Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis officially entered the 2024 presidential race Wednesday after months of anticipation, launching a campaign that will lean heavily on culture war battles and a contrarian COVID-19 record that brought him national attention and made Florida a leading laboratory for conservative governing.
DeSantis emerged from the pandemic as one of the Republican Party’s top figures and most promising presidential prospects, putting him on a collision course with former President Donald Trump, who began attacking him months ago.
DeSantis enters the presidential race weakened by Trump’s constant attacks and polling well below his peak after a dominant re-election win last year, but still with considerable goodwill among Republicans, a huge amount of campaign cash and much less baggage than the twice-impeached Trump, who is facing 34 criminal charges.
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DeSantis filed his paperwork with the Federal Election Commission Wednesday at 2:24 p.m., making his campaign official. He has a live, online event scheduled at 6 p.m. Wednesday with Twitter CEO Elon Musk to discuss the launch of his campaign.
DeSantis has pushed Florida far to the right
Long touted as the next big thing in Republican politics, DeSantis will test whether the GOP is ready to move on from Trump after a controversial presidency that was punctuated by efforts to overturn the 2020 election, culminating in a riot at the U.S. Capitol.
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DeSantis is campaigning as someone with much less drama than Trump. Allies say he is more disciplined and adept at getting things done after dramatically reshaping Florida’s political landscape with a barrage of conservative laws and policies.
Yet in many ways the governor is hewing closely to Trump and fashioning himself as a similarly combative type of leader, a recognition of how Trump has changed the GOP.
Like Trump, DeSantis touts himself as a fighter who will aggressively pursue his agenda and punch back against critics.
Instead of trying to win over moderates, DeSantis has pursued a hard right agenda that is more conservative than anything ever witnessed in Florida as he tries to court Trump’s hardcore MAGA fan base.
Even as he veers right, DeSantis is implying he is more electable and stands a better chance of unseating President Joe Biden than the embattled Trump, who faces a host of legal investigations. DeSantis won re-election last year by 19 percentage points, a huge margin in Florida that ended its swing state status in the minds of many political observers.
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Whether DeSantis can peel away a good chunk of the MAGA faithful with his “Trump without the baggage” strategy remains to be seen, though. He has led a charmed political life so far, rising quickly from little known congressman to governor to national GOP superstar in the span of just 10 years.
That rapid ascent for the 44-year-old Navy veteran received a big boost from Trump, whose endorsement is widely credited with delivering DeSantis a victory in the 2018 GOP primary for governor.
Now, Trump regularly attacks DeSantis for being disloyal, along with a host of other criticisms that likely have contributed to the governor’s plummeting poll numbers.
DeSantis topped Trump in some primary polls early this year after his dominating re-election victory, but the governor now trails by 36 percentage points in the average of national GOP presidential primary polls, according to Real Clear Politics.
Yet DeSantis has come from behind to win before, and has a resume that could appeal to many in the GOP.
Origin story: How DeSantis rose to power
A Florida native who was born in Jacksonville and grew up in Dunedin in the Tampa Bay region, DeSantis played baseball at Yale and received his law degree from Harvard before serving as a JAG officer in the Navy.
DeSantis left the military in 2010 and ran for Congress in 2012, winning a coastal seat in Northeast Florida that stretched from south of Jacksonville to the Daytona Beach area.
In Congress, DeSantis co-founded the ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus. He later caught Trump’s eye by defending him on television during the early years of his presidency, and went on to secure an endorsement from Trump in the 2018 race for governor.
Before the endorsement, DeSantis was considered an underdog against Adam Putnam, who had spent years laying the groundwork to run for governor and had the support of many in the state’s business community and GOP establishment.
Trump’s endorsement helped DeSantis top Putnam, and he went on to beat Democrat Andrew Gillum in the general election by just 32,463 votes out of 8.2 million, the closest margin of any governor’s race in Florida history.
