A Republican presidential candidate made a campaign stop in Jefferson Friday.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was at Bett and Bev’s BBQ to meet with the public. During his opening remarks, DeSantis talked about his accomplishments as the governor of Florida delivering on parent’s rights, school choice and illegal immigration and he believes he is the right choice to lead the country for the Republican Party.

“We need somebody that’s going to lead this country to a great comeback because you need some unity in this country, and I think there’s a big majority of people that they don’t like the Democrats, they don’t like the woke, they don’t like the bad energy policy, they don’t like the open border (with Mexico). We have a chance to really build a pretty big coalition if we know what we’re doing. That’s what we did in Florida, we took a state that was 50/50 (Republicans and Democrats) and we made it 60/40. No one thought that was possible and that’s what we did.”       

Sixteen-year-old Noah Hinote joked that he heard there was going to be free food at Bett and Bev’s but also his dad talked about DeSantis and he has heard a lot about him. Hinote talked about even though he isn’t old enough to vote, people his age are still engaged in politics.

“Right now with everything going on and kids being a lot more involved, they have social media, they’re watching tv a lot more. They’re more intelligent about all of these things, they may not be the most rational when they say them, but they still know more (about) what they’re talking about than maybe 10 or 15 years ago. So I think, yeah that’s definitely a key factor in the way politics are going right now.”

The over 50 people in attendance heard DeSantis address topics such as spending money to support the Israel War, eliminating the US Department of Education, veterans rights and benefits, and mental health, among others.