The GOP's rising star began laying out his ideals for his second term in early January — continuing to fuel speculation that he's setting out his campaign priorities for a potential future presidential run.
Governor Ron DeSantis' inauguration speech was largely viewed as a trial run outlining a potential 2024 presidential run. Here are some of DeSantis' main focuses:Â FAMILY FIRSTÂ
'Florida must always be a great place to raise a family — we will enact more family-friendly policies to make it easier to raise children and we will defend our children against those who seek to rob them of their innocence.'
EDUCATION
'We must ensure school systems are responsive to parents and to students, not partisan interest groups, and we must ensure that our institutions of higher learning are focused on academic excellence and the pursuit of truth, not the imposition of trendy ideology.'
 BACK THE BLUE
'We will always remain a law-and-order state, we will always support law enforcement, and we will always reject soft-on-crime policies that put our communities at risk.'
'[Federal government] have harmed public safety by coddling criminals and attacking law enforcement.'
ANTI-COVID RESTRICTIONS
'They have imposed medical authoritarianism in the guise of pandemic mandates and restrictions that lack a scientific basis. This bizarre, but prevalent, ideology that permeates these policy measures purports to act in the name of justice for the marginalized, but it frowns upon American institutions, it rejects merit and achievement, and it advocates identity essentialism. We reject this woke ideology. We seek normalcy, not philosophical lunacy! We will not allow reality, facts, and truth to become optional.'
POWER TO THE STATES
'Florida's success has been made more difficult by the floundering federal establishment in Washington, D.C. The federal government has gone on an inflationary spending binge that has left our nation weaker and our citizens poorer, it has enacted pandemic restrictions and mandates — based more on ideology and politics than on sound science — and this has eroded freedom and stunted commerce.'