CNN’s Elle Reeve interviewed American women from across the political spectrum who bonded online in support of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
Tuesday night’s segment featured women from different parts of the country and from diverse political backgrounds bonding online over their appreciation of DeSantis and his policies. The segment particularly focused on how the COVID-19 lockdown changed the game for concerned mothers and teachers, who would consider voting for DeSantis even if they had previously voted for Democrats.
“During the 2020 COVID lockdowns, these frustrated moms created an informal Twitter network of people angry about closed schools and the difficulty of remote learning,” Reeve summarized. “They were from all over the country, but they saw DeSantis as a model of what they wanted in their cities.”
Reeve spoke with Professor Vanessa Steinkamp about DeSantis and how his policies have been winning over women voters: “If DeSantis ran tomorrow, he would win. And I think that would be such a hard pill to swallow, I think, for a lot of people “. he declared
CNN featured moms with career backgrounds across the country who admire Florida Governor DeSantis’ policies. (CNN)
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She explained that one of the main reasons for this was her stances against lockout policies that were widespread in other states, policies that she and her fellow mothers were criticized for questioning.
“I mean, when I started advocating for the kids to come back in person, they called me a grandma killer, a teacher killer, selfish, on Twitter,” he said.
Reeve noted that Steinkamp used Twitter to connect with Levi’s executive Jen Sey, who reportedly moved her family from San Francisco, California, to Denver, Colorado, in order to send her children at school in person.
“We quickly found an online community, and I found it really interesting that she was a teacher who advocated for in-person schooling. In San Francisco, you could go to a bar or a strip club, but my high school student couldn’t in English class”.
Sey also noted the exact moment DeSantis became a national figure for many mothers like her: “He was very vocal starting in the summer of 2020 about the need to open particular schools.”
Reeve noted, “There were several active group chats where moms shared news about COVID and DeSantis. One grew to over 80 people and they traveled to each other’s homes.” He then noted that “many have been lifelong Democrats” and introduced Julie Hamill, an attorney and mother of three in Los Angeles who won election to the school board in 2022.
The mothers interviewed by CNN were in three different states, but they could agree on aspects of DeSantis’ political platform.
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Hamill recalled how he voted for Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and Joe Biden in past elections before declaring, “I’ve never voted for a Republican presidential candidate. I’ve always considered myself very liberal socially, but as we got more vocal on Twitter, we were really demonized.”
Reeve noted that many around the world, especially Europe, have increasingly noted that the COVID-19 lockdowns went too far, to the point that they were harmful to children.
“They’re not crazy. Department of Education data shows kids have been hurt by long-term remote learning, black and brown students more than white. In August 2020, DeSantis was early to open schools compared to other US states, but not the world,” Reeve noted. “Many European countries re-implemented national policies. In May 2020, for example, a health official in Finland cited data that children did not play a significant role in the spread of the virus.”
“I think it would be really good to have a big public debate about what we got wrong in COVID,” Reeve told Sey.
“The left doesn’t want to have this debate,” Sey responded. “They will never allow this debate. I think many kinds of inflammatory tactics are used to smear it.”
Several women in the group, even if they support DeSantis, expressed misgivings about abortion regulation, such as Florida’s six-week abortion law.
“I think this is dangerous. This is something I can’t put behind me, and I don’t think it bodes well for his presidential campaign,” Hamill said. “I think that could be a real impediment to bringing moderate women on board.”
Hamill later explained in the interview that while he would love to stay away from social media, it is the battleground for important debates about American society.
“I’d like to be off Twitter, but I feel like there are discussions that need to be had,” he noted. “For all the bad that comes with it, there’s also good. And I’ve connected with all these like-minded women who aren’t alt-right demons. They’re mothers who haven’t been seen or heard.”
Steinkamp noted that while much of the media focuses on DeSantis’ anti-woke initiatives, everyday people are grateful for his policies.
“I’ve been all over Florida, and you know what they all say? “It helped open my business. It helped my kids go to school,” he said. “The media only focuses on the culture war pieces.”
Alexander Hall is an associate editor at Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to Alexander.hall@fox.com.
