Florida Governor Ron DeSantis spoke to hundreds of Republicans at the Midland County Republican Party breakfast Thursday morning in Michigan. He brought the War on Woke to the state, his first visit since 18 Michigan lawmakers in January signed a letter urging DeSantis to run for president.

More than 700 Republicans packed the room and DeSantis received a standing ovation during his introduction. DeSantis has a busy day scheduled in Michigan today. He will make stops at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a conservative-leaning think tank, and Pizza Sam’s, a restaurant run by former state Senate Appropriations Chair Jim Stamas. Later, DeSantis has an evening event planned at Hillsdale College.

Democrats did their thing and tried to demonize Republicans along with DeSantis.

Roughly three dozen protesters gathered across the street from the Great Hall Banquet and Convention Center in Midland, where DeSantis spoke, holding up signs that included “Proud to be woke” and “We will say gay.”

Democrats held a series of media calls earlier in the week to criticize DeSantis ahead of his visit, including a Wednesday call highlighting DeSantis’ plan to sign Florida legislation that would ban abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, toughening a 15-week ban he signed last year.

DeSantis “has shown that he’ll go to any lengths to out-MAGA 2024 GOP rivals with this dangerous agenda — even banning abortion in Florida before most even know they’re pregnant,” said state Sen. Erika Geiss, D-Taylor.

“He wants to implement this dangerous agenda nationwide, and it’s far too extreme for Michigan.”

Same old, same old. They always claim the Republican agenda is too extreme and dangerous, mostly as it applies to abortion. Look for Democrats to make abortion a central issue in the 2024 election cycle, just as they did, rather successfully, in the 2022 cycle. On Wednesday, Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed legislation Wednesday repealing Michigan’s abortion ban from 1931.

Today, Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed bipartisan legislation repealing the state’s 1931 law banning abortion without exceptions for rape or incest and criminalizing nurses and doctors for doing their jobs. Last year, Michiganders turned out in record numbers to get Proposal 3 on the ballot and enshrine reproductive freedom in the state constitution. The new laws remove the unconstitutional 1931 law from the books and ensure that Michiganders can make their own decisions about their own bodies.

Whitmer is rumored to have been on the short list of Joe Biden’s vice-presidential choices. She’s a white woman, though, so she didn’t make the final cut. She doesn’t check any identity boxes except for being a woman and we know that isn’t enough for Joe and his obsession with “historic” appointments. She and her bat-poo-crazy policies are easy targets for Governor DeSantis, though, so Michigan was a good choice for his pre-campaign kick-off book tour. Remember that time during the pandemic when she had businesses locked down but allowed some home improvement outlets to open on a limited basis? She didn’t allow them to open their gardening sections with seed displays, for example. There was no rhyme nor reason to her reasoning on closures. Of course, she was a typical hypocritical Democrat who locked down her state and then was caught out with friends in a restaurant, maskless. And, her husband escaped to the family lake house when she demanded everyone quarantine in their homes. Good times, good times.

DeSantis used his favorite expression during his breakfast speech. “Florida is where woke goes to die.”

DeSantis touted laws he has signed to limit discussions of race or sexuality in Florida schools, his fight against Disney prompted by the company’s opposition to a state law opponents have called the “Don’t Say Gay” and his decision to fly Venezuelan asylum seekers to Massachusetts in an apparent critique of Democratic immigration policy.

“Yes, we fight the woke in the Legislature, but we also fight the woke in the schools, we fight the woke in the bureaucracy, and we fight the woke in corporate America,” said DeSantis, who received a standing ovation during his introduction.

“Our bottom line is we do not surrender to the woke mob. Florida is where woke goes to die.”

Only Democrats and the media call the legislation the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. The word ‘gay’ doesn’t even appear in the bill. HB 1557 is the Parental Rights in Education law.

He rightly talks about the victories he has achieved in Florida, a purplish state that his hard work has now turned into a ruby red state. And DeSantis calls Florida a “refuge of sanity” during the COVID-19 pandemic with saw the state’s population increase as Americans moved from states like Michigan to the Sunshine State.

DeSantis has had a pretty great week this week.

In one week, DeSantis got constitutional carry, a six week abortion ban, school choice, and struck back at Disney.

If you are calling him a RINO, you are a colossal moron.

— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) April 4, 2023

That’s a little reminder for the Trump loyalists who are trying to paint DeSantis as a RINO. Kinda ironic coming from supporters of a man who ran as a Republican after being a Democrat in New York for years and contributing to campaigns like Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton. Geez. Do better.

Michigan Republican Party Chair Kristina Karamo, who was endorsed by Trump in her failed 2022 bid for Secretary of State, attended the DeSantis speech but was not acknowledged by local leaders during introductions.

DeSantis “did a great job as governor of Florida,” Karamo said, vowing to remain neutral in the race for the GOP presidential nomination. “I think there’s a reason a lot of Michigan residents are leaving to Florida – a lot of my personal friends — because there is no opportunity (here).”

DeSantis hasn’t declared his candidacy yet but an announcement is expected to come when the Florida Legislature session concludes. Trump is sucking all the oxygen out of the room right now anyway.