From COVID to culture wars
After the election, DeSantis sought to temper his hard right image with more moderate policies that had bipartisan appeal, including allowing smokeable medical marijuana and cleaning up the environment. His approval rating soared.
Then the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in early 2020 and DeSantis faced his greatest challenge as governor.
After authorizing a brief lockdown that shuttered Florida restaurants, bars and other businesses for weeks, DeSantis pushed to quickly reopen and become an outspoken critic of COVID-19 restrictions.
The pandemic rocketed DeSantis onto the national stage as he fought to keep schools and businesses open and outlaw mask mandates. It also brought out a more combative and aggressive side of his personality, with DeSantis regularly sparing with Democrats, the media and public health officials.
After initially promoting COVID-19 vaccines, DeSantis has become more derisive of what he calls “the jab,” opposing vaccine mandates and raising questions about vaccine safety. He made Florida the first state to recommend against healthy children receiving the vaccine, and refuses to disclose if he received a booster shot.
Moving seamlessly from COVID wars to culture wars, DeSantis also has attracted significant national attention for his policies touching on racial and LGBTQ issues, particularly in the realm of education.
The governor has become a leading figure in conservative efforts to eliminate diversity programs at schools, reframe how racial issues are discussed and pushback against the transgender rights movement.
After being accused of using racially-charged language during his first campaign for governor when he said Florida shouldn’t “monkey this up” by voting for his Black opponent, DeSantis has regularly delved into fraught racial issues, rejecting an Advance Placement course in African American studies, signing the Stop W.O.K.E Act to limit how schools and businesses discuss race and pushing a congressional redistricting map that reduced the number of Black districts.
DeSantis has taken a similar approach to LGBTQ issues. A bill that outlaws teaching about sexual orientation or gender identity became one of the defining policies of DeSantis’ governorship, touching off his ongoing battle with Disney.
DeSantis’s willingness to aggressively wield executive authority – exemplified by his efforts to punish Disney, his removal of a liberal prosecutor from office and an episode where he flew dozens of migrants to Martha’s Vineyard – also has been central to his political image, drawing praise from conservatives who view these moves as bold, and worries from critics who see them as authoritarian.
Building a national profile
The result is that DeSantis popularity within the GOP soared, even as he became viewed as a much more partisan and polarizing figure overall.
Throughout the last three years, DeSantis’ agenda has closely mirrored what’s trending in conservative media. He regularly latches onto issues that are capturing the imagination of the GOP base and make his mark on them in a way that generates national attention.
That constant national exposure has boosted his appeal within the GOP to the point that he is now widely viewed as Trump’s most formidable challenger. He polls above other Republicans who are running or considering bids, such as former Vice President Mike Pence, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and U.S. Sen. Tim Scott.
DeSantis’ declining poll numbers seem to have encouraged other leading Republicans to consider jumping in the race, though, and he could face a crowded field. He remains a distant second to Trump, who launched his campaign six months ago and has a head start on building it out.
The governor now must ramp up quickly. He has the resources to do it, with more than $80 million in a state political committee that is expected to be transferred into a federal committee.
DeSantis allies have gotten a head start on building his campaign, creating the Never Back Down federal political action committee. That PAC reportedly has raised at least $40 million so far. It already has runs ads promoting DeSantis and bashing Trump, and is hiring staff in early primary and caucus states.
Strong fundraising is one of DeSantis’ big advantages. He collected more than $200 million for his re-election bid, the most of any governor in U.S. history.
DeSantis also has a record that could be appealing to many conservatives, having turned Florida into a national showcase for conservative policy.
The governor is hoping a “Make America Florida” campaign can peel enough GOP voters from Trump.
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Big questions remain about how he will perform on the national stage, though, with reports suggesting he lacks personal charisma and is averse to the type of retail politics and glad-handing common in early voting states.
DeSantis has stumbled in recent months and Trump has worked relentlessly to undercut him, branding him “DeSanctimonious” and questioning his governing record in Florida.
Now the two Florida men will battle for the future of the GOP, and the nation.
