DeSantis will compete with Trump for the Republican nomination for the White House

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis made his latest foray into national politics this Wednesday by announcing before the Federal Election Commission what had been an open secret: his candidacy for the primaries of the Republican Partyin which he will face what was his political godfather, Donald Trump. If he wants to become the conservative candidate for the presidential election in 2024, he will have to reverse the script in which, despite his conflicts with Justice, Donald Trump party with an advantage

In the days of Trumpism, DeSantis’ political career almost seems like a product of another era. Born in Florida, graduated cum laude by Harvard and Yale universities. He is a veteran of the Iraq War and one of the leaders of the new conservative movement that broke away from the Tea Party and organized around Freedom Club in the House of Representatives. DeSantis was one of the founders of this group that was born “to push the Republican Party further to the right.”

At the head of the state of Florida, he experimented with a mild authoritarianism that uses institutions for subdue your political enemies. Under his leadership, Florida ended the turn to the right, which began after Democrat Barack Obama’s victory in that state in the 2012 presidential election, and ceased to be a key state. Today, Florida is solidly Republican.

DeSantis has used his governorship to portray himself as a cultural scourge He woke up [progresista] in the USA. Thus, a few months ago he declared that «Florida is where he He woke up he will die.”

Economic support

Part of DeSantis’ strategy to attack Trump’s advantage will be blunt economic support that various Republican donors are lending to him. The main one comes through a super PAC (a political action committee with no spending limits or formal ties to an official campaign). Never back downwhich he expects to be able to raise up to 200 million dollars (about 185 million euros).

The DeSantis way, he said The New York Times Jeff Roe, the Republican strategist at the helm of the super PAC, is selling himself as a synthesis of Trump and traditional Republicanism. “He is the only one who has the opportunity to be the leader of the party” and at the same time steal votes from Trump.

The dynamics of the confrontation between Floridians and New Yorkers is still questionable. Since starting to sound like his rival in the primaries, the former president has not hesitated to appoint the governor of Florida the center of their attacksgoing so far as to confirm that he wouldn’t be where he is if he hadn’t supported his run for governor in 2018. DeSantis has yet to lash out at him, even endorsing him after learning of his an indictment was filed for allegedly accepting a bribe porn actress Stormy Daniels.

Despite the fact that he initiated various legal cases, iron grip which Trump exercises on the basis of the Republican Party has protected him from the attacks of his colleagues.

Faced with Donald Trump – who, according to polls, would give him an advantage of 32 percent of support – the biggest obstacle for DeSantis is the historical trend against him, that is, in favor of the former president.

According to FiveThirtyEight’s analysis of 40 years of primaries, 75% of candidates who garner 35% or more support in the first few months of the primaries end up running for the White House. Today, Trump has the support of more than 53% of Republican voters, of whom 48% (according to the Morning Consult poll) would vote for DeSantis as their second choice. In that 48% lies the candidate’s potential victory. Unfortunately for him, it is a path that will most likely It is an attack on Donald Trump.