GARDNERVILLE, Nev. – Even among the Star Spangled suits, cowboy hats emblazoned with the American flag and “Let’s Go Brandon” baseball caps, Greg Cesarz stood out.
Cesarz wore a custom “DeSantis 47” baseball jersey with “Yale” stitched across the front, which is the alma mater of Gov. Ron DeSantis. Cesarz says he’s a fan of DeSantis for one general reason: Covid.
“He didn’t let Covid ruin the state,” he said. “It’s a shower. I want it to turn our country into Florida.”
It was a sentiment heard again and again in interviews with more than a dozen people who attended the Basc Frey, an annual conservative political event that drew about 2,500 people here Saturday.
They come from a state that struggled economically after it suffered widespread business closures, including on the Las Vegas strip, leaving thousands out of jobs in the service industry. The closings were so unpopular that former Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak, blamed for the closings, was ousted last fall, even as Democrats swept other statewide offices here.
“We’ve had a lot of closings, especially mom and dad, going out of business,” said Patrick Lewis, an area Republican who previously supported Trump. “I liked his response to the Covid crisis because he looked at real science.”
DeSantis and his allies put their response to Covid front and center Saturday in the Silver State, an early primary state that will hold the first presidential contest in the West next year.
“Ron DeSantis is someone who held his own during Covid,” said Adam Laxalt, the longtime Basque Fry host who also ran for Senate last year and chairs the pro-DeSantis super PAC Never Back Down. “He knew the consequences, and they came down hard on him. And did he cave in like a lot of Republicans would? He just stood stronger and higher.”
The Florida governor’s handling of Covid in his state, including keeping businesses and schools open and not mandating masks, drew some of the biggest cheers during DeSantis’ remarks at the event. That it remains a top issue in Nevada could be an opening for the Republican, who is trying to sell himself as an alternative to Donald Trump.
“We held the line during Covid, when freedom itself hung in the balance,” DeSantis said Saturday. “We refused to let our state descend into some kind of Faucian dystopia where people’s livelihoods were destroyed and their liberties curtailed. No, we protected people’s rights. We protected their jobs , we saved their businesses and made sure our kids could go to school in person without a mask being forced on their face.”
DeSantis had a large, captive audience of conservatives on Saturday, in a popular event attended by no other presidential candidate. He was joined by his wife and children, who also attended the Reno Rodeo and visited a Veterans of Foreign Wars hall the night before.
The Basque fry is a traditional holiday that celebrates Basque culture, including the consumption of “lamb fries”, which are lamb testicles. Although it’s tradition, DeSantis was not seen consuming the fries. Trump’s team had snubbed the governor after learning he was headlining the event.
In his remarks, DeSantis did not mention Trump, although he criticized the failure to build a wall on the southern border and at one point called out Republicans in Washington, D.C. for helping to increase the debt national He also avoided the issue of abortion and his signing of a six-week ban in his state. Nevada is a more moderate state on abortion, as evidenced by current Republican Governor Joe Lombardo who has signed abortion protections.
At one point, DeSantis also talked about abolishing the Internal Revenue Service.
“We should also follow suit at the federal level, just get rid of the IRS and send it off into the sunset,” he said.
One area resident, Frank Gibbons, was sold on the Covid message, citing the pandemic as one of the main reasons he was drawn to DeSantis.
“He’s had a lot of success in Florida,” Gibbons said. “We want that here. And we can’t look back, which is what Trump is doing.”
Margaret Wilkinson, a Reno-area Republican, expressed dismay at the government’s push for Covid vaccines and said she liked DeSantis’ message about having a choice in the matter.
“He uses common sense. He weighs the pros and cons,” he said.
Still, it was a skeptical crowd, with many saying they were open to DeSantis and willing to hear him out, but still not sold on him.
Others vowed they would not deviate from Trump. One group entered the event with a giant flag waving from their white pickup truck: “God, Guns and Trump.” And MAGA hats, while not predominant, still dotted the crowd here and there.
“I want to address something: I’m sure many of you are fans and supporters of President Trump,” Steve Cortes, national spokesman for Never Back Down, said to applause from the crowd. “I understand because it was you…I have now determined that Ron DeSantis is the right leader, the man who can win the election and govern as a capable and highly effective conservative populist president.”
Decked out in a red “America First” cowboy hat, Susan Denson said she was open to hearing from DeSantis, but “if Trump is there, I’ll vote for Trump.”
Still, others expressed weariness with Trump. Lewis, who has supported Trump in the past, said he liked his politics as president and admired the economy at the time. But, he said, Trump was too divisive and “doesn’t know when to shut up.”
