Local Republican officials hear Ben Shapiro, Riley Gaines, Rick Scott in Orlando
BY AMBER THIBODAUX
ORLANDO, Fla. – The Republican Party of Florida hosted its 2023 Statesman’s Dinner at the Rosen Centre in Orlando on Thursday, where Ben Shapiro, political talk show host and editor for the Daily Wire, gave the keynote speech. Several Florida legislators also spoke, including Senator Rick Scott, Lieutenant Governor Jeanette Nuñez, Attorney General Ashley Moody, Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, and Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson, as well as former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines. Gaines rose to fame in conservative politics last year after she tied with Lia Thomas, a biological man who identifies as a woman, for fifth place in the 200-yard Freestyle national championship race.
Statesman’s Dinners are typically hosted by state parties to raise funds and increase the involvement and engagement of the counties’ State Committee members and other party supporters in the campaign and activism process. On Thursday, over 800 attendees dined on a multi-course meal while speakers sought to garner enthusiasm and provide encouragement ahead of the presidential primaries.
Sen. Scott opened with a Top 10 countdown on why “politics are so great.” He highlighted the freedom and economic successes of Florida by contrasting the failing policies of Democrat-led states and declaring that Floridians “Believe in God, believe in hard work, and have the best people in the country.”
Gaines followed Scott with an emotional testimony, drawing strong reactions and several standing ovations from the crowd throughout her speech. She recounted an incident at San Francisco State University, where she was physically assaulted and held for ransom by a group of men who identified as women when she was there for a speaking engagement.
Her expectation that a city that prides itself on women’s rights would welcome her message turned into horror when she was ambushed.
“I was attacked, I was assaulted, I was punched, by men who were wearing dresses… Ultimately, I was held for ransom for over four hours when these protestors demanded that I had to pay them money if I wanted to make it home safely to see my family again.”
Gaines said although there were police officers present, she was told nothing could be done because [the officers] “couldn’t be seen as anything other than an ally to this community.”
Since that incident, Gaines has made it her mission to advocate for “privacy for women, safety for women, equal opportunities and respect,” which she referred to as the “bare minimum.”
She also shared stories of her time as a competitive swimmer at the University of Kentucky, where she and her teammates were forced to compete against Thomas – whom Gaines referred to as a “6’4″ fully-intact male with exposed male genitalia.” Thomas consistently placed first in various women’s events and was allowed to dress in the women’s locker room with other female swimmers present. Gaines said she and her teammates were never forewarned that Thomas would be sharing the locker room and referred to the situation as “awkward, embarrassing, and uncomfortable.”
“It was traumatic for me to know just how easy it is for those people who are in a position to evade these guidelines, to totally dismiss our rights to privacy,” Gaines said. She was told by NCAA officials that the guidelines were changed by assigning all locker rooms as “unisex,” which gave men who identify as women access to the women’s locker room.
Former Alachua County Commissioner and current State Committeewoman Raemi Eagle-Glenn, who is also running for State Representative in District 22, called Gaines’ testimony “stirring.”
“As your next State Representative, I will pursue the legislative adoption of the Women’s Bill of Rights. Men are not women; women are not men,” Eagle-Glenn added.
Shapiro, who recently moved his family to Florida from California, pointed out the stark contrast between the two states as he recounted a phone call he received from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis; DeSantis asked why his family was still living in California and said, “Ben, you should really move down here to Florida.” He compared the COVID policies of California Governor Gavin Newsom with those of DeSantis and praised Florida’s commitment to individual rights and freedom.
“Within two weeks of visiting [Florida] we had bought a house, and then my parents also bought a house, because we didn’t know that people could live like this,” Shapiro said.
Familiar conservative talking points were woven into each speech throughout the night, including the banning of LGBTQ material in classrooms, women’s rights in sports, “anti-woke” rhetoric, fiscally conservative economic policy, and the importance of turning to God.
Christian Ziegler, Chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, spoke bluntly about the opposing party: “Democrats aren’t just content with teaching our children to hate America or sexualize their minds, but they are openly in favor of mutilating children,” he declared.
“Keep Florida Free” was also a consistent theme, with many speakers touting the record of DeSantis’ policies regarding economic success and Florida’s pro-freedom culture.
Alachua County State Committeeman Stafford Jones affirmed that notion: “Tonight, the Republican Party of Florida showed why Florida is a great place to live. We have the best Republican Party in the country and the best leadership team of any state in the nation. We easily demonstrated why we need to make America Florida,” Jones said.
Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis referred to the state of Florida as “where woke goes to die” and pointed to the boycotts of Target and Budweiser as proof that “if you go woke, you go broke.”
Alachua County Republican Executive Committee Chairman Tim Marden said it was great to engage and fellowship with like-minded people from across the state. “We heard lots of stories about successes, and that is very encouraging. As I look around and see how Alachua County continues to go in the other direction, I can’t help but feel like we are, in some respects, living behind the iron curtain,” Marden said.
