DeSantis holds news conference with state education leader in Jacksonville Transcript

Governor DeSantis: (00:00) Who's the President of Polk State College joining here with us. We have the Mayor of Jacksonville, Lenny Curry, we have the new Sheriff Pat Ivey, who I hear is doing a really good job. And then we have Senator Jen Bradley, Representative Sam Garrison, and soon to be Senator Clay Yarborough with us here today. So thank you all for coming. Governor DeSantis: (00:27) We're proud of Florida's postsecondary education system, our colleges and our 12 state universities are ranked number one in the nation for post secondary education, and we're proud of that. We're also very proud of the fact that since I've been governor at our universities, there have been no tuition increases in any of the universities and so we actually believe in affordable. Governor DeSantis: (00:55) So, one of the things that we've done since I've been governor is set a goal of improving workforce education in the State of Florida, as proud as we are of having good universities that are affordable. We also understand that a four year brick and Ivy university is not the only way people can succeed. And in fact, it's not the best way people can succeed, certainly not the best way to go 150,000 in debt with a degree in zombie studies I can tell you that. So what we want is to be able to provide multiple pathways for people to be able to be successful. And that means career and technical education. So you've seen some of the stuff that we've been able to do with our Florida college system. Governor DeSantis: (01:41) In the last few years, they've added 11 baccalaureate degree programs and high value fields like healthcare, cyber, information tech, also doing other things to respond to local employer demand like commercial driver's license. We've done huge increases in slots to teach people to drive these big trucks, can make a lot of money right now doing that. There's very high demand. So, we want to make sure we'd be able to do it. We've added 50 new apprenticeship programs in the last few years, which I believe some of the best education is actually being on the job and learning how to train from people that know what they're doing. So we have over 330,000 career and technical education students enrolled in programs across the state of Florida. So we've done a lot and we're going to continue to do more to make sure that folks have opportunities to succeed, particularly opportunities to succeed that don't require you to go deep into debt in order to get the credential. Governor DeSantis: (02:40) We're also at the same time we've done the workforce we've done more than any state in the country to promote civics education in the State of Florida. If you think about what we need to be doing, you hear an awful lot about some people want all this ideology in, we've gotten that out. We've got CRT out, gender theory out, making sure that we're focusing on the basics of reading, writing, add, subtract, history, English, all these core subjects. One of the core subjects that's important for all of our students is to understand the foundations of our country. To understand the Constitution of the United States of America, to understand things like the Bill of Rights, to understand the different philosophy, to understand the important episodes throughout American history that have been really significant. So we've done a lot to further that, we launched the civics and debate initiative a few years ago. We now have 60 school districts involved in civics and debate, and we're hosting the national championship in Orlando this fall. We started with a $5 million contribution from Bernie Marcus from Home Depot, and now we've added state funds every year to supplement that. Governor DeSantis: (03:57) Here's the thing about the speech and debate. What it's teaching these kids to do is to think critically think logically, learn how to reason, but also to see things from different perspectives. Because when you're doing speech and debate, they will give you a subject and you may have to take the side of the subject that you don't necessarily agree with personally, but you know what? Being able to do that and seeing issues from another perspective, forces students to be able to make strong arguments, to be able to understand the facts that maybe benefit your argument, that are on the other side and being able to do really... One of the things, you look at some of these universities around the country that have been so inculcated with ideology, the problem is, first of all, that's not the proper role of a university, but the bottom line is it ends up just being group think. Those people are never challenged on their assumptions. There's students across this country that graduate from universities without ever having their assumptions challenged when it comes to a lot of these things. Governor DeSantis: (05:00) So with speech and debate you may be on a different side than what you personally believe and so that's going to cause you to think critically about the assumptions that you're bringing to bear, see things from other perspective. So it's been invaluable, it's really taken off like a rocket. I think we'll end up having all 67 counties soon, but clearly state as big as ours. When you have that many counties, that's a huge, huge deal that we've been able to do. Governor DeSantis: (05:26) We also are administering now a citizenship style exam for high school seniors. People that immigrate to this country have to take a naturalization exam, unfortunately a lot of them know more about our country than our own native born sometimes. So we want to make sure that we're identifying and this is for