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Ron DeSantis entered this year with the goal of becoming Donald Trump’s heir apparent. He’d rather be the next Scott Walker, if things don’t happen soon.
In other words: a superstar conservative governor from a swing state whose presidential aspirations crashed and burned before the campaign ever got off the ground.
“DeSantis is bruised,” Fox News host Jesse Watters said recently.
“Every day counts [Donald] Trump opened this man. How many more weeks and months will this last?”
That was last week. Things have only gotten worse on many fronts: bad polls, donors getting restless, high-profile endorsements flowing to Trump.
All this before DeSantis even announced he was running. But he has spent more than a year building a national podium for his campaign, giving his loyal Fox News audience everything they could ask for, assiduously following the grassroots voters who are the Republican primaries.
A victory in the Florida legislature, L on the national stage
He is on the verge of ban transgender treatment for small children in Florida, even threatening to strip their parents from custodial rights.
They banned school instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation; with original bill critics dubbed it ‘Don’t Talk Gay’ and the new version goes beyond that to the whole class.
They have the strictest immigration proposal in the country: the bill plans that makes it a crime to help undocumented immigrants, potentially threatening that family members.
He has a new one abortion ban at six weeks of pregnancy. This was a year after he entered a 15 week abortion ban to the law, and recently fired a pro-choice prosecutors who did not want to do it.
Front burner24:29Trouble at the Magic Kingdom: Florida vs. Disney
Disney is embroiled in a battle with Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis over a recently introduced education bill that critics are calling a “Don’t Talk Gay” law. After Disney’s CEO fought back, state lawmakers revoked the theme park’s special tax status that it had held for more than half a century. Today on Front Burner, New York Times reporter Brooks Barnes explains how this is the latest flashpoint in America’s culture war.
They have expanded gun rightsincluding carrying without permission.
There is also book ban in the school library and he limited himself to teaching about racial injustice in the so-called schools Stop Woke Act.
They quarreled with Disney through wokeness, and with Special Olympics through the vaccine mandate.
And what to show for this? They down about 25 points for Donald Trump in the national primary polls and the gap is wide, not shrinking.
It takes an increasingly heavy squinting of the pro-DeSantis comments to see the good news in this new survey.
Like the National Review declare Trump’s recent surge has waned. Or a conservative Washington Post columnist give good news for DeSantis that the survey shows him losing by only 20 points hypothesis one by one matchup in New Hampshire where it’s just him and Trump, the opponent 33 points if there is another candidate.
Florida Democrats can only watch in amazement as the competition notches victory after victory in the state legislature, while taking L on the national stage.
He sees this controversial bill as taking place with one key audience: national Republican primary voters.
The idea of guns and abortion in particular are not policies that Floridians are asking for, according to state lawmaker Anna Eskamani.
“It’s not popular,” he said of the policy in an interview with CBC News. “Almost every policy he faces has been co-opted by DeSantis’ own ambitions.”
The Board of Education has voted to ban instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity at all ages, developing a statute called the ‘Don’t talk gay’ law. The move comes as the state’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis is believed to be gearing up for the presidential election.
Rough ride in Washington
But that ambition has suffered a setback in the past few days.
DeSantis, a former federal congressman, returned to his old stomping grounds in the nation’s capital, seeking to pick up an endorsement.
It should be friendly terrain for the Florida governor, the political crowd in Washington, DC, where many Republicans want to see Trump disappear.
There are endorsements all over — for Trump.
One Texas lawmaker walked out of a meeting with DeSantis and announced they will support Trump.
Another Republican lawmaker from DeSantis’ own state, Greg Steube, endorsed Trump. One report said Steube was unable to face the governor, but got a call from Trump when he fell down the stairs and ended up in the hospital.
A recent chronicle of DeSantis’ struggles in The Washington Post characterized him as a cold fish, quoting one of his own supporters: “He doesn’t like talking to people, and it shows.”
Follow the money and endorsements
But another recent Trump endorsement came from Byron Donalds, a lawmaker who spoke at DeSantis’ election night rally last year.
The Post said the former president’s team has courted Donalds, and they have even discussed possible cabinet positions.
Bottom line: Trump is undermining the governor when it comes to endorsements, racking up about 20 times moreaccording to the methodology used by the website fivethirtyeight.com.
There are also cold feet in another constituency DeSantis values: big money donors. Rolling Stone reports that the backers are wealthy tore him apart.
One of his billionaire supporters, Thomas Peterffy, told the Financial Times he paused donations, expressed the governor’s abortion movement and book bans.
“I have been detained,” he told the paper. “He, and many of his friends, are holding dry powder.”
The billionaire founder of an electronic brokerage firm made it clear: the chances of DeSantis winning now seem lower than ever.
The governor’s refusal to take a swing at Trump may not help.
Meanwhile, Trump beats him up every day, mocking him some ads. Trump’s campaign team also chastised DeSantis for touring the country while his home state, Florida, was in trouble. historical flood.
WATCH | Trump attacks DeSantis with ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=https://youtu.be/ZqO3-erBEG4
Can he convert?
So, can DeSantis turn it around? Chances are slim, if history is any guide.
An analysis of polling data going back to 1972 found that the initial primary polling lead was correct an excellent predictor who will eventually win the party’s nomination.
An analysis by fivethirtyeight.com found that candidates polling more than 35 percent a year before primaries won more than three-quarters of the time.
One anti-Trump Republican, Ross Douthat, argued DeSantis should run; that is the odds to win the nomination it may not be better.
One poll says DeSantis’ political situation is not fatal.
What he has done is stay away from other alternative candidates to Trump, according to Carl Bialik, US political editor for the company YouGov.
“I think he’s a very clear No. 2 right now,” Bialik said, noting it’s hard to know how unexpected news events could affect the race. After all, the face of DeSantis’ rival multiple criminal investigations.
Then again, look at what happened when Trump was charged with a crime: his lead over DeSantis only grew.
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