Is This the End? Rumors of Suspension Plague DeSantis Campaign

Governor Ron DeSantis

With just weeks away before the Iowa Caucus, the candidates in the 2024 Republican Presidential Primary not named President Donald Trump do not seem to be gaining any real traction. Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL), who is in a (distant) second to Trump, has been under the most scrutiny, and rumors of his campaign's suspension are swirling again.

The Washington Examiner reported that Ryan Tyson, a long-time adviser of Gov. DeSantis, has supposedly said the campaign is in the "make the patient comfortable" stage, a phrase used for a person in hospice care.

However, Gov. DeSantis's communications director, Andrew Romeo, denied the quote, dismissing Tyson's remark as the "same media hit job based on unnamed sources with agendas" and said DeSantis has come out against the odds before, and the campaign will do so again in January.

Matt Gorman and Tim Hogan, political strategists for Targeted Victory and Arc Initiatives, respectively, discussed the supposed Tyson quote on Fox News's Faulkner Focus. Gorman said the issue is ultimately up to the voters.

"I think with two weeks to go, Tim [Hogan] and I both spent time on presidential campaigns. I think, at this point, it is with the voters. It is for them to make that call. The morning after voting, whether it is the day after Iowa for someone like DeSantis or Vivek [Ramaswamy] or New Hampshire with someone like [Chris] Christie, if they do not meet expectations, they will have to make some hard decisions, and they should do it quickly," said Gorman.

Hogan, meanwhile, agreed with Donald Trump in saying DeSantis's campaign has been "falling like an ailing bird from the sky" and called him "Ted Cruz without the personality instead of Trump without the drama which we were promised."

"I think he is going to stay until Iowa. He needs a first or a very good second-place finish in order to continue, in order for this campaign to go on," Hogan concluded.

The Floridian has chronicled the troubled history of DeSantis's campaign and Never Back Down super PAC, which saw multiple members quit or fired in a short span of months, and the latest Real Clear Politics poll update puts Donald Trump at an average of 51 points ahead of DeSantis.

Will Tyson's supposed remark become a self-fulfilling prophecy as Romeo's becomes self-defeating?

Grayson Bakich

Florida born and raised, Grayson Bakich is a recent recipient of a Master’s Degree in Political Science at the University of Central Florida. His thesis examined recent trends in political polarization and how this leads into justification of violence.