lawmaker’s office did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
“I think Karen Gonzalez Pittman did a poor job representing South Tampa,” the governor said.
DeSantis then praised the work of former councillor Jackie Toledo, who once represented the district. The governor proposed using his political action committee to help fund challengers to defeat Republican political opponents. He didn’t ask if he would do that at Southernpa.
Hope Florida is the First Lady Desantis signature program, so many speculate that she might run for governor.
“We’ve been more than a year away from qualifying,” Casey DeSantis said.
First Lady DeSantis then continued her talk about her husband’s job as governor, saying that for now the focus should be on the budget.
“I think it should be someone who thinks that he (the governor) ultimately decides to track him down, but he should be someone in the DeSantis type who is willing to get out there and fight,” the First Lady said.
The well-known politicians who announced the governor’s run are Senator Byron Donald, who has President Trump’s support, and Senator Jason Pizzo, who is under the party affiliation.
For those who want to connect to Hope Florida, that number is 833-Get-Hope.
