Ron DeSantis’s wife stars in a wildly homophobic campaign ad

Casey DeSantis, the wife of 2024 presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), appeared in a new campaign ad that accuses LGBTQ+ people of sexually abusing children. The ad highlights “Mamas for DeSantis,” a group meant to appeal to conservative women who oppose teaching about the history of racism in schools, LGBTQ+ people, and measures taken to fight COVID-19.

The ad depicts liberals and LGBTQ+ people as threats to children, showing grainy footage of a mother holding a child with a facemask on a plane, Dr. Anthony Fauci saying that public venues should be closed at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, girls running in a track meet, and LGBTQ+ protestors at the Drag March in New York City last month chanting sarcastically “We are coming for your children.” Scary music is played in the background.

Related:

Gay Republicans finally turn on Ron DeSantis for his outlandish ad attacking LGBTQ+ people

George Santos said that he once thought DeSantis was “a great governor” but now wonders if he’s homophobic.

The ad also shows photos of transgender University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas as well as a photo of a man dressed for puppy play near a small child, an image that has been shared by the far-right online for years and used to attack Pride celebrations. The origin or authenticity of the image is not known.

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“When you come after our kids, we fight back,” the narrator says in the voiceover. “Because there’s nothing we won’t do to protect our children.”

The ad then shows President Joe Biden and out Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre explaining why protecting all children is important, statements that conservatives have treated as controversial, claiming that Biden and Jean-Pierre are trying to take people’s children away.

“We are no longer silent. We are united. And we have finally found our fighter,” the ad says while showing a photo of Ron DeSantis.

“We must protect parents’ rights and the innocence of our children,” Casey DeSantis says in the ad. “We must restore sanity in our society.”

Casey DeSantis shared the video on Twitter, announcing “Mamas for DeSantis,” which she launched with Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) as a sort of electoral version of the extremist group Moms for Liberty.

The ad comes shortly after another DeSantis video promoted by his campaign that spliced images of shirtless buff muscle men with statements about how DeSantis is hurting LGBTQ+ people in his state. The ad claimed that Donald Trump supports LGBTQ+ people too much, relying on statements he made before he entered the White House in 2017.

“I’m going to leave aside the strangeness of trying to prove your manhood by putting up a video that splices images of you in between oiled-up shirtless bodybuilders,” out Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg snarkily said on CNN’s State of the Union this past Sunday, “and just get to the bigger issue that is on my mind whenever I see this stuff in the policy space.”

“Which is, again, who are you trying to help? Who are you trying to make better off? And what public policy problems do you get up in the morning thinking about how to solve?” he continued.

Even gay Republicans like Rep. George Santos (R-NY) and former Trump administration official Richard Grenell denounced the ad.

DeSantis has made attacking LGBTQ+ people – and especially LGBTQ+ youth – a centerpiece of his administration, and he appears to believe it’s how he can close the wide gap in the polls with Trump. DeSantis is currently in a distant second place in 2024 Republican primary polling, getting an average of 20.9% support in recent polls, according to RealClearPolitics. Trump is first with an average of 53.0%.