DeSantis should take care of Florida, not just family, Demings says

Orange County mayor Jerry Demings briefs county residents on the status of Hurricane Dorian during a press conference at the Orange County Administration building in Orlando, Fla. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel via AP) FILE – This May 4 2021 file photo shows Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, center, speaks during a news conference at West Miami Middle School in Miami. Several states scaled back their reporting of COVID-19 statistics this July 2021, just as cases across the country started to skyrocket, depriving the public of real-time information on outbreaks, cases, hospitalizations and deaths in their communities. (Matias J. Ocner/Miami Herald via AP, File)

by: The Associated Press

Posted: Jan 4, 2022 / 09:03 PM EST

Updated: Jan 5, 2022 / 04:59 AM EST

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, recently defended his lack of public appearances during the omicron surge, saying he was with his wife who is undergoing cancer treatment.

But Democratic Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said Tuesday that elected officials should be able to care for both their families and their constituents.

Demings said he’d been dealing with the hospitalization of his elderly father and the deaths of family members over the holiday season but had still been able to make public appearances to address COVID-19 and long waits for tests.

Last week, Demings criticized Gov. Ron DeSantis for not making any public appearances in response to the surging omicron cases in the state

Demings’ wife, U.S. Rep. Val Demings, is running against incumbent Republican Marco Rubio for a U.S. Senate seat.