“Alachua County is truly regressing,” Marden added.
Ziegler closed out the evening by proudly announcing that the third Republican presidential debate will be held in Miami in early November.
Somebody, say something….I don’t know where to start!
Something.
An all star line-up with common sense, not radical ideas transforming the country into a third world economy that prints its wealth and weakens individual rights, while preying on children for entertainment while desensitizing them to sexual topics for future pursuits. It’s sick what has happened sense a senile fondling puppet became president and chief liar! Thanks dems!
We can thank God for common sense. Too bad the dems don’t have any.
Looks like the same 4 dem lib spies gave you a thumbs down as they did me. Why do radical democrats hang out on just the facts sites like this and conservative ones like Fox News, when they disagree with almost all of the comments? And probably disagree with almost all of the articles because they aren’t slanted left to protect the disaster in the WH, at the border, in large “sanctuary” cities, in no-cash bail counties, in Gangsville FL and elsewhere dems are in charge. Take Back OUR Country from these communist wannabes!
Hey Jeff, Democrat here who appreciates the Chronicle letting me comment freely. Sorry you can’t handle answering opposing ideas, but that’s your problem. Maybe work out more.
I agree with Gaines and dollars to donuts, most democrats – and republicans – do to. The rest of the line-up? Typical stupid demonization of 1/2 of Americans, something our governor loves to play.
Jeff, this supposed terrible current administration, in the face of a worldwide economic hit from Covid, including inflation across all the western world worse than ours, and a trashed economy left him by the previous WH occupant, has steered us to a future without a recession – which is not what all economists saw even a year ago – seriously increased American manufacturing(we led the world in the increase for the first time in a long time), passed needed infrastructure building in Congress, and restored respect for America across the world and united and enlarged NATO, while creating a record number of new jobs. Last your boy was there, beyond crying about how he was robbed while not having the dignity and b..ls to go to Biden’s inauguration, the economy was in shambles.
PS If Ben Shapiro came here because Gov Napoleon’s quack Covid theories, he’s dumber than he looks. He might want to check this data, and you should too.
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/united-states-rates-of-covid-19-deaths-by-vaccination-status
The age group splitter on that site seems to vindicate the position of the gov (as I understand it): Older people should seriously consider getting vaccinated because it saves lives in that demographic. But the data for people under 60 without health complications is far less clear.
This is the same as when 60 minutes and others in the ivy league trained media clown show were berating the gov for doing everything he could to push vaccination in the older community.
The gov and his clown surgeon general claim the vaccines are dangerous, when in fact not getting them is more dangerous, including for heart problems for young men. Given that reactions to Covid are highly variable, and not just by age, and that “long Covid” is still not understood but potentially very dangerous, your playing with fire by not getting it. Cases are rising again nationally and in Florida, and while this recent variety is not as dangerous as the earlier ones – as was predicted – and of the growing number of friends I know who have gotten it, about 1/2 of them got knocked on their a.s.
“Are you feeling lucky punk?” You definitely cannot trust the governor and Ladapo, the latter having already been called by UF colleagues for falsifying his “research” and the governor for causing the estimated deaths of about 16k Floridians who listed to him earlier.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/22/us/politics/ron-desantis-covid.html
There is indeed a lot left to learn about covid.
But the government’s history of actively working to limit all but the currently politically expedient narrative isn’t helping. The current administration actively denigrated the vaccines (Trump’s greatest achievement) until they were voted in. Then suddenly they promoted benefits to the vaccines that were not indicated any any clinical trial.
Sorry, but citing a NYT slant-article does nothing to support your argument.
Azz Man, Lets Go Brandon’s war on oil has caused inflation like no one else could since Jimmy Carter. Your self inflicted inflation is a direct cause for soaring interest rates pricing millions out of the homeownership market . Rental cost have soared. Now you want to reintroduce the China Flue? Denial is the Democrats agenda. Failures locally and Nationally are more than obvious and their should not be any head scratching who caused it. The question is why?
That’s completely false Shad. Biden’s drilling restrictions were on federal permits and US oil companies haven’t used ones existing since Trump. It is also a fact that Europe and Japan are suffering from inflation mostly worse than ours, and it resulted from supply shortages which are still occurring. Lastly, the under Trump and the GOP senate, we also passed very expensive stimulus bills in reaction to Covid and he personally lobbied for the $2000 checks for Americans. You need to read more.
https://tradingeconomics.com/country-list/inflation-rate
Jazz ,When Trump was in office gas was as low as $1.86 per gallon , Oil $19 a barrel, Inflation below 2%, Mortgage rates below 2% . Compare that to what Sh!!%#t for Brains has done. By the way . The falsely promoted stimulus by Biden and the Inflation reduction act fueled American downfall. By the way.
Gainesville was ranked the second-most expensive city with the high price of groceries and utility bills contributing to the ranking.
Hmm see the Progressive connection? Or will you stay in Denial.
