Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been trying to frame a campaign media narrative that the 2024 Republican presidential primary race is only between him and former President Donald Trump. Unfortunately for him, it doesn’t appear that most Americans are buying the political narrative DeSantis is selling, especially in Florida.
President Trump and his campaign have been trolling Gov. DeSantis on social media over his steady decline in all the state and national public opinion polls.
This past Sunday, Trump spokesman Steven Cheung sent out a press release reminding interested parties of the significance of December 12th in the 2024 presidential election cycle.
“That’s the last day DeSanctus can withdraw his name from the ballot in Florida and save himself the embarrassment of losing his home state. A new poll from the University of North Florida (UNF)found President Trump at 60%, crushing DeSanctus by 39 points,” stated Cheung. “Ron has fashioned himself as someone who can will things to existence by sheer force. How will he look when he gets spanked by the people he represents and gets tamed like a puppy dog? The primary in Florida will be a referendum on DeSanctus leaving Floridians high and dry while he runs for president.”
Brutal.
DeSantis has recovered from several campaign reboots and appears to have gotten his once fledgling campaign back on track, but is it too late?
Has the damage been done, and even with Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds having endorsed him, is his presidential campaign already doomed?
Losing Florida would be catastrophic, let alone embarrassing for DeSantis.
DeSantis has been solely running on what he has achieved in Florida as governor and his crushing 19-point midterm election victory in 2022.
DeSantis’s approval ratings in Florida have been through the roof, but that surveys that put him in a head-to-head matchup with President Trump, the former president trounces him.
“Despite historically high approval in the polls, Governor DeSantis losing steam in his home state doesn’t bode well for his national campaign,” UNF professor Michael Binder said in a statement. “Even if you wipe out the rest of the competition in a head-to-head, Trump leads DeSantis by 20 points.”
This is true.
DeSantis has performed very well in all three of the Trump-less Republican presidential primary debates.
Again, December 12 is a significant date.
Forget that it’s my birthday and that I will be celebrating it in Europe with all my rugrats, if DeSantis stays on the Florida ballot, he runs the risk of being defeated in the way that Senator Marco Rubio lost to Trump during the 2016 presidential sweepstakes.
Rubio, who is Florida’s native son, lost 66 of 67 counties to Trump.
Soon after his loss in Florida, Rubio decided to run for reelection to the Senate.
It worked out for Rubio.
Rubio won reelection to the Senate and then worked alongside Trump to help frame his Western Hemisphere and other foreign policies.
DeSantis is hoping to come in second in all the early-voting states, but the problem is that if he comes in a distant second in all early caucus and primary states, losing Florida would be a colossal embarrassment and a certain death blow to his campaign.
With all that said, DeSantis will not take Trump’s suggestion to quit the race.
Quitting the race would be such a stupid mistake considering that it would signal to every single Iowan that DeSantis is not serious about becoming the Republican presidential nomination.
If DeSantis withdraws his name from the Florida ballot he just signed to be on, he will get crushed in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and all the Super Tuesday states.
Why would anyone vote for someone who doesn’t think they can win their own state?
All. I mean all of the latest polls have Trump leading DeSantis by 30 percentage points, and leading the rest of the field my even more.
