Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will come to the Valley to show his support for Ohio GOP Senate candidate JD Vance during a rally in Liberty, but the Florida governor won’t need time to get to know our community as his family tree has deep roots here.
DeSantis, a potential 2024 Republican presidential candidate, was born in Jacksonville, Florida, but his mother – Karen DeSantis – grew up in Poland and his maternal grandparents came to the Valley in the 1930s century.
DeSantis’ mother attended Youngstown State University in the 1970s, where she met fellow student and future husband Ron DeSantis, who was from Aliquippa, Pennsylvania.
The DeSanti family left the Mahoning Valley and moved to Florida in the 1970s, and their son Ron was born in Jacksonville in 1978.
DeSantis’ maternal grandfather, Philip E. Rogers, was born in Edinburg, Pennsylvania in 1923. He moved to Lowellville in 1936, graduated from Lowellville High School in 1942, and married Carolyn Delisio in 1946. both moved to Poland in 1954.
He graduated from Youngstown University with a degree in business administration and a master’s degree in public administration. Rogers’ children are Karen (DeSantis), sister Regina Rogers and the Reverend Philip Rogers.
Rogers was director of the Mahoning County Board of Elections from 1960 to 1968 and a board member from 1968 to 1972. He became a special assistant to the Ohio Secretary of State during the administration of Governor James A. Rhodes in 1968 and 1969.
Rogers served in the Department of Political Science at YSU and retired in 1982.
A 40-year member of the Mahoning County Republican Party Committee and was chairman of the Republican Party from 1968 to 1971.
Rogers died in December 1997, but the Florida governor’s family still lives in the valley, including his aunt, Sister Regina Rogers, a counselor at the Ursuline Sisters House in Youngstown, and his uncle Philip Rogers, a priest at Christ Our Savior Parish in Struthers and previously with St. Charles Parish in Boardman.
Dr. Bill Binning, former chairman of the political science department at YSU and former chairman of the Mahoning County Republican Party, told 21 News that Philip Rogers was the county Republican Party chairman when he moved to Youngstown in the 1970s. and added “We were talking about politics.”
Binning said he first learned of Ron DeSantis of Florida’s connection to the Valley in 2012 while on a trip to Italy with Father Rogers, Sister Regina Rogers and DeSantis’ mother, Karen, whose son she told him ran for Congress in Florida’s 6th district in 2012.
DeSantis is scheduled to speak Aug. 19 at the event starting at 7:30 p.m. at the Metroplex Expo Center in Liberty.
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