Republican presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis and would-be Democratic challenger Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are using campaign videos filmed on dirty San Francisco street corners to make a case for why voters should rally behind them.
In DeSantis’ video, posted online Tuesday, the Florida governor takes aim at liberal politicians, saying, “These policies have caused people to flee this area.” Behind him is a filthy city street corner complete with graffiti and garbage strewn on the sidewalk.
“They don’t prosecute criminals like they do in most parts of the country, and the wreckage has been really sad to see,” he says.
Norwood Sylve has lived at Hyde and Geary streets where the DeSantis video appears to have been shot for nine years.
Sylve said he saw some guys in suits on the corner a few days ago while walking his dog.
“We are going through hell in SF, but it’s not good for him to come here and say that,” said Sylve.
The Florida governor, who attended fundraising events for his campaign in Sacramento and Woodside, apparently stopped off in San Francisco to film the one-minute spot in which he paints San Francisco as a once-vibrant city that collapsed because of leftist policies.
DeSantis is one of several presidential hopefuls to hit up Bay Area donors in recent days, including former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. California Gov. Gavin Newsom called DeSantis a “small, pathetic man” on Twitter for his part in flying migrants to Sacramento.
But DeSantis is not alone in using San Francisco’s problems as a backdrop for a campaign spot.
In a video posted this week to his TikTok channel, Kennedy stood on a Mission District corner last week as he called out the need to fix homelessness by providing more Section 8 vouchers.
He said such funding is “more important than funding wars, than funding overseas adventures. […] Thirty-five percent of Americans are on the precipice of ending up on a corner like this.”
President Joe Biden also came to the Bay Area this week for fundraisers in Atherton, Los Gatos and Marin County.