Ron DeSantis Went to South Carolina to Talk About Wokeness While His Florida Constituents Face a Fuel Shortage

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) traveled to South Carolina to speak about fighting “woke” while South Florida attempts to recover from last week’s severe flooding after torrential rains wreaked havoc on his home state.

As Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida noted several hours after DeSantis spoke on Wednesday, there is a fuel shortage in the region.

DeSantis, who is reportedly gearing up to announce a bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, has barnstormed across the country in early caucus and primary states such as Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina to burnish his conservative credentials – in large part by touting his war on “wokeness” in Florida.

“So, because the woke represents a war on truth, we have no other recourse but to wage a war on woke,” DeSantis told a gathering in Spartanburg, South Carolina on Wednesday. “We fight the woke in the schools. We fight the woke in the legislature. We fight the woke in the corporations. We will never ever surrender to the woke mob. Florida is where woke goes to die.”

The Florida governor’s speech in South Carolina did not manage to assist his constituents in their attempt to fill up their automobiles two states away.

In a video posted on Twitter Wednesday night, Rubio addressed the fuel crisis in South Florida. Though he did not mention DeSantis by name, his words could be understood to imply that the governor – and other officials in the state –  should take action:

What’s happening right now in Miami and Fort Lauderdale with gasoline is crazy. You can’t find gasoline anywhere. This has been going on since Sunday. And they’re blaming it on the floods that impacted the port, and I know that was a factor. But it’s been four days. This should’ve been figured out by now, and they’re blaming it on consumer panic. Yeah, people are panicked because they gotta get to work. They got places to go, and you either can’t find gas or you have to wait in line for like two hours down the street where you’re probably gonna run out of gas while your waiting. So, yeah, people are panicked.

Rubio concluded by saying, “They gotta get this thing fixed. This is crazy.”

If DeSantis does run for president, he will face an uphill battle to topple former President Donald Trump, who has already declared his candidacy. Trump endorsed DeSantis for governor in 2018 and has taken credit for the governor’s rise to Republican political stardom.

A recent Fox News poll shows DeSantis trailing Trump by 30 points.