Although rainy and hard to manage, downtown Jacksonville was the site for the visit of the second most powerful man in the country to rally for one of Florida’s gubernatorial candidates.

Vice President Mike Pence gave his voice to the Republican base in Duval County telling them that they had to vote.

“It is great to be back in the sunshine state,” Pence said to the audience. “We are here for one reason and one reason only. Florida and America needs Ron DeSantis to be the next governor of the great state of Florida.”

Pence went on to say the DeSantis is a great friend to the Trump Administration and is the best candidate. He went on to rally for Rick Scott and other congressional candidates in the northeast area.

DeSantis introduced himself as the only one running who wouldn’t raise taxes for Floridians.

“My opponent is advocating policies that haven’t worked anywhere else they’ve been tried,” DeSantis said. “So I’m, asking you to do whatever you can between now and Election Day because if I’m governor, Florida is going to continue to lead the way.”

DeSantis also touched on Andrew Gillum’s current investigation from the FBI and how Gillum has been avoiding answering question about the investigation.

“This issue about integrity, it’s not about black or white, it’s about right or wrong,” DeSantis said.

Other people who talked at the rally included Clay County Sheriff Darryl Daniels, Former President of the Florida Federation of Republican Women Cindy Graves, and Kellyanne Conway, the counselor to the president. All had a similar message, DeSantis was the republican candidate for them.

The rally attracted about 150 to 200 people – two were UNF students.

“I have been a conservative for my whole life,” Ally Collins, an Early Childhood Education major, told Spinnaker. “I am very into politics, I’m a member of the College Republicans at UNF, and I just wanted to learn more on what DeSantis has to say about the upcoming election.”

Collins said that although she already mailed in her ballot, she wanted to support her candidate and to see the Vice President.

Another student, a Political Science major, didn’t want to be identified. She said that while she was a conservative, she wanted to hear what both sides had to say. The student went to the Democratic Rally at UNF on Monday.

“It’s definitely important to come to these kinds of things just to kind of see what your candidate stands for,” the student said.

Collins said that she has felt pressure from her peers and teachers who tell her what she thinks is wrong.

“I think professors are very liberal. I have professors who are so biased. I’ve had professors say that Trump supporters are basically a cult. I have heard professors say that Trump supporters are evil,” Collins said. “I think that any college campus that you go to has extreme bias towards liberal. If you don’t think the same way as your professor or other liberal students, they make you out to be very terrible people.”

While both students wished that there was a conservative rally on campus, they are happy that they had a chance to see their candidate and to see the vice president.

Pence ended the rally with a charge to vote.

“Friends don’t let friends vote alone. Go get a family member, a coworker, a friend, and get them out to vote for Ron DeSantis,” Pence said. “Tell somebody what could happen in Florida if DeSantis is governor and Rick Scott is your U.S. senator.”

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