information, we're not saying that you have to pass to graduate, but eventually we may get there. I think we've got to build up the civics curriculum to get to that point. But clearly this is something that's significant because when you leave our school system, you're a citizen, most of them are either adults will turn a adult very quickly and you're going to be called upon to exercise the duties of being a citizen. That's something that's very important. Governor DeSantis: (06:12) Our approach to civics is a knowledge based approach to civics. Now that's not the same as every place in this country. There's a movement around the country to do what they consider action civics. So knowledge based civics, we're teaching students to understand the foundations, understand the ideas, understand important events. Action based civics is basically trying to get people to be political activists. And knowledge based civics is something that's applicable in any field that you're doing. Because you can be very successful in the private sector, still be an engaged citizen. You can be an office or government or things like that as well, but it doesn't mean that understanding the country necessitates that you're going to dedicate your life to doing politics. So our approach is much broader. Our approach, I think, is much more accurate in terms of the history and it's not trying to put the students to pursue a certain particular agenda. Governor DeSantis: (07:11) So what we're announcing today really flows from our belief in knowledge based civics. We don't think that good civics is just simply trying to train people to be professional activists. We think it's providing a much broader foundation that people can apply in any aspect of their lives, regardless of where they go. And so today we are here, we've done a lot in the high schools... And part of what we've done in the high schools, we actually have now civics training for teachers. If they go through the training, they get a $3,000 bonus. So this is something that's really hitting key aspects, particularly of the founding of the country. Some of the debates that went in to crafting the Constitution. And that is something that's very important to have as a foundation. Governor DeSantis: (07:55) If you understand all that stuff, most of the stuff that's happened in the last 200 some years grow out of the application of those principles. I mean when Lincoln was standing there at Gettysburg he was hearkening back to the Declaration of Independence. When we were fighting World War II we were fighting for a free society against Nazi Germany. When Martin Luther King was on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, I have a dream, what was he citing? He was citing the Declaration of Independence. And so these principles are enduring, they're really universal and they've really animated most of the key aspects of history. So, that's what we're able to do in that. Governor DeSantis: (08:35) Then now with the knowledge based civics curriculum in high school, the question is how can we link that to some of our workforce training and workforce development? And that's what we're here to be able to do today. So, today what we're doing is really a one of a kind workforce program to help students who may want to be involved in different types of government service. We are awarding $6.5 million to launch three civics academies here at FS- Governor DeSantis: (09:03) ... to launch three Civics Academies. Here at FSCJ, one at Polk State College and one at Broward State College. And so what these are going to do, they are actually going to partner with their local school districts. Students can enter the program as early as ninth grade. And over the course of the next six years, four in high school, two at the state college, they will be provided the knowledge base and the tools to potentially have a career in public service. They will be linking students with things like apprenticeships, internships. This is stuff that... Think about the applications here. Someone that wants to go into local government and become a county manager. Governor DeSantis: (09:43) People that want to work in a state agency, what kind of a foundation are they having? And this is really what we're providing here, the ability for them to really excel. And if you go through a lot of this and you choose to do other stuff, this is still going to be very helpful for what you're going to be doing because you're going to be. So these three Civics Career Academies will launch with 1,000 students basically a year from now, August of 2023. So they're going to have opportunities to get everything ready. They're going to have opportunities to notify people that this is out there. Governor DeSantis: (10:18) And I think there's going to be a lot of interest in being able to do this. And so if you think about the different applications, whether it's local government, state government. It could be someone that eventually wants to go into law enforcement or wants to be a prosecutor. There's a whole host of different things that this is going to be very, very good for. So I'm proud to be able to do this. I have the check here. So if we want to have the presidents come, we can do a quick photo with this, and then we'll let some other folks talk about it. Take that. I don't know if that'll cash, but you can try. Speaker 1: (11:08) We'll try. Governor DeSantis: (11:10) So we're excited about this and we have had... We did the eighth grade civics announcement, I think about two weeks ago. We saw increases across the board regardless of demographic in civics knowledge. And so I think that's really good. It helps when kids are actually in school over the last