Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has long walked a populist trail blazed by former President Donald Trump, and even while trying to knock Trump out of the GOP presidential primary’s top spot, DeSantis has been deferential to Trump and extremely careful not to alienate Trump’s powerful voter base.
But at some point in the electoral calendar — and it appears to be now, with just a year to go — anyone hoping to take Trump out of the 2024 Republican picture has to present a real case to replace the former President, since 91 criminal counts and four pending trials haven’t done anything to dislodge Trump from the GOP frontrunner position in the polls.
Like fellow candidate Nikki Haley, with DeSantis a distant second or third in the polls, the Florida Governor continues to say Trump did a good job as President while espousing nearly identical policy positions as Trump.
So how to create separation and distinction? DeSantis claims he has the one necessary quality that Trump doesn’t have: national electability.
DeSantis: I think President Biden will beat Trump if he’s the nominee pic.twitter.com/Sqlpzb2C4X
— Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) November 19, 2023
Trump’s main vulnerability, according to DeSantis, is that — as strong as his base is — the former President’s popularity takes a nosedive when you move outside that base. DeSantis says this means Trump will lose again to Joe Biden if the GOP insists on running a rematch of 2020. If he believed Trump could beat Biden, DeSantis says, he “wouldn’t be running.”
DeSantis would merely be busy governing Florida, he says, if the Republicans could unseat Biden with Trump at the top of the ticket. But instead, DeSantis says he is running to try to save the GOP from a huge mistake in setting up a Biden-Trump rematch he believes Trump can’t win.
