Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a likely candidate for the Republican presidential nomination next year, is getting roasted on social media for a new claim about his background.
DeSantis wrote in his bestselling but poorly reviewed new memoir that he was “geographically raised in Tampa Bay,” referring to his upbringing largely in the Pinellas County community of Dunedin.
But he claimed his “cultural” background was quite different from his “geographical” one.
″[C]ulturally my upbringing reflected the working-class communities in western Pennsylvania and northeast Ohio — from weekly church attendance to the expectation that one would earn his keep,” he wrote. “This made me God-fearing, hard-working and America-loving.”
NBC News notes that DeSantis’ claim stems from his parents’ “geographical” background: His father was raised in Pennsylvania, and his parents met while attending Youngstown State University in Ohio.
But the governor himself never lived in either place. Pennsylvania and Ohio just so happen to be key to any presidential ambitions.
DeSantis’ critics were quick to point that out, and to share a few other thoughts about his claim:
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