The Kiss of Death: Ron DeSantis’s Candidate for the Republican Presidential nomination in New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Iowa
Ron DeSantis’s bid for the presidency is over. In a short video on Sunday, the Florida governor looked natty in a blue suit and red tie, every hair perfectly in place as he papered over his deeply imperfect campaign. He touted his own leadership and, perhaps with an eye toward running again in 2028, endorsed the Republican kingmaker, Donald Trump. It wasn’t a terrible performance, especially under the circumstances. But watching DeSantis’s now-famous awkward smile and listening to his unnatural cadence, it was hard not to think: Yeah. The guy’s candidacy is deader than disco.
“If there was anything I could do to produce a more favorable outcome — more campaign stops, more interviews — I would do it,” he said. “But I can’t ask our volunteers to volunteer their time and donate their resources if we don’t have a clear path to victory.”
“He [Trump] has my endorsement because we can’t go back to the old Republican guard of yesteryear, a repackaged form or warmed over corporatism that Nikki Haley represents.”
As a conservative alternative to Trump, Haley is the only one left in the race. Trump and Haley will square off in the New GOP Hampshire primary on Tuesday.
The focus shifted to the race on Tuesday. “It’s now one fella and one lady left,” she said, referring to the race between herself and Trump for the GOP nomination. “All the fellas are out except for this one, and this comes down to what do you want.”
In the Iowa caucuses, which were held on January 7, Donald Trump won 51.0% of the vote, just ahead of second place finisher, Ron DeSantis who received 21.2% of the vote. Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley placed third, at 19.1%.
But after the caucuses in the Hawkeye state concluded, DeSantis split his focus between the first-in-the-nation primary in New Hampshire, and the next contest in South Carolina.
This is the kiss of death for a modern presidential contender. These things matter, and they have a smart campaign strategy and popular policies. And DeSantis had much to offer a conservative Republican base: his angry populism, his vilification of all the right people (Dr. Anthony Fauci, George Soros, migrants, teachers’ unions), his record of achievement in Florida. Let us grant him all that, and more. The rest of the group gets overshadowed if they have a likability problem.
The deSantis-Trump Supercommittee and the Inconsistency of the ‘Number One’ Campaign
A group filed a legal complaint about the structure of the governor’s super committee after he had gone through a number of leadership resignations. A top strategist in the super PAC also resigned following a Washington Post piece that detailed the PAC’s internal troubles.
During the campaign, DeSantis started to make more jabs at Trump. During his visit to New Hampshire in December, he claimed that Donald Trump wouldn’t accept the results of the contests.