two years, which was not the case in some of these other states. So we're going to continue to build off that, but we think that we've got a lot of good momentum going. Governor DeSantis: (11:37) This takes that beyond K12 and really brings it into the first couple years of being in a post-secondary program. So thanks for being willing to take up the charge here at FSCJ and Polk and Broward. And I think this is really going to be innovative and I'll bet you, there's going to be states around the country that are going to be copying the model that we're doing here today. And with that, we will hear from Dr. Evan Donald. Dr. Evan Donald: (12:01) Thank you, governor. Again, it's always a pleasure and an honor to have you on our campus. We always appreciate the leadership and the commitment that our governor has shown for education in the state of Florida. So again, thank you very, very much. I wasn't going to interrupt that. Trust me. So on behalf of the board of trustees, our faculty staff, and most importantly, our students, I want to welcome all of you here to FSCJ today. I'm Dr. John Evan Donald president of Florida State College. And before I get started, I do want to do a couple of more, just really quick introductions. We do have with us today two of my trustees, I want to introduce to you Mr. Wayne Young, vice chair from Duval County. And our long serving trustee also from Duval County, Tom Mark McGee. And I think Mike Bell was going to try to make it here. He was my board chair. I don't know if he's snuck in, but if not, that's okay. Again, also, we want to introduce, we have some special partners in education who are here with us today, and I want introduce them as well. So we have with us, our friends in education, the superintendents from Duval and Nassau county, Dr. Diana Green and Dr. Kathy Burns. And while he's been introduced once, I think it's a privilege to be able to do this again as well. And I want to introduce for the first time here at FSCJ, as our recently appointed Florida department of education commissioner, Mr. Manny Diaz, Jr. Dr. Evan Donald: (13:55) Again, I thank them. And I thank all of our elected officials who are here today for the support that they've given the college. And the three years that I've been here, tomorrow will mark my third year anniversary, we have really benefited significantly from the leadership from the governor's office and from this state. From truck driving, cybersecurity, and now civics education. So again, a deep thank you to all of you who've made that happen. And as the governor was saying, the preservation of our society is based on a deep understanding of our civic role in our respective communities. A knowledgeable, well informed and engaged citizenry is vital for our success at all levels in all communities. Dr. Evan Donald: (14:44) And the preservation of our communities is based on the strength of our collective workforce with solid careers and responsiveness to business and industry and all of our areas. But when you bring those two factions together, you get a community that flourishes, you get a community that advances, and strengthens as an overall region. And for that to happen, you need leadership. You need leadership at all areas. You need an engaged citizenry. And that's what we have with this program. The Florida civic literacy excellence initiative and career pathways grant will partner three state colleges as you've heard with our respective high schools to provide a civic space high school curriculum that will lead to relevant workforce certifications and leadership in career pathway opportunities in our areas. In addition to grants, going to provide professional development for our K12 teachers through training, professional development, and classroom supportive types of opportunities for each one of them in our K12 system. And so I am thankful for the excellent leadership that both Duval and Nassau counties have done with our representative superintendents who are here today. And I greatly appreciate their leadership and their involvement in higher education, and making sure that our citizens and their high school graduates receive a future here in our area. So FSCJ as this community's college just says, Polk State College and Broward are for their respective communities. Dr. Evan Donald: (16:08) And I often say that our graduates, they stay, they live, they work, and they contribute back into our communities. And the civics career pathways academies will be a significant part of this overall ecosystem. It will develop a civically engaged, highly skilled workforce, and will prepare our students for jobs in state and local government. It will be careers that give back to our community, and who knows? Maybe someday there will be presidents of your local state colleges, right? Dr. Evan Donald: (16:38) Our career in technical education programs, in the areas of IT and cybersecurity, which are located in this building, healthcare, business, public accounting, paralegal studies, and so many others will be provided the opportunity to train for highways jobs who are in demand. And they would align again with the workforce of our respective communities. So again, thank you to Dr. Angela Falconetti for bringing us on as one of the sub awardees for this exciting program. Thank you again, governor for your leadership in education. And I appreciate your time here today and last but not least. I appreciate all of you being here today and see us continue to grow as an overall community. Thank you. Governor DeSantis: (17:24) Okay. From Polk State College, Dr. Angela Falconetti. Dr. Angela Falconetti: (17:35) Well, governor DeSantis, I extend my gratitude on behalf of the Polk State