Gov. Ron DeSantis visited The Villages on Tuesday to unveil a statue of President Abraham Lincoln, describing it as part of Florida’s ongoing effort to commemorate the nation’s upcoming 250th anniversary and promote civics education.

“We’re here to help bring in America 250,” DeSantis said. “This is a long-running thing we’ve been doing. We started talking about this in 2024 about what Florida would do to be able to honor this really historic occasion.”

DeSantis said one component of the initiative has been commissioning statues honoring the nation’s founders in Florida counties named after them, including Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison. He said the state has also recognized historical figures whose lives reflected America’s founding principles.

“We really believe in honoring the history of the founders,” DeSantis said. “We understand that this was an important moment, not just in the history of the United States, obviously, but in all of human history.”

The governor said the Declaration of Independence represented one of history’s defining moments for human freedom and said the state intends to continue recognizing influential Americans through public monuments.

“We’ve done all these and we’re going to continue to do more,” he said. “Obviously President Lincoln is part of that.”

DeSantis noted that Florida has previously commissioned statues honoring Frederick Douglass in St. Augustine, President Ronald Reagan at Florida International University and President Calvin Coolidge at Bok Tower Gardens. He said Lincoln joins that growing collection because of his place in American history.

The governor’s speech included his passion on civics education, which he said has been a priority since he took office.

“Every single person we graduate out of our K-12 system is gonna be called upon to exercise the duties of being an American citizen,” DeSantis said. “We’re not doing our job if we’re just graduating a bunch of blank slates. They need that foundation to be able to be good citizens.”

He highlighted several state initiatives, including expanded civics standards, speech and debate programs in every Florida school district and the Civics Seal of Excellence program, which provides specialized training for K-12 teachers. DeSantis said more than 21,000 teachers have participated in the voluntary program.

The governor also discussed Florida’s education system more broadly, pointing to graduation rates, public higher education rankings and student achievement before highlighting portions of the state budget signed this week, including funding for teacher pay, school districts, infrastructure and environmental restoration projects.

Tuesday’s ceremony was one of several America 250 events planned across Florida leading up to the nation’s 250th anniversary in 2026, an initiative DeSantis said is intended to honor the country’s founding, preserve its history and encourage civic engagement for future generations.