'I'm afraid DeSantis has missed that moment.'Īccording to Lennox, DeSantis should have declared his run in January or December when polls showed him to be Trump's clear rival. 'All good politicians know when their moment is and take advantage of it,' Republican political consultant Dennis Lennox told. The charges were seen by many as ridiculously weak and motivated more by political score-settling than a genuine interest in justice, and Trump's support among Republican primary voters began to climb.Īll the while, DeSantis was busy doing the people's work as governor of the Sunshine State and he kept his budding campaign under wraps. Then in March 2023 the dynamics changed.Īfter weeks of leaks, a Manhattan grand jury impaneled by progressive District Attorney Alvin Bragg indicted the former president over alleged crime related to a $130,000 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels. Trump led from the get-go, but the two men were never separated by more than about 20 percentage points, according to RealClearPolitics. Trump has emerged as a seemingly unstoppable force, even as DeSantis launched his long-awaited campaign on Wednesday.īut, of course, political forecasts can change faster than the notoriously unpredictable Florida weather – one minute it's a torrential downpour and the next it's bright sunshine.ĭ digs deep into how America has arrived at this moment, how the Trump campaign attempted to kill his rival's campaign in it's infancy and why DeSantis may have proven to be his own worst enemy.ĭESANTIS ISN'T THE '800LB GORILLA' ANYMOREĮven after President Trump declared his second bid for the White House in November 2022, he and DeSantis remained relatively close in the race for the nomination. His beautiful wife Casey flashed a dazzling smile and his three young children, waved at the crowd. Headlines about indictments, a rape case, an unprecedented FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago home, and a primetime CNN town hall have resulted in an unholy conflagration that has ignited Trump's base and left rivals smoking at the side of the road. Now, fast forward just six months and that all might as well be ancient history as far as the pundits and polls are concerned. The former president was blamed for meddling in the midterms and DeSantis was all but crowned the Republican nominee in waiting.Ībove all else, he was seen by Republicans tired of losing as Trump-lite, a potential torch bearer of the populist America First movement, but without the baggage of January 6th, election denial, 'grab 'em by the p****y' audio recordings and the like. The GOP has been projected to win commanding control of the House and capture the Senate in an historic victory rivaling the Republican Revolution of 1994, but the red wave turned out to be little more than trickle. 'Take that Donald Trump' was the subtext of media stories. It was 44-year-old DeSantis - a Yale University and Harvard Law-educated, Navy vet turned right-wing culture warrior with a reputation for social awkwardness - who met and even exceeded expectations. In an otherwise brutally disappointing midterm for Republicans, this Florida Man had shown his party not just how to win, but how to win big. ![]() Ron DeSantis looked every inch the future of the Republican Party as he celebrated winning a second term as Florida governor in November. Tickertape raining from the rafters, a first lady wrapped in gold and a landslide election victory.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |