While the Left spent the last six years tearing down American statues, Ron DeSantis just put one up – and wrote $15 million in checks on the same day.
That was Thursday in Lake City, Florida.
And what Ron DeSantis said about buying Founding Fathers at a discount while Chicago was still jackhammering pedestals will make your day.
DeSantis Sends $15 Million to the Communities Democrats Forgot
Twenty-three small and rural Florida communities just received grants ranging from road repairs to water treatment upgrades – the kind of basic infrastructure that keeps towns alive.
Horseshoe Beach got $3 million to finish drainage improvements along State Road 351, an emergency evacuation route.
Coleman got another $3 million to fix its water supply and treatment facility.
Hamilton County received $2.77 million to improve road access near a manufacturing site.
Avon Park pulled in $2.15 million for sewer line replacement.
"We've done more for rural than any administration in Florida history," DeSantis said Thursday, "and we're going to continue that momentum with our awards today."
https://twitter.com/GovRonDeSantis/status/2093051647253446720?s=20
That's not a campaign line – it's a ledger.
This announcement follows $311 million DeSantis awarded to 37 Florida communities in late 2025, and an additional $167.5 million sent to 34 rural communities in January 2026.
These grants flow through the Small Cities Community Development Block Grant Program, administered by FloridaCommerce with federal HUD funding – money that's always existed, but that previous governors left on the table while urban donors got the attention.
DeSantis is picking up checks that Tallahassee insiders spent decades ignoring.
The Statue That Made the Left Look Stupid
DeSantis also unveiled a statue of Lady Columbia – a female symbol of America's pioneer spirit, perhaps best known from John Gast's 1872 painting American Progress – in Lake City's Wilson Park, on the shore of Lake DeSoto.
Lady Columbia predates Uncle Sam as a national symbol.
She personifies the freedom, exploration, and courage that built this country.
While DeSantis was raising her up, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson's crew had spent last summer sending construction crews with cranes and jackhammers to Grant Park to destroy the last remaining base of the Christopher Columbus statue – no public vote, no warning, no process.
Florida has now erected 14 bronze statues in 12 counties as part of its America250FL celebration, matching historical figures to the counties that bear their names.
https://twitter.com/GovRonDeSantis/status/2093001018145460277?s=20
Hamilton goes to Hamilton County.
Madison goes to Madison County.
Lady Columbia takes her place in Columbia County.
It costs nearly $2 million for all 18 statues.
"When you have other states in this country taking them down," DeSantis said Thursday, "it's a buyer's market for us to be putting them up. And so we took advantage of that. America 250 – who would have thought you could get Alexander Hamilton and James Madison at a discount, but here we are."
That's a governor who knows how to win.
While Chicago Tears Down History, DeSantis Is Building It
The same politicians who claim to care about rural America – the ones who talk endlessly about "forgotten communities" and "working families" – have never once driven through Horseshoe Beach, Florida.
They don't know where Coleman is.
They couldn't find Avon Park on a map.
https://twitter.com/GovRonDeSantis/status/2090577009583775934?s=20
DeSantis drove to Lake City, stood in front of a crowd, unveiled a statue of an American icon, and handed out nearly $16 million to towns that needed a water line fixed – and that's governance, not a photo op.
Since 2019, Florida's Rural Infrastructure Fund alone has awarded more than $110 million in grant funds – with a record 112 applications this cycle requesting more than $195 million in funding.
The demand is there because the people are there – real Floridians living in small communities that kept getting skipped while Tallahassee funneled resources into vote-rich urban districts.
DeSantis ended that game.
And when history gets written about this era, Florida will have statues to show for it.
Sources:
- Governor's Office of Ron DeSantis, "Governor Ron DeSantis Unveils Lady Columbia Statue in Columbia County, Announces Nearly $15.6 Million for Florida's Small and Rural Counties," Executive Office of the Governor, August 27, 2026.
- Gabrielle Russon, "Gov. DeSantis says 'we've done more for rural than any administration' as he writes more checks," Florida Politics, August 27, 2026.
- FloridaCommerce, "Rural Infrastructure Fund," FloridaJobs.org, 2026.
- Executive Office of the Governor, "Governor Ron DeSantis Announces a Total of $311 Million in Awards to Improve Infrastructure in 37 Florida Communities," flgov.com, 2025.
- Executive Office of the Governor, "Governor Ron DeSantis Announces an Additional $167.5 Million in Awards to Improve Infrastructure in 34 Florida Rural Communities," flgov.com, January 2026.
- Chicago Sun-Times, "Last remnant of Columbus statue being removed from Grant Park as city looks to add 'rotating art,'" Chicago Sun-Times, July 24, 2025.
