Florida’s “Daddy DeSantis” got followers among liberal suburban mothers due to the pandemic – “Freedom Daddy”

Despite not having a large female base of voters, some suburban women celebrate Ron DeSantis and even call him “Freedom Daddy.”

DeSantis became a hero thanks to Covid 

When the Florida governor reopened schools in the summer of 2020, some moms felt relief, and they are now likely to choose DeSantis over any other candidate. That goes for women who usually vote for Democrats.

Hope on Twitter (Now X) 

CNN reported about women who found hope on Twitter after the COVID-19 crisis started in March 2020, and everything was shut down.

One mom opened up about her experience

Jennifer Sey, then an executive at Levi’s, alleged that the company she worked for notified her to stop tweeting about the reopening of schools. The company denied the claims via New York Times, claiming that Sey “went far beyond calling for schools to reopen and frequently used her platform to criticize public health guidelines and denounce elected officials and government scientists.”

Suburban moms beyond Florida

DeSantis’ controversial decision spread across the country, and soon, these women, both political and liberal, highly educated or not, agreed that “If DeSantis were to run tomorrow, he would win.” DeSantis’ approach gave him a name recognition way beyond the US. 

“Daddy DeSantis” and “Freedom Daddy”

Vanessa Steinkamp, a mom of three from a teacher from Dallas, and her friends from all over the country jokingly came up with nicknames ” “Daddy DeSantis” and “Freedom Daddy.” An attorney from the LA area, Julie Hamill, said, “We’re like desperate women who … had tried everything that we could do in our own power in our own communities, and we weren’t getting anywhere.”

European approach 

In many European countries, closing schools was the last resort. There is no denying that kids fell back during the pandemic, and that will negatively affect their further education.

The Florida governor took a page from Finland 

Finland opened schools in May 2020, claiming that the virus was not as harmful to children as it was to older people. However, comparing health systems in Scandinavian countries to most places in the world is not possible.

A “disaffected leftist”

Sey says she is now a “disaffected leftist,” as she explained to CNN, “My issue with woke capitalism, in particular, is that it’s hypocritical, and it’s a lie. … I would much rather companies focus on treat treating employees with fairness, paying them well, treating women well – not harassing them – than do these fake campaigns while the leaders take all the money for themselves and obscure their greed with woke washing.” Still, she also believes that DeSantis went too far with his “anti woke” policies.

Some are staying loyal to Democrats

The lawyer, Hamill, voted for Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Biden. She is worried about some of the policies and does not like the criticism she received during the pandemic.

Feeling “demonized”

Hamill told CNN, “I was demonized for expressing these feelings. And meanwhile, Ron DeSantis in Florida is saying everything that I was desperately wanting to hear from my own elected representatives.”

The abortion ban is something that is going to haunt DeSantis

Hamill stated that the six-week abortion ban was “dangerous,” and Sey joined her. Sey commented, “That’s something that I cannot get behind. And I don’t think that’s going to bode well for his presidential campaign. I think that that might be a real impediment to bringing in moderate women.”

DeSantis’ big problems 

This is also one of the women’s most critical issues with DeSantis, alongside his Disney fight, book bans, and basically erasing gender studies.