While she certainly prioritizes her family, there is still more to Casey DeSantis than her husband.
Before becoming Florida’s first lady, she had a successful career and was an impressive athlete.
She’s gone through many phases in her life and overcame surprising challenges to get where she is today.
Though she’s known by her married name, her given name was Jill Casey Black.
She now goes by her middle name.
DeSantis seemed to have a fairly normal childhood and family life.
She has an older sister Kate, who was a skating figure prodigy during their childhood.
Casey DeSantis keeps her background mostly out of the public eye.
However, the 1999 Troy High School yearbook confirmed that she was a devoted student with many extracurriculars.
Just to name a few, she played basketball, ran cross-country, and participated in French Club.
She was also the student council treasurer and a DARE Role Model.
DARE is a drug prevention program implemented in many high schools.
On top of that, it seems DeSantis excelled socially.
She was a member of the 1998 homecoming court.
While getting her bachelor’s degree in economics, DeSantis once again excelled in academics and sportsmanship.
She also earned membership in the International Economics Honors Society.
When she wasn’t studying, DeSantis was making a name for herself on the college’s equestrian team.
On top of that, she won three additional national equestrian competitions outside of school.
However, becoming first lady of the state was still far from her mind.
After getting her bachelor’s, she made a surprising career pivot to become a local TV reporter.
She worked as a journalist starting in 2003 with an on-camera job at WJXT-TV in Jacksonville.
Her career in reporting continued after her time at PGA.
Just as she did in school, DeSantis thrived in her career.
Unbeknown to her, her future husband was also behind her.
“As I’m looking over behind me, Ron is over there.
He thinks I’m looking at him.
I was really looking at the balls.
Long story short, we started to talk, and that’s how we met,” she said.
Casey DeSantis married Ron DeSantis at Disney World
Casey DeSantis married Ron DeSantis in 2009.
But the couple’s choice of wedding venue may shock anyone who follows Florida politics.
Disney took a stand against the legislature and said it would work to repeal it.
In response, DeSantis asked to have Disney stripped of its self-governing status.
Casey took toTwitterto announce the birth of their youngest in 2020.
Madison and Mason are so excited for their new baby sister!"
And that’s definitely been the case for her role as first lady as well.
As first lady of Florida, Casey launched “The Facts.
a campaign to educate students about substance abuse.
Another of her initiatives is Resiliency Florida, which aims at helping student’s mental health.
And she certainly hasn’t been that.
… And then you have the first ladies that are similar to Casey DeSantis.”
Unfortunately for their family, however, she received a frightening diagnosis a couple of years into his tenure.
In 2021, Governor DeSantis shareda statementsaying that his “beloved wife” had been diagnosed with breast cancer.
And fight she did.
The first lady has been in remission since and will hopefully remain cancer-free going forward.
Casey looked back on that dark period in her life ina video for her husband’s campaign.
He was the dad who took care of my children when I couldn’t.
He was there to pick me off the ground when I literally couldn’t stand.
He was there to fight for me when I didn’t have the strength to fight for myself."
And because Casey seems to stand by her husband’s policies and views, she has faced similar criticism.
She first faced serious backlash for involving her children in a political ad campaign.
Mason was only 6 months at the time, and Madison was 2.
Many viewers didn’t appreciate seeing such young children used this way in a political campaign.
We responded with humor.
We had fun, I think a lot of people liked it and they got the joke."
She expressed her conviction for their cause whilespeaking with Gov.
Many see Casey’s role in the campaign as vital to her husband’s chances at the nomination.
He appears much more comfortable speaking on his policies than expressing his personality.
However, some have raised concerns about how involved Casey is in her husband’s rise to power.
Explaining further, Eberhart said, “he needs to be surrounded with professional people, not just her.
It’ll be interesting to see how Casey’s role evolves throughout her husband’s presidential campaign.
