Florida governor Ron DeSantis formally enters into Republican presidential race
DeSantis is likely to give tough time to favorite Trump during the primaries
Florida
governor Ron DeSantis has formally entered into the republican presidential
race 2024. DeSantis is ready to give tough time to rightwing populist Trump. His entry into the 2024 White House race
against former Republican president Donald Trump sets up a clash of the
Republican Party’s two leading figures as the Florida governor attempts to
topple a man who has dominated the GOP for the last seven years.
Trump
regards DeSantis as his most serious contender in the primaries. DeSantis so far has tried to remain above the
fray, ignoring Trump’s escalating attacks on everything from his record to his
personality.
But DeSantis
took only veiled swipes at his chief rival without mentioning him by name. It
is a strategy reminiscent of 2016, when Trump’s army of Republican rivals
failed to go after the candidate directly for fear of alienating his supporters
and assumed wrongly that he would flame out on his own.
“I am
running for president of the United States to lead our great American comeback,”
he said during an event with Twitter owner Elon Musk and tech investor David
Sacks. “But we know our country’s going in the wrong direction. We see it with
our own eyes. And we feel it in our bones.”
With those
remarks, DeSantis, who won reelection in resounding fashion last fall and
captured the attention of a party longing to turn the page from recent defeats,
opened up a new chapter in the campaign to take on President Joe Biden in 2024.
DeSantis stepped into the Republican primary bit late but begins his bid with
more campaign cash and support in the polls than anyone except for Trump.
“My pledge
to you is this: If you nominate me you can set your clock to January 20, 2025,
at high noon because on the west side of the US Capitol, I will be taking the
oath of office as the 47th president of the United States,” DeSantis said. “No
excuses, I will get the job done.”
In an
interview later with Fox News, he said he believed all candidates should
participate in the planned GOP primary debates, which Trump has threatened to
boycott. “Nobody’s entitled to anything in this world,” he said.
Now that
he’s officially in the race, DeSantis’ well-funded super PAC is poised to
intensify its attacks against the former president. His team plans to focus on
policy differences between the two Republicans, making the case that Trump has
“lurched left” on some issues — most notably, abortion.
“We’re going
to amplify him and his voice, and when necessary, contrast with the former
president. But right now that contrast is really one is lurching left and one
is fighting,” said David Polyansky, senior adviser to the pro-DeSantis super
PAC Never Back Down.
DeSantis’
team believes Trump is particularly vulnerable with Republican primary voters
on abortion. Although the former president appointed the Supreme Court justices
who overturned Roe v. Wade, he has drawn the ire of anti-abortion activists by
refusing to say whether he supports a federal ban on the procedure.
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