Florida Governor Ron De Santis’s announcement is around two weeks away, and still, in spite of all the setbacks, he seems poised to challenge former President Donald Trump.
The timing couldn’t be better. Objectively speaking, DeSantis has had the worst week of his campaign to date. This bares out in a new national matchup poll, with Trump comfortably ahead for the first time. Previously one-on-one polls spelled better news for DeSantis than those that include Trump’s other challengers. He was always consistently behind Trump in the five candidate polls, but he’d usually be slightly behind or occasionally ahead in the matchups.
But a Wall Street Journal has Trump 13 points ahead in a national matchup. Trump is sitting about the magic 50% with 51%, while DeSantis only grabs 38%. This is his worst national head to head match up poll since he said he’s considering a run.
It’s easy to see why DeSantis’s star has fallen. He went up to DC to solidify congressional support and to prove a strong showing of establishment endorsements. The opposite happened.
In fact, Rep. Lance Gooden of Texas met with DeSantis in DC, and immediately after released a statement saying they had a positive meeting, but that he would be endorsing Trump.
And on that day, four Florida Republicans in congress endorsed Trump, making his total number of FL congressional endorsements at seven. Rep. Laura Lee did endorse DeSantis however, so he has one. DeSantis, previously, appointed her to be Secretary of State. And the guy who got DeSantis’s seat once he moved on to governor? He endorsed Trump too.
Soon after Trump received a warm reception in Fort Meyers, Florida, in town for a fundraising dinner, where he was hosted by Rep. Byron Donalds, who also endorsed Trump. He displayed that classic retail politic skill in a pizza shop, buying a number of them to feed law enforcement. It’s that kind of retail political skill that DeSantis simply doesn’t have.
And then there’s the issues. DeSantis went full steam ahead with a 6 week abortion ban, one of the strictest in the state. That caused a top billionaire GOP donor, previously supporting DeSantis, to announce he would no longer be supporting him. Thomas Peterffy said he will instead be donating to a Glenn Youngkin PAC, perhaps indicating he’s wanting the Virginia Governor to run for president instead.
Disney isn’t actually helping either. Former NJ Governor Chris Christie, who may jump into the race just to attack Trump, also has choice words for DeSantis. He notes that conservatives have a live and let approach towards corporations, especially if they’re the highest employer in the state. Government intervention in a corporate structure just isn’t conservative.
And then he’s also forsaking Florida. Smart for DeSantis to go out to DC while Fort Lauderdale was flooding. And southern Florida is still facing a gas shortage crisis because of it. So DeSantis went off to Tokyo to strengthen his foreign policy credentials. Trump advisor Jason Miller previews the line of attack Trump will be taking. Calling DeSantis Pinocchio. Smart.
Handcrafted in Geppetto’s workshop https://t.co/Q00ij6F6Me
— Jason Miller (@JasonMillerinDC) April 24, 2023
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