College district board of trustees, our students, our faculty, and our staff, much like our grants director who's here today for this grant, Catherine Smith, please raise your hand. And I see our chancellor of career and technical education, Kevin O. Ferrell. Thank you for being here. Along with commissioner. I do want to say commissioner Manny Diaz. Thank you. He continues to exceed expectations for our Florida college system. But governor today is... Dr. Angela Falconetti: (18:03) ... expectations for our Florida College System. The governor today is about celebrating your commitment to workforce education, and in particular, in the acceleration of workforce education throughout our state. If you don't already know our governor established a goal to ensure that Florida becomes number one in the nation in workforce education by 2030, and we at the Florida College System are going to ensure that we exceed his expectations. And by the way, President Avendano, president, as he said, of Florida State College in Jacksonville, he's become a dear friend and a very strong member of the Council of Presidents for which I now serve as immediate past president. I want to thank the District Board of Trustees of Florida State College of Jacksonville and the faculty and staff who organized today's event for your great support. I am a Jacksonville native born and raised right here in Jacksonville, Florida, and have two parents who attended Florida State College at Jacksonville when it was originally called Florida Junior College after they exiled from Cuba. So I'm thrilled to be here and many, many more stories just as I was an adjunct here. So again, I'm so proud of your leadership. Dr. Angela Falconetti: (19:19) Today mark's history for our state because of our governor. As we celebrate his dedication to preparing students for mid to high wage occupations in critical fields, as Dr. Avendano noted, and our governor noted, in fields such as public administration, civil service, and local and state government through establishing, as Dr. Avendano coined, the career and technical education training initiative for future, local and state employees. Dr. Angela Falconetti: (19:47) This training initiative is a collaboration between the Florida Department of Education, thank you commissioner, also, the University of Central Florida's Lou Frey Institute, Polk State College is mentioned, Florida State College of Jacksonville and Broward College, and important, very important, our local school districts to develop these civic career academies that have been mentioned. They will be implemented in our communities, as our governor noted, in August of 2023, in one year. Polk State in partnership with Polk County Public Schools will develop civics careers academies to build an integrated seamless program of study in the government and public administration discipline from high school through post-secondary education. We will also partner with local businesses and government entities and program design and delivery. Polk is the fastest growing county in Florida, and is one of the fastest in the nation with the cities of Haines City and Davenport growing most rapidly. Dr. Angela Falconetti: (20:43) I am proud that Polk State initiated phase one of planning for a development of a future campus in Haines City/Davenport, to bring critical workforce training programs in areas such as health sciences, supply chain and logistics, hospitality management, and education to this area in partnership with businesses such as advent health and Balmoral Resort Florida. We continue [inaudible 00:21:06], FSCJ and Broward to have exceptional business partnerships to continue to advance five fields. Dr. Angela Falconetti: (21:11) First, advanced manufacturing. In this field, the Mosaic Apprenticeship Program in Bartow trains more than 260 individuals for this Fortune 500 company. This has been occurring since 2007. Nucor steel, the largest steel manufacturing in the United States training more than 40 new employees to its open facility now in Frostproof. Florida Can Manufacturing in Winter Haven training more than 300 employees in areas including certified production technician, automated systems, and mechanical and electrical troubleshooting for this international company. Second in health sciences, and first responder programs exceeding state national certification examinations. For example, corrections, a hundred percent pass rate, law enforcement, a hundred percent, emergency medical services, paramedic, a hundred percent, respiratory care, a hundred percent. I could keep bragging, but I'm sure Dr. Avendano has very similar outcomes here, many more such as cardiovascular, technology, a hundred percent passage rate. Dr. Angela Falconetti: (22:05) Third, and this is very important to our commissioner and our governor, in meeting the statewide and national teacher shortage, the 130 graduates of Polk State baccalaureates in elementary and early childhood education yielded a 98% pass rate of the certification exam and serve over 45 of our public schools in Polk County. Dr. Angela Falconetti: (22:23) Fifth, in public administration, Polk State customized a leadership development program in public administration, much like the one we're talking about today, for the city of Winter Haven serving approximately 45 employees in the municipality since 2020. Dr. Angela Falconetti: (22:36) And I'd be remiss if I didn't spotlight a business partnership that we have with LEGOLAND Resort of Florida, in which 60 students have had the opportunity to benefit from internships. And in addition to that, we continue to see that they are provided the opportunity to attend Polk State at no cost as a result of a donation