ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — During his rise from Florida governor to defining conservative voice and now one of the top Republican presidential candidates, Ron DeSantis has made anti-“wokeness” a rallying cry.
“The woke mind virus represents a war on the truth,” DeSantis said during a campaign stop in Iowa last weekend.
Across a growing field of GOP hopefuls, warring with “wokeness” has emerged as a defining issue, even if its definition is hard to summarize and change from its historical roots.
Nikki Haley during a CNN Town Hall Sunday defined “woke” as “biological boys playing girls sports" and “pronoun classes in the military.”
“All of these things that are pushing what a small minority want on the majority of Americans, it's too, too much,” the GOP presidential candidate said during the show.
GOP Candidate Vivek Ramaswamy wrote a book called “Woke Inc.,” and gave his definition for "woke" in a minute-and-a-half-long video on social media.
Former President Donald Trump accused the military of “wanting to go woke,” during a FOX News town hall, but also during a campaign stop in Iowa — and in an apparent slight to his top challenger in DeSantis — said, “I don’t like the term woke, cause I hear woke, woke, woke, you know, it’s just a term used, half the people can’t even define it.”
When asked by NBC reporter Dasha Burns, DeSantis said “woke” is “a form of cultural Marxism. It’s about putting merit and achievement behind identity politics, and it’s basically a war on the truth. And its infected institutions and corrupted institutions.”
"Woke" is among the most searched words on Merriam-Webster’s website.
Republican candidates are largely using the ”disapproving” definition as cited by M-W, defining woke as "politically liberal, especially in a way that is considered unreasonable."
Though that strays from the original definition of “woke,” which according to experts has decades of history.
“Being woke is being aware, thinking about, giving some reflection to what's going on in society in general,” Dr. Randal Maurice Jelks, professor of African American Studies at the University of Kansas, said.
Jelks says the term has historically been used by Black Americans to highlight inequalities they may face.
The sentiment was even shared by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during a graduation speech at Morehouse College in the late 1950s
“Dr. King is telling young students that they have to be aware of what is going on in society,” Jelks said. “The way the term is used today is a distortion of that.”
"This particular term has come up to frighten people as a wedge issue, rather than saying, 'Yeah, I want all of my students to be aware,'" Jelks added.
Though there is a reason Republican candidates have been using it in the way they have, it's resonating with Republican voters.
According to the Wall Street Journal, a poll of likely Republican primary voters found fighting "woke ideology in schools and businesses" more important than stopping cuts to social security.