Mr. Vallas, who is running in the nonpartisan mayoral race as a law-and-order candidate, released a statement Friday saying, ‘there’s simply no place in Chicago for a right-wing extremist like Ron DeSantis, and I’m disappointed by the fact that FOP Leadership for inviting him to speak to officers.
Mr. DeSantis and his staff enjoyed stirring up such an uproar in Democratic strongholds. His combative publicist, Christina Pushaw, he tweeted to Mayor Adams, “Nice rhetoric, but here’s the reality: More Americans fled New York than any other metropolitan area last year. More Americans have moved to Florida than to any other state.”
He concluded, “Maybe it’s you who can learn from” Mr. DeSantis.
In Elmhurst, it was clear that the political wars of the Trump years would not abate if the spotlight turned to DeSantis. Chicago suburbanites squared off, on the one hand shouting through megaphones to protest Mr. DeSantis’ policies on education, abortion, and LGBT issues, on the other, equally loud and amplified, extolling his views on crime and police.
Inside the hall, Rep. Darin LaHood, a Republican whose district stretches through suburban Chicago from Peoria to Rockford, introduced Mr. DeSantis. Outside, Rep. Sean Casten, a Democrat representing the nearby Chicago suburbs, joined the protesters.
One of those protesters, Kim Cambra, 60, of Elmhurst, said she voted for Mr. Trump twice, but one of her daughters is gay and another, who was transgender, died in 2020 of a heroin overdose perhaps self-inflicted. The anti-transgender speech from both Mr. DeSantis and Mr. Trump got her off on Monday.
