TAMPA — Ron DeSantis was as soon as considered as the one Republican who might beat former President Donald Trump. Now Florida isn’t even a positive factor.
The Florida governor has for months tried to fulfill the lofty expectations set when he jumped into the presidential race in Might. Since then, he’s reorganized his marketing campaign a number of occasions, and confronted limitless assaults by Trump, who continues to steer by double-digits in polls.
He’s overshadowed in his house state too, the place Trump is forward of the governor .
Towards this backdrop, DeSantis on Thursday introduced his marketing campaign to downtown Tampa, lower than an hour from the governor’s hometown of Dunedin, to roll out a slew of endorsements from native police and sheriffs. In the course of the hourlong cease, DeSantis touched on most of the identical themes he’s touted throughout his years as governor: He characterised San Francisco as a drug-ridden hellhole, attacked the media and its “phony narratives,” denounced “Soros-funded” prosecutors and criticized President Joe Biden over the southern border.
However these acquainted traces confronted an uneasy viewers. DeSantis additionally took some skeptical questions from voters and reporters, together with whether or not he has extra help in Florida than Trump, who’s at present at his winter house at Mar-a-Lago in south Florida.
“He received by three, I received by 20,” DeSantis replied, referencing how a lot Trump received Florida within the 2020 election and his personal 2022 reelection margin of victory.
The Tampa occasion veered from DeSantis’ ordinary marketing campaign schedule, which has centered particularly closely on Iowa, with plans to succeed in all 99 counties within the state. DeSantis has plans to return to Iowa Saturday by way of Monday to marketing campaign alongside By no means Again Down, the tremendous PAC supporting his bid for president.
In addition to campaigning, DeSantis has one more reason to be in Florida: cash. He attended a marketing campaign lunch in Tampa, , and was then was scheduled to carry a fundraiser in Miami on Thursday night, hosted by Florida Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez and different former and present state elected officers, .
DeSantis has , together with by way of lobbyists and different longtime supporters. His marketing campaign raised $15 million in the course of the third quarter, and whereas marketing campaign supervisor James Uthmeier billed the haul as a tally that may “shut down the doubters,” solely a 3rd of it may be used for the GOP main attributable to contribution limits.
“You possibly can’t elevate cash in Iowa, which might be the one motive DeSantis wouldn’t be there,” mentioned Alex Conant, who labored on Sen. Marco Rubio’s 2016 presidential marketing campaign. “Judging by his weak monetary form, he’s going to have to spend so much of this month elevating cash.”
However DeSantis nonetheless has his followers in Florida. Former Sen. George Lemieux (R-Fla.), a DeSantis donor, mentioned it takes a very long time to get nationwide consideration and was assured the governor might nonetheless win the nomination.
“There are not any in a single day successes, it takes laborious work,” he mentioned. “I’ve all the time thought that good governing is one of the best type of politics.”
In Florida, DeSantis has extra endorsements from state lawmakers than Trump does, although the previous president has the backing of the overwhelming majority of the state’s GOP congressional delegation. DeSantis additionally has collected help from greater than 300 state lawmakers in different states. In latest weeks, he has additionally been extra aggressively chiding Trump.
But it surely hasn’t been sufficient to undercut Trump’s great recognition, at the same time as the previous president faces indictments in 4 totally different jurisdictions — one thing DeSantis didn’t point out Thursday aside from to mock his rival’s extra appreciable marketing campaign conflict chest as principally going towards legal professionals’ charges.
In response, Trump marketing campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung mentioned DeSantis had “the power of a used moist rag.”
“That is nothing greater than a determined try of a flailing candidate who’s within the final throes of his marketing campaign,” he mentioned, pointing to Trump’s polling benefits together with in opposition to Biden. “This powerful man routine from DeSantis is laughable, as a result of the one factor powerful about him is his potential to persistently embarrass himself each single day on the marketing campaign path.”
Confronted with viability questions from donors and the press, DeSantis’ marketing campaign officers have repeatedly mentioned {that a} robust displaying in Iowa will assist slim the sphere to a two-person race. However DeSantis remains to be far behind Trump in that state. He’s additionally dealing with complaints from New Hampshire officers who warn in opposition to ignoring the Granite State.
The DeSantis marketing campaign will quickly be relocating a lot of employees to Iowa with simply over three months to go till the Jan. 15 caucus. DeSantis mentioned Thursday that he thought he’d win the state — although his marketing campaign beforehand lowered expectations and mentioned a “” could be laudable — whereas additionally downplaying nationwide polls.
His allies likewise dismiss surveys displaying DeSantis shedding. Bob Emerson, president of the South Shore GOP Membership who attended the occasion in Tampa, mentioned it’s nonetheless too early to anoint a winner.
“Polls are polls however we haven’t had a one main but. It’s an extended recreation,” Emerson mentioned.