But the reality is throughout our Country we are engaged in a battle to Preserve the cause of Liberty Ronald Reagan used to say that freedom is only One generation away from Extinction that It's not something that's passed along In the bloodstream it must be cultivated And it must be protected and I must say For most of my adult life while I Appreciated the sentiment I thought it Was a little bit of hyperbole you know After all we're Americans right isn't Freedom in our DNA but I got to tell you I don't think you could have lived Through the last few years And think that President Reagan was Wrong he was right freedom is fragile it Can be squandered and we're very proud In Florida of earning the moniker of the Free State of Florida but that was not Preordained we came very close four and A half years ago to taking a much Different path I got elected governor in 2018 by 32 000 votes out of more than 8 Million votes cast less than one half of One percent was my margin of Victory and To be honest that was not out of Character for Florida the previous Decade if you looked at Governor races President races 2010 12 14 16 18. yeah Thank you Um Use again [Music]
You gotta have a little Spice in the Speech right I mean you got to have a Little fun [Applause] Why you'd want to pay the ticket to get In just to do that I don't know but Different Strokes for different folks So if you look at Florida's history Governor race president race 2010 12 14 16 18 all one point races we were the Quintessential swing state with a very Delicate political bounce so when I was Getting ready to take office people told Me listen this is a divided state Very close election you don't want to do Anything that's going to upset this Balance and maybe tip the scales and the Democrats favor so keep your head down Don't make any waves just bite your time And kind of lay low and I understood That advice honestly it wasn't crazy Advice But I rejected that advice My view was you know I may have earned Only 50 of the vote but that entitled me To wield 100 of the executive power and I intended to use that to advance the Cause of freedom and to advance Conservative values in the State of Florida I understood the different Levels of power I understood the Constitutional power statutory I Understood you had an agenda that you Got to fit through a constitutional
System of checks and balances but we Were ready to do that I also said you Know what uh when I take office I am not Doing any polls to tell me about Different issues and to this day I've Never taken a single poll as Governor About any issue that I've dealt with in The State of Florida leaders don't Follow polls leaders get ahead and they Lead and they deliver results and then The polls move in their Direction
