DeSantis earns praise and protest at Utah GOP convention

OREM, Utah (KUTV) — Utah's GOP Convention was headlined by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a likely presidential candidate in 2024.

He spoke at Utah Valley University after being introduced by Sen. Mike Lee on Saturday.

"I can say as an objective observer, Utah is one of the best governed and performing states in these United States," DeSantis said.

The governor touched on a range of topics, including his second-round gubernatorial victory, where he turned left-leaning areas around Miami red — a move that many hope will help him in a nationwide race.

DeSantis gained praise and criticism around the country during the COVID-19 pandemic after he kept Florida open for business and free from medical mandates.

He spoke about that on Saturday along with changes coming to Florida from their legislative session, which adjourns on May 5.

DeSantis has worked with his legislature to keep sexual orientation conversations out of grade schools, block critical race theory from Florida classrooms and allow parents to remove books they deem inappropriate from school shelves.

"Kids should be able to go to school, they should be able to watch cartoons, they should just be able to be kids without having somebody's agenda shoved down their throat," he said. "It is wrong for a teacher to tell a young student that they were born in the wrong body or that their gender is a choice. And we made sure that we clarified that in Florida law — the left didn’t like that much, a lot of the media didn’t like that much, Disney didn’t like that much, but, you know, they don’t run the state of Florida."

These issues drew dozens of protestors to the UVU campus on Saturday.

Ron DeSantis and his ideology is a very small area and minute part of our country, and they are exerting more power than we deserve," one protestor said.

Inside, attendees were overall united in liking what DeSantis had to say.

"He has a good formula for Florida and it wouldn’t hurt the United States either," one said.

However, not all believe he's ready for presidency, and many continued to express their support in former President Donald Trump.

"Definitely Trump," one said. "He’s tough."