Ron DeSantis Announces 2024 Presidential Bid – The governor of Florida has taken the formal step of submitting documents to announce his candidacy for the presidency, initiating his efforts to persuade Republicans that he possesses the qualities necessary to defeat Donald Trump in the GOP primary. Ron DeSantis has officially joined the 2024 presidential race, positioning himself as the primary contender against the former president in the competition for the Republican nomination.
The governor of Florida submitted official documents to the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday afternoon, thereby confirming persistent rumors that he has been preparing himself to secure the Republican Party’s nomination. It is anticipated that he will formally commence his campaign on Twitter Spaces, with the company of Elon Musk, in a symbolic manner.
Even before his official announcement, DeSantis had already been regarded as a leading candidate in the 2024 election, despite his previous attempts to downplay his intentions and emphasize his primary focus on seeking reelection as governor. “I just do my job and we work hard,” he told reporters in September 2021, per Fox News. “I hear all this stuff and honestly it’s nonsense.”
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Throughout their respective political journeys, DeSantis and Donald Trump have cultivated comparable support bases, which has positioned the Florida governor to potentially contest Trump for the nomination. This situation has seemingly sparked a rivalry between the two individuals. “Ron DeSantis is popular with Florida Republican voters, which is a good indication of how he would do nationally,” a political source told a news outlet in 2022.
“He is not afraid to speak out on unpopular issues, and even more important than that, he is not afraid of Donald Trump.” Another source close to Trump agreed that their rift has caused political turmoil. “Donald thinks DeSantis owes his political career to him, and this has caused political friction,” Trump’s longtime New York business friend told the news outlet. “Plus, they were never close friends. They never mixed well.”
During various polls carried out in 2022, DeSantis garnered almost the same level of support as Trump. However, it appears that the Florida governor has experienced a decline in popularity among voters as time has passed. A CBS News-YouGov poll published in early May disclosed that although DeSantis remains the leading contender among Republicans to challenge Trump, he only enjoys 22% support compared to Trump’s 58%.
In recent profiles, there has been a depiction of the governor as socially awkward or uncomfortable, which even fellow Republicans have highlighted in anticipation of DeSantis’ anticipated presidential campaign announcement. In an official statement, the campaign manager of former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who announced her own bid for the Republican presidential nomination in February, called DeSantis, “Trump Without the Charm.”
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Saying that the “glaring difference between the two is DeSantis’ inability to interact directly with voters.” (Trump himself has joked that DeSantis needs “an emergency personality transplant.”) In recent times, DeSantis has garnered significant attention as a key figure in America’s cultural conflicts. He has made headlines by imposing restrictions on voting rights, implementing Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law, politicizing critical race theory, and advocating for the prohibition of gender-affirming medical care.
The governor’s staunch stances on issues such as book bans and abortions, as well as his prolonged conflict with Walt Disney World, have prompted certain donors and prominent Republicans to create some distance from him. Before taking on the role of governor in 2019, DeSantis served as a representative for his Florida district in the U.S. House of Representatives, deliberately keeping a low profile for a significant portion of his term.