from LEGOLAND. And now, today, we won't begin, we will continue working tirelessly to be a statewide leader in the career and technical education training initiative for future, local and state employees. And governor, we assure you that our work will lead to a premier national model in civics career pathways. I continue to share everywhere I go that our governor is our workforce governor, and he continues to inspire us. Thank you, Governor. Governor DeSantis: (23:29) Thank you. Now, if LEGOLAND has internship slots for age five and under, I can talk to the first lady about it because I know we'd have some takers in my household. All right, Manny Diaz, Commissioner of Education. Manny Diaz: (23:50) Thank you, Governor. And we're so thankful to be in the state of Florida today, where we have a governor who understands the importance of civics education and the confidence and the skills that is required to keep our democratic republic going. So thank you, Governor, for your leadership and your support. Manny Diaz: (24:13) As the governor mentioned, Florida's leading the way in civics education with almost 70% of our students achieving civics proficiency, with African-American, Hispanics and students from economically disadvantaged families leading those performance gains in our state. Today's announcement expands Florida's outstanding civics achievements into the workforce space, because having individuals who have the knowledge and training to be able to step into the jobs at our local government, at our state government, having those skills to understand how our government was formed in the beginning in order to step into those roles and understand the skills that it takes, including hard skills like certification exams, such as project management and scrum, advanced Microsoft Office, Adobe, and a variety of other industry certifications that are relevant to career service. We need to have students and those leaving school and going into the workforce that are prepared with the hard skills, but not only that, the civic understanding of what they're going into in order to keep our government going the way that it's supposed to function. Manny Diaz: (25:21) As the governor mentioned, we anticipate enrolling over a thousand students in the '23, '24 academic year, with this next year being a ramp up to that with various activities going on and the Lou Frey Institute at the University of Central for creating the curriculum for some of these courses. So we cannot neglect our local and state government when it comes to having qualified individuals to get into those slots. This innovative program here today secures Florida's future for the next generation. So we're putting civics back into civil service, thanks to the leadership of Governor DeSantis. Thank you, Governor. Governor DeSantis: (26:04) How are you doing, man? Good to see you. How much has paper gone up in the last year? Speaker 2: (26:11) Logistics has increased the price of it, just because it's having a hard time moving from the mills into the distribution areas, which is why I'm really happy for the trucking program, because you can't see a truck on the road that doesn't have a hiring drivers [inaudible 00:26:30]. Governor DeSantis: (26:30) Yeah. Yeah, these truck drivers are getting $15,000 signing bonuses to start. Walmart is six figures to start as a truck driver. And we're really trying to get ahead of this. I mean, it's obviously a pressing need now, but we're going even above and beyond trying to recruit people, because you look, a lot of the truck drivers are going to retire in the next 10, 20 years. I mean, you're going to end up having massive shortages. So we're trying to get ahead of that by providing good pathways for folks. It's not an easy job, and it does require skills and it's something that requires a lot of effort and it's not... Governor DeSantis: (27:03) It's something that requires a lot of effort, and it's not always the most necessarily friendly job in terms of having a normal workday, but it is right now lucrative and, I think, will continue to be given the strong demand that we have in the supply chain. I also want to just say we've got some folks, Jacksonville, the port, when those ships were in California, we came and said, "Hey, come to Florida." You've seen big increases in a lot of our ports. We had a company relocate from Long Beach here. So, they've really done a good job in this part of the state and others with our ports to help alleviate. I mean, there's still problems with this, but we're better off as a result of what Florida's been able to do to step up and to try to get these goods moving around. Governor DeSantis: (27:45) There's more to do, but it's not necessarily the easiest thing when you have accelerating inflation nationwide. I mean, I think that they had said there was not going to be any inflation in 2021, the White House did, even though they were printing all this money and had done a major effort to crimp energy production in the United States. How come it's wrong to produce our own oil and gas here, but you can go to Saudi Arabia and fist bump to try to get it from Saudi? I mean, it makes no sense that we wouldn't do it. We have opportunities here to be inner-energy independent and not have to worry about any of these other countries. Yet, they're intentionally not doing it. You can't run a modern economy on windmills. You just can't do it. Governor DeSantis: (28:30) We do a lot of solar in Florida. It is a compliment. It does not displace the traditional forms of energy. So, now we're in a situation they're bragging that gas has gone down over the last however many weeks. It's still over four bucks. I had never seen it over four bucks