Ron DeSantis touts RedState, disses Alan Grayson

The always active Ron DeSantis for Senate press shop was working again on Monday, promoting the Ponte Vedra Republican’s appearance at Erick Erickson’s Red State Gathering (where he was endorsed for Senate by the conservative commentator), then dissing Democratic Senate candidate and fellow U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson in emails.

During his Red State speech, DeSantis said a number of things that his outreach operation thought noteworthy, such as his assertion that “the Democrats, really have no interest, at all, in being good stewards of our American Constitution and our founding principles…Heck you even have Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, who can’t explain the difference between a Democrat and a Socialist!”

He also shored up his conservative bona fides by holding up Supreme Court justices picked by Bushes 41 and 43 as cautionary tales.

“I think it’s going to be very, very important if we do elect a new Republican president that we don’t make any more mistakes in nominating justices to the U.S. Supreme Court.  And I can tell you that I will be there with people like Mike Lee making sure we don’t have another David Souter and another Chief Justice John Roberts,” DeSantis said.

DeSantis also critiqued Obamacare and insurance consolidation, calling the latter “very bad for consumers.”

He also said, regarding his Senate campaign, that he feels what Barack Obama and Martin Luther King called the fierce urgency of now. saying that “I think we have very little time to save this country.”

Later in the day, his team sent out an email taking Alan Grayson to task for his “full-throated support of taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood.”

“Alan Grayson’s support of taxpayer dollars going to an organization that traffics in baby parts is disgusting and beyond the pale,” said the congressman, who added that “I do not believe taxpayer dollars should be used to fund an organization that engages in such horrific conduct, yet Alan Grayson wants to keep the tax dollars flowing to Planned Parenthood and is even celebrating that organization in the face of graphic and disturbing videos demonstrating its barbaric conduct.”

DeSantis went on to note that the other Democrat in the race, Patrick Murphy, had been mute on the issue altogether.

DeSantis continues his strategy of positioning himself as the true conservative candidate in the 2016 Senate race.