Mr. Vallas, who is running in the nonpartisan mayoral race as the law-and-order candidate, released a statement Friday saying, “there is simply no place in Chicago for a right-wing extremist like Ron DeSantis, and I am disappointed in F.O.P. leadership for inviting him to speak to officers.”
Mr. DeSantis and his staff have delighted in stirring up such turmoil in Democratic strongholds. His combative press secretary, Christina Pushaw, tweeted back at Mayor Adams, “Nice rhetoric — but here’s reality: More Americans fled NYC than any other metro area last year. More Americans moved to Florida than any other state.”
She concluded, “Maybe it’s you who can learn from” Mr. DeSantis.
In Elmhurst, it was clear the political wars of the Trump years were not about to abate if the spotlight turns to Mr. DeSantis. Suburban Chicagoans faced off, one side shouting through bullhorns to protest Mr. DeSantis’s policies on education, abortion and L.G.B.T. issues, the other, just as loud and amplified, extolling his views on crime and policing.
Inside the hall, Representative Darin LaHood, a Republican whose district stretches through the Chicago exurbs from Peoria to Rockford, introduced Mr. DeSantis. Outside, Representative Sean Casten, a Democrat who represents close-in Chicago suburbs, joined the protesters.
One of those protesters, Kim Cambra, 60, of Elmhurst, said she voted for Mr. Trump twice, but one of her daughters is gay, and another, who was transgender, died in 2020 of a heroin overdose, possibly self-inflicted. The anti-transgender talk of both Mr. DeSantis and Mr. Trump brought her out on Monday.
“I wish I could vote for Trump again, but if he’s going to make my daughter unsafe, I just can’t,” she said.
Mr. DeSantis was introduced in New York by Lee Zeldin, the former Long Island congressman who lost last year’s governor’s race to Kathy Hochul, the incumbent Democrat, and who has been a staunch ally of Mr. Trump’s. Mr. Zeldin’s presence suggested a possible loosening of Mr. Trump’s political grip on top Republicans in his former home state.
