The Senate Appropriations Committee on Higher Education voted on Gov. Ron DeSantis’ three remaining appointees to the University of West Florida Board of Trustees—Chris Young, Gates Garcia and Paul Bailey. Under oath, all three denied knowing of former Trustee Scott Yenor’s anti-women views when they elected him board chairman. [Note: The motion for Yenor was made by Rebecca Moya, a Board of Governors appointee, and seconded by Gates Garcia.]
- Apparently, Bailey and Young, both attorneys, did no research on Yenor but voted for him. The only one who professed to have done any research was Gates, but somehow he never came across Yenor’s controversial remarks.
FOUR DENIALS – ONE MORE THAN APOSTLE PETER
Gates claimed he voted for Yenor based solely on his “track record in education reform,” and the former Tampa financial planner said he was unaware of Yenor’s controversial comments.
- “He has a demonstrated track record there if you read everything he’s written,” Gates said of his research. “I believe that sort of diversity on this board, as far as being competitive in a marketplace that’s undergone education reform for the last 15 to 20 years, would’ve been warranted. And when I spoke on him, the only area I was speaking on, if you look at my quotes, are education reform.”
Senator Carlos Guillermo Smith (D-Orlando) asked him, “So you were aware of all of the controversial comments he’s made about women, about Jews and about gays, and you just didn’t want to address any of that? You just thought that he was appropriate for him to be the chair of the board of trustees of your state university.”
- For the second time, Gates denied any knowledge of it. “I’d like to correct your statement. I was not aware, nor have I ever said that. So I was not aware of those statements when I made those comments. My comments were specifically on education reform as they’re quoted.” [Note: In January when I first researched him, Yenor’s controversial comments came up among the first listings on Google.]
Senator Alexis Calatayud (R-Miami) followed up. “My understanding of (Yenor’s) work is regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion policy. So in your comments saying that your interest or support for the former chair was within his prior work in education, you were referring directly to the diversity, equity, inclusion work, or was there other higher education or education reform initiatives you are referring to?”
- For a third time, Gates denied any knowledge of it. “He has spoken a lot on the fact that universities need to be more competitive in the education that they’re providing. If you look at a broad set of universities, they all tend to look the same. And if you look at demographics in the United States, the pool of candidates applying to universities is shrinking. So if you want to be a competitive university, you need to look at the education that you’re providing for those individuals. And he’s looked at all sorts of areas where different schools, based on very different circumstances, every school is different, can provide a more tailored education to a subset of students to make that university more competitive in a shrinking pool of candidates.”
Sen. Catatayud pressed: “In my exploration of his writings and his spoken conferences, et cetera, a lot of that is focused on shrinking the shrinking group of students and having a higher on recruiting men. So I’m trying to understand what you’re referring to in those specific comments—if those are particularly of interest or aligned or if you’re referring to other such comments. I’m trying to wrap my head around what particular education reform initiatives do you find important of the former chairman’s?”
- Gates replied, “Specifically, your comment on women. I know that about 60% of the student body at the University of West Florida is female. And if you read my writing, which there’s plenty of out there, I’m a huge proponent of women. I have a working wife, not only a full-time job, but a public servant as well. My sister is an assistant US attorney. She’s married with three children, works about 60 hours a week, harder than anybody I know. I’m a huge advocate of having prepared women in the workforce and women in the workforce. So I can’t speak super specific to other people’s comments other than what I can demonstrate is believed by me.”
The Bradley Exchange
Sen. Jennifer Bradley (R-Fleming Island) asked, “And so I hear those comments and I wonder why you would explore the background of this individual and choose him when his comments are not supportive of what you’ve just described as being an important goal of yours. And you say that you explored his educational positions yet had no. Did you have not? Were you aware of all the comments?”
- Gates’s makes his fourth denial: “Depends on which comments you’re speaking to. I was familiar with his work in education reform.”
Sen. Bradley said, “The controversial comments that I think we all in this room are referring to.”
- Gates replied, “When I read his work on education reform and prior work on education reform, nothing stood out, controversial to me. But it’s unfair if we’re not sort of quoting what we’re talking about here because there’s all sorts of comments out there, some of which I was familiar with, some of which I was not familiar with.”
Sen. Bradley pressed, “I’m having trouble understanding how you are not familiar with the comments about not needing higher participation rates and engineering programs and the fact that women should not be, or the goal is not to have women in higher ed and that a primary focus and a better, stronger society would be if women did not participate in higher ed. Those are very core principles that I hear as I read his work very consistent throughout work. And so I’m trying to understand where you’re coming from.”
- Gates asserted that he shouldn’t have to replied because he only knew about the education reform. “Like I said, he’s written on diversity, equity, inclusion. I’ve read comments about that. I did not come across these specific remarks of being so disparaging towards women. And I have a demonstrated track record of believing the exact opposite of that.”
Sen. Bradley replied, “Interesting.”
YENOR-GATES CONNECTION
Gates did not mention that he and Yenor have ties with the Claremont Institute. Yenor is a Washington Fellow at the Claremont Institute’s Center for the American Way of Life and serves as its Senior Director of State Coalitions in Florida. Gates is Claremont’s Richard and Jacqueline Lombardi Lincoln Fellow for 2024. It is very likely that the two crossed paths.
- Gates didn’t mention, nor does his official biography, that he quit his company to become the Founder & CEO of We The People Media LLC, and host of “We The People with Gates Garcia” podcast, which he started in February. According to SunBiz.org, the corporation was formed in December 2024. [However, the new company is in his application.]
In his trailer, he says that he has left his business career to focus on his media venture and his faith:
“I’ve lived both sides of the coin as I’ve worked in finance for the last 15 years while nurturing my passion for conservative media and the movement to protect sacred institutions like the nuclear family. But more importantly, I’m just a regular guy, and I’m leaving my finance career behind because I feel pulled from God to deliver these stories to our country.”
The phrase “protect sacred institutions like the nuclear family” is reminiscent of Scott Yenor: The Family Form That Nations Need.
- Unlike Young and Bailey, Gates did not say he would have changed his vote had he known. His only concession was: “I have a demonstrated track record of believing the exact opposite of that.”
THE DESANTIS CONNECTION
Senator Smith (D-Orlando) asked, “You’re from Tampa and you made that very obvious, and thank you for your service down there. We appreciate that. What is your interest in the University of West Florida? Why would you not apply for the University of South Florida? I happen to have a grandson there. And why would you not do that instead of university? What was the uniqueness about the University of West Florida that you wanted to be on that board, not the University of South Florida?
- Gates said, “I go where the governor asks of my services and where they’re needed and specifically with the University of West Florida.”
- He didn’t complete the application for the position until Jan. 22, the day before his first board meeting and two weeks after he was appointed.
As much as some want to distance Gov. DeSantis from this takeover of UWF, he is the mastermind behind it.