Shad, your questions are answered in my post just above. By the way, you failed to mention that when Trump was last in office, our GDP shrank by almost 3% which goes along way toward fighting inflation. Biden has had nothing to do with rising gas prices since his only action has been to limit permits on federal lands, and there are a back log of those dating back well into Trump’s administration. By the way, maybe you were high, but gas prices are not what you remember. Here they are:
2017 $2.41
2018 $2.74
2019 $2.64
2020 $2.17
2021 $3.05
2022 $3.29
2023 $3.22
(Source: https://www.creditdonkey.com/gas-price-history.html)
PS The “study” which ranks Gainesville the most expensive in the state?
The study is comparing costs with average income; so student lifestyle is set against zero income or whatever student jobs folks have.
By their numbers Gainesville has the lowest income by a decent chunk; the whole range is $50K – $100K, and the second lowest is $53k I think (not sorted by that column). That’s an important contribution to their evaluation of “Expensive”. If you just are comparing costs by nominal dollars, Gainesville is significantly cheaper than Orlando.
Check out “utilities”. It’s one of the cheapest.
CS, you realize that you are trying to rationalize with someone that is actively supporting Biden, and claiming that Biden has sound economic policies, right? Rationalization isn’t a key attribute in that demographic, so you should probably call it a day. ; P
Liberals spy on the sites like this because they have to keep an eye on the truth meter. Too much truth about Democrats real agenda and they need to find another sacrificial conservative to attack. Look at all the BS about Covid from Jazzman. He can not handle the simple option of if you want the shot get it if you don’t so be it. Democrats do not believe in simple freedoms. They madk t hff themselves as freedom fighters but in reality they are the true racist party. Who since FDR have been trying to systematically destroy this country.
I’m all for your freedom to get the vaccine or not, but I am not for allowing people like the governor and his surgeon general falsifying information about it for political reasons, nor am I in favor of those not willing to do their part in helping control a highly contagious health risk to have total access to public resources. Just as with vaccines for kids required for their attending our schools, their “freedom” does not outweigh public health concerns.
Childhood vaccine exceptions have been easily available in Florida for decades. Children are not required to take any of those shots to attended schools.
No, not easily, only with documented reasons.
“Private health care providers may grant a Temporary Medical Exemption (TME), documented on the Form DH 680, Florida Certification of Immunization, for those who are in the process of completing any necessary immunizations. The TME requires an expiration date after which the exemption is no longer valid, and the immunizations must be completed before or at that time.
A Permanent Medical Exemption, documented on the Form DH 680, can be granted if a child cannot be fully immunized due to medical reasons. In this case, the child’s physician must state in writing, the reasons for exemption based on valid clinical reasoning or evidence.
Form DH 681, Religious Exemption From Immunization, is issued if immunizations are in conflict with the religious tenets and practices of the child’s parent or guardian. This exemption is issued by a County Health Department (CHD) and based on established religious beliefs or practices only.”
How about we require similar exemptions for those wanting to enter public spaces without Covid vaccines?
Everyone knows you use the religious exemption. Doesn’t matter if you’re legitimately a spiritual or religious person or an atheist…it’s a way to be exempt and there isn’t a damn thing you or anyone else can do about. There is always an out to everything… more people just need to take back their sovereignty from the government. You, the governments, and all the other statist – whether due to being brainwashed or due to luciferian doctrines – have no right to dictate a damn thing to anyone but yourselves. You sound like a whor3 pharma sellman or a withering, pathetic bitter person who is hell bent on depopulation. Or both
Hence you co not want people to have freedom at all. Democrats are worse than the nazi party when it comes to freedom to choose.
Stop demonizing your fellow American. What happened to opposing views without tearing apart the other party. Understand that we will not all agree on everything and that is okay. There use to be a middle ground here, sure wish we could get back to it.
What should we expect? Not being able to distinguish between genders is already difficult enough for them.
Yes, Alachua County is truly regressing. Gainesville is past saving with the idiots that are in charge. Say one true negative about Covid and the Biden hit squad of Alachua County will get ya. I can not understand anyone who would support these liberal fools who have made it a habitual habit of lying to the people.
Poor you! How do you manage to bear up?
Here’s a clue – you need one – prove me wrong or others who disagree with your MAGA fantasies.
Ok, Democrats for years have hijacked the black community with the pretense that if you vote Democrat we will continue to give you money. Democrats have continued to build affordable housing but “not next to my democrat home”. Homeless, “you can live in Grace marketplace by not on my democrat porch”. Receive federal grants for urban improvement and Democrats set up workshop groups and waste the money all the while not spending a dime on community. Tell the black community they are less educated than the rest of society and drop education standards so everyone passes with no regard for a real education. Tell the people that mechanical objects (guns) are just killing everyone when it’s a problem with people killing their own people. Do nothing with a border except let every illegal person including terrorists into the country. Explain why Chinese, Pakistani, Iranian, Syrian, and Africans are coming into the southern border. There is no need to waste time with pasting links when all of this is happening in real time.