Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis tends to garner attention from whatever he says and wherever he goes these days as his political spotlight continues to grow nationwide.
That was the case Friday in Peoria. DeSantis was the keynote speaker at the Lincoln Day Dinner for Peoria and Tazewell counties, where combatting "woke" ideologies and staving off Democratic legislation in both Illinois and the country at-large were the central themes.
DeSantis brought a crowd of roughly 1,150 Republicans to the event at the Peoria Civic Center, plus protesters and the New York Times. While he did not announce an anticipated run for president while in Peoria, he did use a roughly 42-minute speech to take shots at Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and levy a barrage of verbal jabs at Democrats, while also lauding his accomplishments as governor of Florida.
