Opinion: Why Ron DeSantis is a loser

Editor’s note: Eileen Prasher is a journalist and author who has covered the Middle East for 20 years. She teaches journalism at Atlantic University in Florida and is the director of digital at the MediaLab @ FAU. The opinions expressed in this comment are her own.view more opinions On CNN.

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From the cover of the New York Post, which questioned whether we were watching “DeFuture,” to the more lofty Financial Times, which described him as “Donald Trump with brains but no drama.” All the way to the papers, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was touted as a rising star with an attitude: A clear path to the Republican nomination in 2024 and perhaps the White House itself.

In fact, the Florida governor boasted a long list of qualities Americans tend to admire in candidates, including a modest background, honors as a baseball player and veteran, and degrees from Harvard Law School and Yale University. Plus, his beautiful wife and three young children are photogenic enough to suggest Camelot, and it’s almost easy to imagine the DeSantis administration entering the Oval Office next January. I was disappointed.

DeSantis also defended policies he said Trump voters want more of, including a hard line on abortion, expanding gun access and eliminating progressive prosecutors. But predictions of success were fundamentally based on the belief that people value specific qualities, qualifications, and laws.

What Mr. DeSantis didn’t have in the billionaire reality TV star turned president, Mr. Trump’s personality, turned out to be a fatal flaw.

DeSantis briefly led Trump in polls comparable to both candidates and President Joe Biden, before the former president’s series of indictments correlated with a surge in polls since April. Mr. DeSantis was forced to withdraw from the race for the Republican nomination two days before last week’s New Hampshire primary after failing to gain support in Iowa, his biggest bet.

“The more he campaigned, the less people liked him, members of his own party. He was awkward, entitled, angry,” columnist Scott Maxwell wrote Wednesday in Orlando. -Written in the Sentinel. “Anger is actually a quality that some people look for in politicians. But DeSantis was angry about weird things like Disney World.”

So not only did Mr. DeSantis have a hard time connecting with voters and putting on a natural smile, and not only was Disney too “woke” to impress too many voters, but Florida is usually It became more of a joke than late night cooking.

Many voters in their home states don’t seem all that surprised by the governor’s failures on the campaign trail. Many people say that picking a fight with Disney was a mistake. Or, as Business Insider’s headline reads, “Ron DeSantis’ campaign ended when he decided to have a popularity contest with Mickey Mouse.”

Ana Navarro Cárdenas, a Miami-based Republican and frequent commentator on CNN, said on Instagram. Hallelujah! ” Politico Florida writer Gary Fineout said many people in Tallahassee wonder if DeSantis will take revenge on Florida Republicans who didn’t support his presidential campaign. discovered.

It also doesn’t help that Mr. DeSantis oversaw a disastrous campaign, drained money and was at the mercy of Mr. Trump, whose endorsement of the 2018 gubernatorial race put the young, largely unknown politician on the national map. did not become. Trump claimed at the rally that DeSantis cried for help, mocked DeSantis with mean MAGA nicknames like “Tiny D” and “Ron DeSanctimonious,” and reminded him of his blessings. I didn’t stop doing it.

Now, after Mr. DeSantis easily won re-election in 2022 with 59% of the vote, voters are once again divided over their support for Mr. DeSantis. In November, 48% of the state viewed him negatively and 47% viewed him favorably. This doesn’t bode particularly well for his political future.

DeSantis will continue to serve as governor until the end of 2026, when his term ends. Florida has no lifetime limit on the number of times a candidate can run for governor, but is prohibited from serving as governor for more than two consecutive terms. This problem could be avoided by persuading state legislators to amend the state constitution, presumably so that he could run for the White House while occupying the governor’s mansion, but many Florida More support will be needed than the state’s citizens will be able to muster. For him, it was, according to Brandon Girod of the Pensacola News Journal. He pointed out that three-fifths of members in both houses would need to vote to amend the constitution.

It’s important to keep in mind that DeSantis used to appeal more to the more liberal-leaning areas of Florida. Florida is full of life. When DeSantis began registering as a political up-and-comer in 2018 following his victory over Democrat Andrew Gillum, many saw him as a moderate Republican. For example, some of my close friends in Florida who vote on environmental issues believed that he was really good on issues like climate change and Everglades restoration.

They didn’t sign up for a governor who wants to make Florida a testing ground for ultra-conservative values, book bans, and anti-science conspiracy theories. (See DeSantis’ handpicked Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo, who is actively trying to convince Sunshine State residents to halt all use of the coronavirus vaccine).

From DeSantis’ relentless attacks on the LGBTQ community to higher education to Disney, not to mention signing a new ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, the governor has alienated and enraged large swaths of his electorate. I succeeded in doing so. Helpful to his current and future presidential outlook.

Even more troubling for Mr. DeSantis’ future hopes is the question mark over how conservatives view him. A bad sign is that the state’s two top Republicans, Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, were reluctant to lend support to Mr. DeSantis’ tumultuous campaign and instead supported Mr. Trump.

In 2008, when Hillary Clinton unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination and ultimately conceded to then-younger senator Barack Obama, she spoke in her concession speech about the glass ceiling. said there are currently about 18 million cracks. She was voting for her.

So, like Mr. Clinton in 2016, perhaps Mr. DeSantis will run in another race and come back for another chance in the Oval Office. After all, at 45, he is more than 30 years younger than Trump and has plenty of time to run again. The problem is that voters, and the donors who help influence them about what to think and who to support, will see him as a more plausible option in the future and give him a second chance. It’s a matter of whether you give it a chance or not.

In theory, DeSantis would have been the perfect Republican candidate. It may be due to a deadly combination of the incompetence of his campaign and the lack of persuasiveness of President Trump’s appeal. Or, some may look at DeSantis’ lackluster offensive line and conclude that his presidential ambitions will never amount to anything more than that: ambition.