DeSantis Covid response seen as political winner

 NBC News:

Even amid the star-spangled dresses, American flag-clad cowboy hats and “Let’s Go Brandon” baseball caps, Greg Cesarz stood out.

Cesarz wore a custom-made “DeSantis 47” baseball jersey with “Yale,” which is Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' alma mater, stitched across the front. Cesarz says he’s a diehard DeSantis fan for one overarching reason: Covid.

“He didn’t let Covid ruin the state,” he said. “He’s a bad-ass. I want him to turn our country into Florida.”

It was a sentiment heard again and again in interviews with more than a dozen people attending the Basque Fry, an annual conservative political event that drew about 2,500 people here Saturday.

They hail from a state that scrambled economically after businesses closed widely, including those on the Las Vegas Strip, leaving thousands in the service industry out of work. The closures were so unpopular that Democratic former Gov. Steve Sisolak, blamed for the shutdowns, was sent packing last fall, even as Democrats won other statewide offices.

“We’ve had a lot of closures — mom-and-pops especially — that went out of business,” said Patrick Lewis, a Republican in the area who previously backed former President Donald Trump. Referring to DeSantis, he said, “I liked his response to the Covid crisis, because he looked at the actual science.”

DeSantis and his allies put his response to Covid front and center Saturday in Nevada, an early primary state, which will hold the first presidential contest in the West next year.

“Ron DeSantis is someone who stood up all by himself during Covid,” said Adam Laxalt, the longtime host of the Basque Fry, who also ran for the Senate last year and is chair of the pro-DeSantis super PAC Never Back Down. “He knew the consequences, and they came down on him with full force. And did he buckle like many Republicans would? He just stood stronger and stood taller.”

DeSantis’ handling of Covid in Florida, including keeping businesses and schools open and not mandating wearing masks, drew some of the most applause in his remarks at the event. That it’s still a top-of-mind issue in Nevada could be an opening for him as he tries to sell himself as the alternative to Trump.

“We held the line during Covid, when freedom itself hung in the balance,” DeSantis said Saturday. “We refused to let our state descend into some type of Faucian dystopia where people’s livelihoods were destroyed and their freedoms were curtailed. No, we protected people’s rights. We protected their jobs, we saved their businesses, and we made sure our kids had the ability to be in school in person without having a mask forced on their face.”
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There is more.

DeSantis's handling of Covid stands out when put up against that of Democrat governors across the country.  It was bot smart and right as well as brave.

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