Governor unveils Lincoln statue in The Villages as part of Florida’s America 250 series

The governor unveiled an Abraham Lincoln statue in The Villages and announced a broader Florida initiative to commission statues in counties named for founding-era figures as part of the state’s America 250 observance.

At the event he thanked local and state officials in attendance — including Secretary of State Cord Bird and Visit Florida president and CEO Brian Griffin — and said the statue series will include figures such as Franklin, Hamilton and Madison in counties that bear their names. “When blue states take these statues down, the market value goes down. I get them at a discount. I’m showering the state with statues,” the governor said, framing the program as an effort to “honor the history” and reject attempts to “denigrate the founding of this country.”

The governor tied the statue program to a larger civic-education agenda, citing prior commissions that placed statues of Frederick Douglass in St. Augustine and Ronald Reagan at Florida International University as precedents. Secretary of State Cord Bird said the initiative is designed to “renew and regenerate old values” and to teach children “what this nation is about.”

Brian Griffin, president and CEO of Visit Florida, described the statue program as part of a tourism and education campaign, and highlighted a Florida pavilion at the Great American State Fair in Washington, D.C., and a driving tour of seven Florida destinations at america250fl.com.

Organizers said the statue series will continue through the year and will be accompanied by public programming; the governor emphasized the project’s civic and commemorative purpose and framed it as a way to pass founding principles to future generations.