Panic no more about young voters deserting the Republican Party in droves, said Gov. Ron DeSantis this week. What youth really want isn’t intervention for affordable homes or cheaper college. They want limited government.
During Thursday remarks to the Heartland Institute, DeSantis acknowledged “serious debates” about how support from young people for the Republican Party has bottomed out since 2024, according to Florida Politics reporter A.G. Gancarski. But while DeSantis acknowledged that young people are whining about “a lot of problems, particularly economically, for young people,” like college tuition hikes and debt, he said these were byproducts of government intervention in the free market.
“Whose problem was that? Who created that problem? Did Free Enterprise create that problem? No, government created that problem,” insisted DeSantis. “You want to look at the cost of groceries? You want to look at the cost of living that has gone up since COVID? Was that because of Free Enterprise? No.”
“It was because of the COVID spending, the Biden stimulus, the Federal Reserve,” said DeSantis, referring to a disease that the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic as far back as 2020. “Government created the inflation. Government created the interest rates. Government has made it more difficult for young people to get by. So the idea that the answer is going to be more government, but in a conservative direction, that’s a fool’s errand.”
Topping DeSantis’ kick list, however, was not inflation caused by President Donald Trump’s ongoing trade war with U.S. economic partners and our nearest neighbors. And it most certainly was not because of a unilateral war that Trump declared against the nation of Iran in February, despite no direct attack on the U.S. from that country.
Counter to the Florida governor’s claim, however, are polls revealing young voters very much hold Trump and Republicans responsible for high inflation chipping away at their entry-level job wages, and the cost of filling up their cars for the Monday workday. Youth are also looking to punish the party in power for the high costs of college and high home prices and exorbitant mortgage costs making home-ownership difficult for people under the age of 30.
But DeSantis said there’s no way Republicans are going to compete with Democrats’ advocacy for a health social safety net and lower costs, so don’t even bother.
“There is no way (Republicans are) ever going to be able to outdo a Mamdani in promising government benefits to people. It’s a fool’s errand to do that game,” said Desantis, calling for Republicans to remain “true to the principles that have made this country great.”
“You can’t just recycle policies from 40 or 50 years. You’ve got to adapt. You’ve got to understand what’s going on, but please do not fall for this,” he urged, adding that Democratic socialists “are promising the moon and will fail to deliver.”