Is Florida Governor Ron DeSantis going to throw his hat in the 2024 ring and run against Trump now that Trump has announced his own 2024 bid?
That’s the question everyone wants to know, as what DeSantis does could significantly change the election and GOP. A DeSantis bid would risk fracturing the MAGA crowd, with the country club Republicans generally drifting toward him because he’s a bit tamer and more acceptable to their RINO friends and the rest of the MAGA base sticking firmly with Trump.
If the primary then turned into a slugfest, that would risk alienating either crowd and turning the party in on itself instead of focused on fighting and defeating the Brandon regime. Particularly, were Trump to lose the primary, the 20-30% of the GOP that might just not vote in 2024 could prove devastating to the GOP’s hopes.
Since what DeSantis does is so important, people on both sides of the question have been pressing him about it, asking whether he’s going to run.
DeSantis, however, isn’t having it. Speaking on the issue at a press conference and telling people to remain focused on what’s important right now rather than a presidential contest years away, DeSantis said:
“[W]e just finished this election, people just need to chill out a little bit.“
“We have this Georgia runoff coming, it’s very important for Republicans to win that Georgia runoff. I mean, I know around the country, Florida was kind of the biggest bright spot, it was not so bright in other parts of the country.”
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“It was a substandard performance, given the dynamics that are at play.”
“But I think what people like me who have been given the opportunity to continue is — OK, let’s do something with that. And the reason why we want historic victory is, at the end of the day, we led, we delivered and we had your back when you needed us. That is why we won big.”
So that’s not a “no”, DeSantis could still be running. Recent polling puts him ahead in some states and his performance in Florida was excellent compared to some Trump picks who lost in the midterms, such as Dr. Oz in PA and Blake Masters in AZ. So DeSantis could run, but he risks splitting the party if he does so.
Trump, for his part, is all in on the 2024 presidential bid that announced Tuesday night, saying:
“This will not be my campaign. This will be our campaign altogether.”
“Together we will be taking on the most corrupt forces and entrenched interests imaginable. Our country is in a horrible state.”
“We’re in grave trouble. This is not a task for a politician or a conventional candidate is a task for a great movement that embodies the courage confidence and the spirit of the American. This is a movement this is not for any one individual. This is a job for 10s of millions of proud people working together from all across the land and from all walks of life young and old, black and white, Hispanic and Asian, many of whom were brought together for the very, very first time.”
“Because the only force strong enough to defeat the massive corruption we are up against is you, the American people. It’s true. The American people, the greatest people on Earth, we love them all. And we love both sides. We’re going to bring people together.”