Elizabeth Warren came into the 2020 election as one of the favorites. She had passion, debating talents that no one could match, and a variety of plans that received plenty of positive press. She had a serious problem, however; she couldn’t figure out how to position herself relative to Bernie Sanders. Was she a more electable version of Bernie, with identical policy ideas, or a bridge between Sanders and more moderate Democrats? She zigged and zagged on the question, most notably with her health care plan, but ultimately fell on side of being a better version of Bernie. It didn’t work, and her candidacy died with surprising speed.
Ron DeSantis has the same problem with Trump. As of now, he’s selling himself as a policy clone of Trump with a history of winning elections. The polls are showing that the reactionary base wants Trump, not the Diet Coke version of the man on golf cart. Will he change course before it is too late and focus on the 70 percent of the GOP electorate that is available to him? We’ll see.