‘One of the Most Epic Failures’: DeSantis Ends Presidential Bid
Will the Florida governor be viable to try again in 2028?
Florida Gov Ron DeSantis ended his flagging campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.
His exit ends an ignominious fall, when a year ago polling suggested that he could vanquish Donald Trump.
Since then, the multiple criminal indictments he's faced since last spring only has consolidated support for Trump among Republican voters and DeSantis finished with a disappointing second place last week in the Iowa caucuses.
DeSantis, who has emphasized culture-war issues and “anti-wokeness,” came in almost a full 30 points behind the former president in Iowa voting.
“He was at risk of losing his 2028 viability. But I would suggest that that’s not really there either,” said David Jolly, a former Republican congressman from Florida. “Look, I think in many ways, the story of Ron DeSantis is one of the most epic failures in presidential political campaigns, at least in modern history, considering he had the hottest hand in politics just one year ago, a 19-point win for the governorship over Charlie Crist, shattering Florida’s previous records for a gubernatorial win in a swing state, $150 million in commitments, he was leading Donald Trump in early polls, Rupert Murdoch deemed him the future.
“So he had everything, but what ended up happening is he overplayed his confidence and his arrogance coming out of Florida with his COVID politics and these culture war” issues, Jolly said, adding that DeSantis “also ran into the reality that he was contesting Donald Trump and the party did not want to move on from Donald Trump.”
Getting out now was the only decision for DeSantis if he wanted a political future, according to Michael Steele, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee.
“The only thing that really matters is that it feeds Trump’s ego and it sets Ron DeSantis up in two ways. One, he honored his word, ‘I am endorsing the putative nominee of the party.’ And number two, it sets him up for 2028. He doesn’t want to burn that bridge. He wants to stay seemingly in the good graces of the Republican base, such as it exists.
“And so, you know, he tried to square it as much as he could. Look, losing, stepping out of a campaign that you put a lot of time and effort into, regardless of how god awful you are as a candidate, it hurts. And there’s a lot of pride to swallow there,” added Steele, also a one-time lieutenant governor of Maryland. “And there’s a lot of pride that really comes back hard when you hear the guy that you are endorsing, who has been criticizing you for the past six, seven, eight months, calling you everything but a child of God, saying, ‘You know what, I really like his wife, she is really nice.’”
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