CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Chatting with a mother in a New Hampshire diner on Friday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis paid no consideration to the Mickey Mouse shirt worn by her younger son. But the lady mentioned she has been listening to him.

“If DeSantis announced a campaign to run for president I would probably vote for him over anybody else,” Jillian Sybert, of Deerfield, mentioned later.

DeSantis made the swing to the early voting state as he prepares to launch a 2024 Republican presidential marketing campaign. He spent the morning assembly with state GOP lawmakers nonetheless licking their wounds a day after the New Hampshire House rejected a invoice that will have required faculty officers to tell inquiring mother and father if their baby was utilizing a distinct identify or being known as a distinct gender.

Republicans maintain a razor-thin majority within the 400-member House, however Democrats had a one-vote edge in attendance for Thursday’s session.

In distinction, GOP supermajorities within the Florida Statehouse have helped DeSantis push by an aggressive agenda on a number of fronts, together with gender identification, and he has made anti-LGBTQ+ laws a big a part of his messaging as he prepares to hunt the Republican presidential nomination. He signed payments Wednesday that ban gender-affirming take care of minors, goal drag reveals, limit dialogue of private pronouns in colleges and drive individuals to make use of sure loos.

“We just completed what I would say is the boldest and most far-reaching agenda that we’ve seen in the modern history of the Republican Party,” DeSantis instructed about 30 New Hampshire lawmakers in Bedford.

Their ensuing dialogue was closed to the media, however one attendee mentioned he thinks the defeat will encourage Republicans to again DeSantis.

“We really need to push back, because that’s a big issue, and DeSantis is for it,” mentioned state Rep. Ralph Boehm. The lawmaker mentioned he is also a fan of former President Donald Trump however doesn’t suppose Trump will be capable of overcome the “lies” that Boehm mentioned are unfold about him by the media.

“DeSantis, with what he’s done in Florida, is what we need for this country,” he mentioned.

It stays to be seen how DeSantis will fare in New Hampshire, the place independents can vote within the Republican major and voters are accustomed to questioning candidates at city corridor boards and different occasions. Trump gained the GOP major in each 2016 and 2020 however twice misplaced the state within the normal election.

DeSantis later stopped by the Red Arrow Diner in Manchester, a well-liked vacation spot for presidential candidates. He briefly chatted with Sybert, who was having breakfast along with her two younger sons. If he observed one of many boys was sporting a Mickey Mouse shirt, he didn’t present it, she mentioned.

Disney and DeSantis have been engaged in a tug-of-war for greater than a yr after the corporate opposed a state regulation that bans classroom classes on sexual orientation and gender identification in early grades.

Sybert, of Deerfield, mentioned she considers herself an impartial voter and would in all probability again DeSantis if he will get within the race due to his “stance on freedom.” She mentioned she was dissatisfied concerning the failed state laws and hopes the following president will champion the difficulty.

“New Hampshire is good in a lot of ways but it could be better, and it would be nice to see that at the federal level as well,” she mentioned.

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