DeSantis Warns Business Leaders Against Being “Woke”

Tallahassee, FL – Appearing before a group of business leaders Thursday, Gov. Ron DeSantis warned about following a “woke” ideology, which he called “very dangerous” for the country. “The minute you go into becoming more of a political actor than just simply a business actor, you know, guys like me got to treat you that way,” DeSantis said in wrapping up a 35-minute keynote address at the Florida Chamber of Commerce’s Future of Florida Forum in Orlando. As an example of corporate wokeness, he pointed to Major League Baseball moving the 2021 All-Star Game from Atlanta to Colorado because of controversial voting-law changes in Georgia. “Funny how karma works, because they’re now playing the World Series in Atlanta, but whatever,” DeSantis said. DeSantis added that Republicans have “strong negative feelings” about “corporate America.” He said the GOP in Washington, D.C. has turned on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has given support to numerous policy directives from the Biden administration. “They (Republicans) see these big companies that are really kowtowing to a very elite ideology, an ideology that’s not reflective of the vast, vast majority of the country,” DeSantis said. “They’re responsive to the latest kind of online mob or whatever the corporate press is talking about at a given time. And they’ve really kind of contorted themselves into something that I think is just not sustainable.” DeSantis last week called for holding a special legislative session in November to push back against the Biden administration on federal COVID-19 vaccination requirements for workers. Details and dates for the special session have not been set. Days before DeSantis called for the special session, proposals in Texas to block vaccination mandates failed after business groups objected.