T-R PHOTO BY LANA BRADSTREAM Casey DeSantis, wife of Republican Presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, sits next to Marshall County Supervisor Jarret Heil during a visit to Pizza Ranch. DeSantis made the stop on Tuesday and gave attendees an opportunity to ask questions.

Almost 20 people showed up to attend a visit of Casey DeSantis, wife of Presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, at Pizza Ranch on Tuesday.

Seated around a table in a small room in the restaurant, DeSantis started her visit talking about Iowa weather and food. She said growing up in Ohio should have made her more acclimated to the colder temperatures, but added living in Florida might thin the blood. DeSantis regaled the attendees about the first time her children saw snow during a visit last week in Sioux City.

“What do they want to do in that moment? They want to touch it, right?” she said. “So, Ron and I are sitting there at 5:30 in the morning in the hotel room doing paper, rock, scissors to see who is going to go downstairs with three small children to go touch said snow.”

Seeing a plate of food on the table, DeSantis said Pizza Ranch made the best fried chicken she had ever eaten.

“And the best pizza comes from a gas station,” she said to laughter. “One of the most magical things happened, especially with our kids when we brought them to get breakfast pizza at Casey’s. It’s revolutionary.”

Her children are one of the reasons why she said they fight so hard when they see foundations slipping away.

“We want to make sure we are saving our Constitutional system in the way our founders created our unique American experiment,” DeSantis said. “Our rights come from the creator, government is put in place to protect the rights we innately have. They don’t have the right to come in and usurp those rights from us.”

She said the government already did that during the COVID-19 pandemic when churches and businesses were shut down. That took away the opportunity for people to work and put food on their families tables. DeSantis said people were not allowed to be with family members during the final moments, and had to wear masks and take vaccinations in various locations across the country, but not in Florida. However, the line must be held.

“Government should be limited and confined, and we have to make sure we stand up for what makes us great,” she said. “I feel like that is on the line in this election.”

DeSantis said she feels like the country is one generation away from losing exceptional qualities. She opened the event for questions from attendees. DeSantis said they could talk about about how the bureaucracy has become the fourth branch of the government.

“Why is it six of the wealthiest counties in the United States of America are suburbs of Washington, D.C.?” she asked. “We’ve got to get accountability for what’s happening with the [bloat] of Washington. Get Washington out of Washington, actually get people to represent the best interests of the American people.”

DeSantis said they could talk about government spending or shutting down the border, and stopping the illegal flow of immigrants.

“We’ve seen more than eight million people come across,” she said.

DeSantis suggested they talk about education – how it should not be used to indoctrinate children, and parents should have the right to dictate what their children learn.

“I never thought schools would ever be used as a vehicle to advance anyone’s ideology,” she said. “It should always be about reading, writing and arithmetic and citizenship and learning how to inherit this great republic. We have to make sure we get back to the foundations, and giving that to our kids so they can live up to the God-given potential and accomplish the American dream.”

DeSantis said the American dream is at stake. Mothers she has encountered told her the harder their children work, the more they fall behind with increasing inflation and decreasing wages. She said that is not the foundation she grew up with and added herself and Ron are examples of the American dream, both beginning in blue-collar households.

“It’s only in America two really nobodies would have the potential to save the American republic, and that’s what we’re fighting for,” DeSantis said.

The press was not allowed into the question and answer portion of the visit.

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Contact Lana Bradstream

at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or

lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.