Casey DeSantis wore a leather 'Where Woke Goes to Die' jacket in 85-degree weather in Iowa
Hannah Fingerhut/Associated Press
- Ron and Casey DeSantis made an appearance Saturday in Des Moines, where temperatures hit the mid-80s.
- Casey wore a leather jacket that said "Where Woke Goes to Die" over an illustration of Florida and an alligator.
- Trump and DeSantis have sparred over the use of the term "woke."
With his candidacy for president now official, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his wife Casey have vowed to visit all 99 counties in Iowa.
The couple on Saturday attended their first Roast and Ride, an annual event hosted by Sen. Joni Erst, in Des Moines, where Casey wore a leather coat emblazoned with an illustration of an alligator over an outline of the state of Florida, along with a statement that echoes one of her husband's key campaign messages: "Where Woke Goes to Die."
As Politico notes, it was 85 degrees during the event.
The term "woke" is a keystone of DeSantis's presidential campaign and is something he repeatedly mentioned during his successful second gubernatorial run.
In a broadside against DeSantis, his top rival for the GOP's 2024 presidential nomination, former President Donald Trump on Thursday criticized the use of the word. "I don't like the term 'woke,' because I hear the term 'woke woke woke' — it's just a term they use. Half the people can't define it. They don't know what it is," he said.
DeSantis responded to Trump's criticism on Saturday during his visit to Des Moines. "Woke is an existential threat to our society," he told reporters. "To say it's not a big deal, that just shows you don't understand what a lot of these issues are right now."
It's no surprise Casey DeSantis would take such a visible role in promoting her husband's message on the campaign trail. As Insider has reported, she helped define the governor's public image and is on a mission to bring suburban women back to the Republican Party after they largely abandoned Trump in 2020.