Ron DeSantis the candidate could use a personality transplant. That much was known prior to his decision to run for president. In addition, he made serious strategic mistakes that, in the end, doomed his candidacy; I’ve listed those on many occasions. But is there more to the story than that? Was he unlucky, as well?
Yes, in two instances. First, the decisions to indict Trump played into the man on golf cart’s martyrdom narrative and made it that much more difficult for the base to desert him. Second, the DeSantis brand was created by his actions during the pandemic. Rightly or wrongly–probably plenty of both–Floridians gave him credit in the 2022 election for keeping things open when other states were closed. By the middle of 2023, however, most Americans had forgotten about the pandemic. The DeSantis brand evolved from fighting for freedom from government overreach to battling wokeness, and we all know how that turned out.
In other words, DeSantis has the same problem with Trump, timing, and the pandemic that Biden does. There is some irony in that, to be sure.