Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, speaking at the NCGOP convention Friday night, said if he’s elected president he would reverse the recent decision to change the name of Fort Bragg to Fort Liberty.
The promise by DeSantis to restore the name of the major military installation just north of Fayetteville, which earned loud cheers and applause from a ballroom full of Republican delegates at the Koury Convention Center in Greensboro, came just as President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden left newly named Fort Liberty after meeting with members of the armed forces.
The presidential candidate was touting Republican successes in last year’s midterm elections in Florida, and in North Carolina, amid disappointing results in the rest of the country, when he brought up the recently renamed installation.
“I also look forward to, as president, restoring the name of Fort Bragg,” DeSantis said to raucous cheers from the crowd.
He added that he would “thank the people that have served there, and they’re proud of their service there.”
“It’s an iconic name and an iconic base, and we’re not going to let political correctness run amok in North Carolina,” DeSantis said as the crowd continued to cheer.
Earlier on Friday, at Fort Liberty, Biden signed an executive order to enhance employment opportunities for military families. The executive action is intended to improve career stability and expand resources and support for military and veteran spouses, caregivers and survivors.
Fort Liberty, named more than a century earlier in honor of Gen. Braxton Bragg, a Confederate general from Warrenton, was renamed as part of a Department of Defense effort to adopt new names for military installations that were named for Confederate soldiers.
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