It seems impossible today, but less than a year ago, Ron DeSantis was riding high. He had won previously purple Florida by nineteen points in a year in which Trump-endorsed candidates had fared poorly. He was a winner; Trump was a loser. What could go wrong?
Everything. Today, DeSantis is just another guy inhaling Trump’s fumes, for the following reasons:
- HE MISINTERPRETED THE RESULTS FROM FLORIDA: The electorate, for better or worse, was grateful for DeSantis’ decision to keep schools and the economy open during the pandemic. He decided the election was a referendum on wokeness, and made culture wars the focus of the 2023 legislative session and his campaign. The voters don’t even know what wokeness is.
- HE CHASED THE WRONG VOTERS: Instead of trying to win over the voters that were available to him, he ignored the Never Trumpers and the AATs and made his pitch to the base, which wasn’t interested in anyone but Trump.
- HE PICKED THE WRONG POSITIONS: Signing a six week abortion ban and then refusing to apply it on a national basis offended both sides of the divide. Pandering to the base on Ukraine alienated moderate voters and donors. Refusing to take a meaningful position on national conservative economics didn’t help, either.
- REFUSING TO ATTACK TRUMP WAS A MISTAKE: The base was offended by the mere fact that he was in the race, so refusing to take on Trump was never going to win him any additional votes.
DeSantis is left with two avenues to victory. The first is to win Iowa and hope that the momentum from the triumph somehow carries over throughout the campaign; the other is the possibility that GOP voters simply won’t be able to pull the lever for someone under indictment when push comes to shove. Good luck with either of those.