Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis (R) doubled down on a pledge to end "woke" ideology in the military during a campaign stop Tuesday.

The primary candidate shared his agenda at an event in South Carolina, a state often identified with the armed services.

“We need a military that is focused on being lethal, being ready and being capable and if there’s anybody’s agenda that gets in the way of that, that agenda needs to take a hike,” DeSantis said.

DeSantis targets "woke" military

The agenda DeSantis laid out includes targeting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), ending drag shows on military bases and banning transgenders from the military.

DeSantis also said he would offer to hire service members who were fired for refusing to take the COVID vaccine and give them back pay.

The governor echoed Republican messaging that "woke" ideology is a distraction from the military's purpose and a damper on recruitment, trends DeSantis said he would reverse.

"We’re losing out on some really, really talented people because of the emphasis on these tangential matters and a lack of focus on the mission," he said.

"So when we restore that, we’re also going to go out and really work hard on recruiting."

Stopping "woke"

The push to purge "wokeness" in the military has become a Republican rallying cry - in fact, the House passed a defense spending bill Friday that targets some of the issues DeSantis mentioned - but few have made fighting "woke" more central to their brand than DeSantis.

Some, including President Trump, have criticized the term as vague, and DeSantis appeared to agree in an interview Tuesday night with CNN's Jake Tapper.

"Well, I think there's an issue about ... Not everyone really knows what wokeness is," DeSantis said. "I mean, I've defined it, but a lot of people who rail against wokeness can't even define it."

DeSantis has also been speaking out against the weaponization of the federal government against conservatives, pitching himself as a more capable alternative to Trump, whom DeSantis argues waffled on promises to "drain the swamp."

But so far, DeSantis has struggled to close a stubborn polling gap with the former president, who has established a comfortable position as his party's frontrunner in the upcoming presidential election.