Less than a week after the Iowa caucuses, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) has made the surprising decision to withdraw from the Republican presidential primary, putting him in a position to face challenges in the effort to defeat former President Trump. The issues to be solved have become clear.
DeSantis' campaign and the super PAC supporting him faced a flurry of bad headlines throughout the primary, including multiple campaign resets, high cash burn rates and changes in leadership on both sides.
Still, the governor's withdrawal from the race just days before the New Hampshire primary came as a shock to many and has already spurred a post-mortem investigation as Republicans try to figure out where the once rising star went wrong. It's on.
“The campaign gave no explanation as to why.” [GOP voters] It’s time to leave Trump and move on to DeSantis,” said Republican strategist and Trump campaign alumnus Brian Seichik. “If they were going to take on Trump, they should have taken the fight directly to Trump, and they didn't.”
Florida's governor announced Sunday afternoon in a video posted to Platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that he is abandoning his presidential bid and endorsing Trump. His decision turns the primary into a two-man race between President Trump and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, who is hoping for a surprise upset in Tuesday's New Hampshire primary.
Mr. DeSantis' announcement marked a surprising end to a candidacy once seen as the best hope for conservatives seeking to unseat Mr. Trump. The governor was treated like a rock star at the 2022 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) amid support for his policies in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. His landslide reelection as Florida's governor in the midterm elections later that year cemented his star status, in contrast to the general poor performance of Republicans in other parts of the country, including Trump supporters.
But DeSantis' 2024 campaign quickly got off to a rocky start. It was launched on Twitter Spaces with Elon Musk in March 2023, but was marred by technical glitches. And soon, controversies in his home state of Florida, including an occasionally stilted performance on the campaign trail, a public feud with Disney and criticism of the state's response to an African-American history course by the Associated Press. , and began to draw negative headlines.
The governor was unable to catch up with Trump in the polls, even though his popularity within his party was at its peak. An average national poll compiled by Decision Desk Headquarters and The Hill on February 22, 2023, showed Trump at 47%, DeSantis at 29%, and Haley at 6%. . That gap only widened in the months that followed, as Trump became more popular among Republican voters following multiple indictments.
The current DDHQ/The Hill national polling average has Trump in first place with 67%, Haley in second with 12%, and DeSantis in third with 11%.
Mr. DeSantis' campaign also suffered turmoil, running out of money last July and making two rounds of layoffs. DeSantis later replaced his campaign director, while his backing super PAC, Never Back Down, announced a change in leadership, reports of infighting within the group, and the replacement of former chairman Adam Laxalt. It has faced its own difficulties, including the resignation of several executives. Top strategist Jeff Law.
Republican strategists pointed to some of these issues as reasons why Mr. DeSantis has struggled to gain support against Mr. Trump.
Alex Conant, a Republican strategist who worked on Sen. Marco's policies, said, “From his announcement to his disastrous battle with Disney…to the never-ending talk of resetting the campaign, there's a long list of things that went wrong. I think there is,” he said. Rubio's 2016 campaign.
Many Republicans argue that the failure of the campaign comes down to one fundamental issue. That means Mr. DeSantis could not clearly explain why Republican voters should choose him over the former president.
“I think the most important problem is that he never once made a case for why he was a better candidate than Donald Trump. You know, all his campaign did in Florida. I was just bragging about it,” Conant said. “But Iowa voters didn’t care.”
Jason Cabell Roe, a Republican strategist who worked on the campaigns of Mr. Rubio and Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), argued that “Mr. DeSantis himself is to blame.”
“I think his bigotry and unwillingness to trust anyone other than his closest advisers in Florida made it very difficult to find experienced presidential staff. That was a huge impediment to the functioning of the campaign itself. I think it was,” Lo said.
Supporters of the Florida governor argue that Trump was too strong a candidate for DeSantis to beat and that the time was not right for him to run for governor.
“You can sit around quarterback Monday morning for as long as you want, but at the end of the day it's all about timing and the mood of the country, and the mood of this country has changed over the last six months,” Roy Bailey said. , a DeSantis supporter who served as national finance co-chair during Trump's 2020 presidential bid.
“They're supporting Trump because they don't want to put up with government weaponization against candidates on either side, and they're standing up for that,” Bailey said.
Bailey said he was “disappointed” that DeSantis withdrew, but added: “I have never been more proud to support a candidate.”
Bailey added in a text message that he is optimistic that Trump and DeSantis will win the presidential ticket.
“The Trump/DeSantis America First ticket will win in November, establishing 12 years of great governance! It will save our country and set us in the right direction for generations. “Yes,” Bailey said.
A longtime DeSantis supporter, speaking on condition of anonymity, candidly acknowledged that the campaign could have done things differently. But they pointed to Trump's loyal base and argued it ultimately didn't matter.
After speaking at several Iowa caucuses and comparing notes from other caucuses, the DeSantis supporter said, “What we actually found was that Trump supporters were coming to us. “It was saying, 'Look, we love your people,'” he said. We believe this is not his time. We believe that we need to rally around President Trump and support him, given everything he is facing us, and that President Trump should wait until 2028. That's what I think. ”
“I think one of the things we've learned is he's not tarnishing his brand with a base — a MAGA base. And look, this guy is going to be the third-ranking governor of the state for the next three years. ,” the supporter added. “He will be able to raise a lot of money. [a] According to his profile, he will have a platform and if he decides he wants to run in 2028, he will have that option.”
Even members of the party outside Mr. DeSantis' orbit acknowledge that the Florida governor was in a tough position from the beginning.
“This was an inevitable fate for Mr. DeSantis,” said Ryan Williams, who was instrumental in Mr. Romney's 2012 presidential bid. “The Republican Party has not progressed beyond Donald Trump.”
“We've known this for the last four years and no one could defeat him. DeSantis tried his best, but the party wants Donald Trump, and no candidate has been able to defeat him.” There is nothing you can do to stop the cycle.”
Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