my whole life living here, yeah, really, but that is the problem. It's just when you're cranking the printing presses, you're making energy more expensive, that creates an upward pressure on all of this stuff. So, the acceleration from May to June that we saw at the end of June, not only was they said, "It wouldn't happen," then they said, "It was a blip, then they said, "It would peak soon," it still didn't peak even after that. So, that's really making it difficult for a lot of people to make ends meet. Governor DeSantis: (29:17) I mean, you can have opportunities for more income. You get, what, a nine, 10% pay increase, and that's wiped out immediately with the Bidenflation. So it's a big problem. Certainly, from a supply chain perspective, some of the stuff with the insanity with the COVID policies have been a huge problem over the years. I mean, just think about it. You can't even go into Canada without producing medical papers. I mean, how ridiculous is this that they're still trying to cling to all this stuff? But I think all this has had a real serious impact. In Florida, when they wanted to impose COVID shot mandates, we stopped it. I mean, we made sure that people wouldn't lose their job over this. It's wrong. I think it irked me because we, very early in '21, we said, "No government vax mandate, COVID vax mandate, for school children or for government agencies, like police and fire. They wanted to take some of these police officers and firefighters who'd been working the whole time during COVID, and then all of a sudden fire them because they didn't get a shot. Many of them have already had COVID anyways and had infection-conferred immunity, and the same thing with the nurses. They wanted to fire these nurses who were just basically doing a good job, just want to be able to make decision. We saved a lot of jobs there, as well, but particularly with the truckers, if we had not done what we'd done, you would've had truckers that some of them just would've retired. If they would've been put to the choice, they just would've retired. They were not going to bend the knee. That would've been a huge disruption throughout the state of Florida. So, we were right to make sure that we were doing that. Governor DeSantis: (31:07) With the school children, we saw that very early on, I mean, over a year and a half ago, and made sure that parents were protected. They want to do like Biden. He's criticizing Florida because we're recommending against jabbing these six-month-old babies. There's no evidence that says that that has been effective. The thing is, even though they've been prattling about this, parents, nationwide, the uptake is 2% nationwide. Some of that, if you take out some of the states that have higher ... I mean the average state's 1, 1-1/2%. Governor DeSantis: (31:40) Parents are seeing this. They understand that this was flimsy data. They understood that it should not have gotten emergency use authorization. They're understand that kids are very low risk, and most of these kids have had COVID by now. So, they're making those informed decisions. We said, "People can do what they want, but we are not recommending it, and we are not doing any programs." Of course, we have provided substantive protections for parents so that they can't do what they try to do in California, deny a kid an education based on a COVID shot. That's wrong, and so we're happy to stand up for that. Okay. Any questions? Speaker 3: (32:33) Governor [inaudible 00:32:34] candidate, Erick Aguilar, has been accused of soliciting campaign donations by using your name, kind of tricking people into thinking they're donating to you, but [inaudible 00:32:40] himself. GOP officials in Florida have called for him to be excluded from [inaudible 00:32:44]. Any thoughts on that or reaction to a candidate using your name to solicit donations? Governor DeSantis: (32:50) Yeah, no. I mean, I haven't seen those emails. I have heard about it. It's wrong. I mean, at the end of the day, to use somebody's logo and use their name and act like that it's coming ... people are supporting me when it's really going other, that's a fraud on the donor, and that is wrong. Interestingly on this, I got accused by some of these people on one of these shows about, "Oh, he's raising all this, people want to donate to him," and they tried to say that we had auto-donate where it keeps going every month. We do not do that in my mind. You donate, fine. You can click a button to make it auto. We do not do that auto because we don't want people to have these charges if that's not something they didn't agree with. They tried to act like I was doing that. Governor DeSantis: (33:31) Then, some of these media went and they said, "Wait a minute. He's not doing that." So, they were lying about that. We do not do that. At the end of the day, we have folks who, some people are on fixed income, very limited, and they will donate a certain amount, and that's very meaningful. Not everybody has the capacity to write these big. So, you see that, and so we're very good stewards, but we would never do automatic unless you, personally, as the contributor, press that button. So, I think it's very important, particularly as Republicans, when you're raising money amongst your own people, that you're doing that in a way that as honesty. So, if my name is being used to trick people into providing donations for something that they don't necessarily want to do, that is definitely wrong. All right, guys. I'm going to stay in town tonight. I'm speaking at the Lincoln dinner. So, take care. Speaker 4: (34:40) Thank you, [inaudible 00:34:41]. Governor DeSantis: (34:40) Thanks, guys. Speaker 5: (34:41) Melissa? Good luck this evening.