Miami: On Wednesday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced his entry into the 2024 presidential race, joining a crowded Republican primary field that will test both his ability to appeal to Americans as an outspoken cultural conservative and the GOP's readiness to move past the presidency of former President Donald Trump.
The Republican candidate, 44, made his decision public in a Federal Election Commission filing before speaking with Twitter CEO Elon Musk online. It opens a new chapter in his remarkable journey from unknown congressman to two-term governor to a key player in the nation's contentious debates over racial, gender, and other contentious issues. Even though the governor is being questioned about his far-right policies, his demeanour on the campaign trail, and his lack of connections within the Republican Party, DeSantis is thought to be Trump's strongest Republican opponent.
However, by positioning himself as a younger and more electable version of the troubled former president, he has significantly increased interest among GOP primary voters.
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At 6 p.m. EDT, DeSantis was scheduled to make an audio-only announcement that would be streamed on Twitter Spaces.
Prior to the evening announcement and appearances on right-wing shows like Fox News and Mark Levin's radio show, he was scheduled to meet with donors at the Four Seasons Hotel in downtown Miami.
DeSantis' entry into the Republican race has been rumoured for months, and he is one of the party's top contenders to unseat Democratic President Joe Biden from the White House. Republicans claim that the 80-year-old incumbent has taken the country too far to the left while ignoring issues like inflation, immigration, and crime.
In November 2024, Biden and the Republican nominee will be on the general election ballot.
He joins a group that also includes Nikki Haley, a former UN ambassador, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, Asa Hutchinson, a former governor of Arkansas, and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. Although he has not declared his candidature, former vice president Mike Pence is also regarded as a likely candidate.
Based on early public polling, fundraising, and campaign infrastructure, DeSantis and Trump are in the top two going into their respective campaigns. The two GOP heavyweights are quite similar.
DeSantis has taken on the fiery personality, the populist policies, and even some of Trump's language and demeanour. Without Trump's endorsement, he probably would not have been elected Florida governor.
DeSantis, however, has something that Trump does not: a convincing argument that he might be more electable than Trump, who is facing a number of legal issues and presided over Republican defeats in three straight presidential elections.
On March 25, which falls in the middle of the primary season, a New York judge tentatively set the start date for Trump's criminal trial. Trump entered a not guilty plea last month to 34 felony counts of falsifying financial records at the Trump Organisation, his family business.
Even as Republicans struggled in many other states, DeSantis won reelection in Florida by an astounding 19 percentage points just six months ago. During the spring session of the Republican-controlled Legislature, he also achieved a number of significant policy victories.
Trump, who is aware of DeSantis' appeal, has spent months concentrating almost exclusively on undermining it. DeSantis, in the opinion of Trump and his team, may be his only real rival for the nomination.
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In a social media post published hours before the announcement, Trump claimed that "Ron DeSanctus" couldn't win the GOP primary or the general election because of his prior votes in Congress on Social Security and Medicare.
He was and still is a follower of the abhorrent RINO Paul Ryan, among many others, Trump wrote. Additionally, he needs a personality transplant badly, but they are not yet medically possible, to the best of my knowledge. A traitor!"
Outside of DeSantis' scheduled donor meeting at the Four Seasons, Trump allies sent out a truck with an attack ad calling him "a swamp creature." Another truck from the DNC was sent out as a warning about DeSantis' "extreme MAGA agenda."
DeSantis won't only have to contend with name-calling and all the kitchen-sink attacks. Although he is a prominent political figure in Florida and a frequent guest on Fox News, allies admit that the majority of primary voters in other states are unfamiliar with him.
DeSantis, a native of Florida with Midwesterner ancestry, attended Yale University and played baseball while studying there. After graduating from Harvard Law School, he joined the Navy as a Judge Advocate General officer, a position that sent him to Guantanamo Bay and Iraq.
He successfully ran for office in 2012, winning a district in the Orlando region, and went on to become a founding member of the far-right Freedom Caucus on Capitol Hill. Despite having a long list of accomplishments, DeSantis struggles to exhibit the charisma and quick-wittedness that distinguish successful candidates at the national level.
He has gone to great lengths to avoid media attention and impromptu public appearances while serving as governor, which is challenging, if not impossible, for a candidate for the presidency.
DeSantis' refusal to invest in relationships with party leaders or fellow elected officials has also caused concern among potential supporters, raising doubts about his capacity to forge the coalition he will ultimately need to defeat Trump.
In contrast, the friendlier Trump has already racked up a legion of supporters in Florida and other crucial states.
DeSantis' greatest longer-term challenge may lie with the far-right policies he implemented as governor as an unrepentant leader in what he refers to as his war on "woke." This challenge extends beyond the primary.
To draw attention to the large number of immigrants from Latin America attempting to enter the United States through Mexico, the Florida governor dispatched dozens of immigrants from Texas to Martha's Vineyard off the coast of Massachusetts.
The "Don't Say Gay" law, also known as the Parental Rights in Education Act, which forbids teaching about or discussing LGBTQ+ issues in public schools in Florida for all grades, was signed by him and later expanded.
A law banning abortions at six weeks—before most women are aware they are pregnant—was recently signed by him. He also successfully disqualified an elected prosecutor who had vowed not to file charges against patients who violated Florida's new abortion laws or medical professionals who provide care that is gender affirming.
Additionally, DeSantis signed legislation this year allowing Floridians to carry a concealed weapon without a permit. He promoted novel policies that, according to experts, would erode press freedoms.
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A liberal arts college that he believed was indoctrinating students with leftist ideology was also taken over by him. However, the governor's most well-known political battle was with the adored Florida-based entertainment giant Disney, which openly disagreed with his "Don't Say Gay" law. DeSantis took extraordinary steps in retaliation, including seizing control of Disney World's governing body and installing loyalists who threaten to take over park planning.
DeSantis has vowed to demolish the park and erect a state prison there.
Business leaders and his Republican rivals have criticised the situation, claiming that the actions are inconsistent with small-government conservatism.
DeSantis waited until the Florida legislative session was over before making his announcement. He has, however, spent a significant portion of the year courting primary voters in important states and using an allied super political action committee to develop a sizable political organisation that is essentially a campaign in waiting and has at least $30 million in the bank.
Thanks to the super PAC's months-long efforts to set up campaign infrastructure across Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina, which will host the first four contests on the GOP's calendar, DeSantis is more prepared to get started than any of his rivals, with the possible exception of Trump.
During a state clemency board meeting on Wednesday morning in Tallahassee, where he pardoned a number of former inmates who had been convicted primarily of drug-related crimes decades earlier, DeSantis made no mention of his future plans. After receiving his pardon, one man said, "You are what the country needs."