US ELECTIONS 2024
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose handling of the Covid-19 pandemic with few restraints and his battles over divisive cultural issues have endeared him to conservatives, will announce Wednesday that he is seeking the Republican presidential nomination. Thus, he would start a career that would lead him to an announced collision with former President Donald Trump.
The expected announcement will be made on Twitter and alongside its CEO, Elon Musk. Ron DeSantis’ team confirmed that this Wednesday, May 24, the current governor of Florida will launch his candidacy. At the same time, he will present a document before the Federal Electoral Commission.
Earlier, the American medium, ‘NBC’ had announced his possible candidacy. An act that was also echoed by ‘Fox’.
For his part, Musk confirmed it in a web cast during a conference organized by the newspaper ‘The Wall Street Journal’. So, she assured that she was not endorsing DeSantis, and that his interest is another.
“Right now I’m not planning to support any candidate in particular, but I’m interested in making Twitter a kind of public square,” said the mogul.
Elon Musk said he sees the need for an artificial-intelligence business to rival Google and Microsoft that could involve different parts of his corporate empire, including Twitter https://t.co/cUwQtinv0j
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) May 23, 2023
Donald Trump’s biggest threat?
DeSantis was widely re-elected to a second term as Florida’s governor in November. His rising profile among Republicans and his fundraising prowess make him probably the biggest threat to Trump’s hopes of once again being the Republican nominee for the White House.
The two men were close allies during Trump’s four years in the White House. The former president supported him during his first campaign for governor. But since then, DeSantis has forged his own political identity. At 44 years old, many see him as the one to represent the future of the party, even more so than Trump, who is 76 years old.
“Advertising on Twitter is perfect for Ron DeSantis. So he doesn’t have to interact with people and the media can’t ask him questions,” said a Trump aide, who asked not to be named.
DeSantis will call a meeting in Miami of his top donors and they will immediately jump-start their presidential fundraising efforts.
During the pandemic, DeSantis became the national face of resistance to mask and vaccine mandates. He has been a fierce critic of Dr. Anthony Fauci, who led the government’s response to Covid-19 in both the Trump and Biden Administrations.
In campaign speeches, he has argued that his policies made Florida’s post-pandemic economic recovery possible, making the state a magnet for hundreds of thousands of new residents. Florida has consistently outperformed the country in job growth over the past two years.
“His response to the pandemic made him the governor of the Red State of America,” said Justin Sayfie, a Florida lobbyist and former aide to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
In the months leading up to his presidential bid, DeSantis has toured the country, visiting states like Iowa and New Hampshire to talk about his accomplishments in Florida.
But his decision to wait until now to join the race has allowed Trump to launch a barrage of attacks on the governor. Something that has affected him, in part, to position himself in national polls.
An aggressive agenda
DeSantis has turned a deaf ear to criticism, pushed his priorities through the legislature and punished his enemies. His Democratic opponent in the 2022 re-election campaign, Charlie Crist, branded him a “wannabe dictator.”
When the Walt Disney Co., one of Florida’s largest employers, opposed a so-called ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law that limited discussion of LGBTQ issues in schools, DeSantis moved to strip the company of its self-governing status.
Disney has since filed a federal lawsuit against the governor, accusing him of using the state government as a weapon to retaliate against the company.
When an elected Democratic state attorney said he would not prosecute anyone for defying DeSantis-backed abortion limits, DeSantis removed him from office.
He has crusaded against what Republicans call educational policies wokena term that has taken on a negative connotation, referring to a politically correct or overly sensitive way of addressing social justice issues—a centerpiece of their politics. At the same time, he supports conservative candidates for local school boards.
He supported a legislative measure that prohibits the teaching of ‘Critical Race Theory’ — an academic doctrine that views US history through the lens of oppression — in state public schools despite scant evidence that it was being taught.
Florida Republican lawmakers handed DeSantis a slew of conservative victories in their recent session: expanding the state’s school voucher program, banning the use of public money on sustainable investments, eliminating diversity programs at public universities, allowing free carry concealed weapons permit and, perhaps most notably, they banned nearly all abortions in the state.
The blanket ban on abortion may help DeSantis appeal to the party’s evangelicals, but could significantly hurt him in the November 2024 general election, should he go that far. Pro-business Republicans have also criticized her spat with Disney, arguing that he disagrees with the party’s traditional approach of staying out of regulation.
Republicans across the country have taken note of his aggressive approach to government. DeSantis and his affiliated political action committee raised more than $200 million in support of his re-election bid for governor.
Trump has also been vigilant. The former president has mocked his former protégé at rallies, dubbing him “DeSanctimonious” and taking credit for making him the rising political star he is today.
In the stands, DeSantis has a totally different style than Trump’s bombastic: low-key, buttoned-down and prone to favoring politics over personal attacks. His campaign speeches sometimes sound like PowerPoint presentations.
A key question going forward will be how DeSantis responds to what will undoubtedly be an almost endless stream of insults and innuendo from Trump. So far, he has tried to dismiss them as “noise” and has said he is focused on “delivering results.”
DeSantis may not be interested in returning fire. He needs to win over a section of Trump’s supporters. Instead, he is likely to try to walk a careful line between not denigrating Trump while making it clear that he favors many of the same policies, perhaps with a firmer hand on the helm.
Before his election as governor in 2018, DeSantis was a US congressman for three terms. His wife, Casey DeSantis, is considered his closest political adviser. The couple have three children.
This article was adapted from its original in English.
