PONCA CITY — The campaign for President of the United States came to Oklahoma last weekend, when Florida Governor Ron DeSantis spoke at a rally in east Tulsa on Saturday and later made a brief stop in Ponca City to visit the 101 Wild West Rodeo and, in the process, purchased a snow cone from Piper Stitt, the daughter of Gov. Kevin Stitt.
Stitt has endorsed DeSantis’ bid for president.
Stitt introduced the Florida governor in Tulsa, speaking of the similarities between DeSantis and himself. Stitt called DeSantis the ‘point of the spear’ as a conservative leader.
“We need the next president to be in office for eight years,” Stitt told the crowd. “I believe Ron DeSantis is the right guy to beat Joe Biden.”
In Ponca City, the governor sat with DeSantis at the rodeo. In addition to Stitt, DeSantis’ bid to be president has drawn support from several Oklahoma politicians including state Reps. Terry O’Donnell (R-Catoosa), House Minority Leader Jon Echols (R-Oklahoma City), Mark Lepak (R-Claremore), Chris Sneed (R-Fort Gibson), Neil Hays (R-Checotah) and Rep. Josh West (R-Grove).
DeSantis’ trip to Tulsa is the latest visit by a major presidential candidate. In 2020, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump held a rally in Tulsa. In 2016 U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders held a rally in Oklahoma City. That same year, Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz came to Tulsa.
Presidents, too, have come to the Sooner State.
In 2021 President Joe Biden spoke at an event commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa race massacre. Three years before that, President Barack Obama traveled to Moore to survey the damage done by the May 26 tornado.
In 2006, President George W. Bush delivered the commencement speech at Oklahoma State University. Prior to those visits, then-President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore made separate visits to the site of the Oklahoma City bombing. Presidents Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon, too, came to Oklahoma.
In 1961, then-President John F. Kennedy visited southeastern Oklahoma as a guest of U.S. Senator Robert S. Kerr, and in 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt reviewed the 88th Infantry Division at Camp Gruber near Braggs.