DeSantis traveled to Nevada, a key primary state, over the weekend; Trump to speak in Iowa Monday

Gov. Ron DeSantis’ book tour took him to Las Vegas over the weekend, when he pitched his ideas about freedom to around 1,200 people.

“Washington said it was the duty of Americans to preserve what he called the sacred fire of liberty,” he said, according to reporting by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

“This falls to people like us in Florida. Also the freedom-loving people in Nevada like yourselves. It’s a responsibility. … I’m very confident that if we step up and do it and we never back down, that we will be able to turn this country around,” the governor said.

DeSantis hasn’t formally announced yet that he’s running for president, but he’s been traveling to key primary states including Iowa flogging his new book, “The Courage To Be Free: Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Revival.”

Former president Donald Trump, who has already announced his 2024 presidential campaign, is scheduled to deliver remarks in Iowa on Monday, according to Trump’s website.

During a speech at a country-music venue, DeSantis pitched polices including his opposition to COVID masks and vaccine mandates; support for “parental rights” in education, which restricts discussion of LGBTQ people in public schools; and flights ferrying asylum seekers from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard last year, the newspaper said.

Nevada Democrats noted that, while a member of Congress, DeSantis voted in favor of the nuclear waste depository at Yucca Mountain, Nev. — which Nevadans widely oppose.

“DeSantis has proven to be one of the most extreme Republicans in the party, they’ve ever seen to date,” state Democratic chairwoman Daniele Monroe-Moreno said.