Florida governor Ron DeSantis, a protégé of Donald Trump, has been pitching himself as a younger, more electable, version of the 76-year-old
They have been waiting for a new warrior to reclaim the White House: a Donald Trump for the next generation.
Ron DeSantis promised just that as he strode onto stage in Pittsburgh vowing to don the “armour of God” and lead Republicans to victory.
Casting himself as a battle-hardened leader, he pledged to “never, ever surrender to woke ideology” to a rapturous reception from the 1,000-strong audience.
Mr DeSantis’s appearance in Pennsylvania was part of a mini-tour also taking in Arizona and Ohio, ostensibly to boost Republicans in key battleground states ahead of November’s midterm elections.
But the 900-mile trek from his governor’s mansion in Tallahassee, Florida’s capital, is just the latest indication Mr DeSantis is dipping his toe in the waters of the 2024 presidential race.
His 40-minute speech had all the hallmarks of a presidential pitch: a potted personal history; a laundry list of policy achievements; and a laser focus on national issues.
It also highlighted the struggle underway for control of the Republican party after a series of primaries, including a bruising loss for party stalwart Liz Cheney, crystallised Mr Trump’s hold on the base.
Mr DeSantis, the self-styled “anti-woke” governor, has pitched himself to voters as a younger, more electable version of the 76-year-old firebrand politician. At 43, he is more than three decades Mr Trump’s junior.
Entering the ballroom of the Wyndham Grand Hotel on Friday night to the strains of Sweet Florida, by Van Zant, he took a page from the Trump playbook as he tossed baseball caps emblazoned with his name into the adoring crowd.
His speech also echoed Mr Trump’s uncompromising approach to fighting violent crime, illegal immigration and banning transgender athletes from women’s sports.
“Woke ideology is a really destructive mind virus,” he said, adding with Churchillian flair: “We must fight the woke in our schools, we must fight the woke in our businesses, and we must fight the woke in our government agencies.”
The crowd reacted with jubilation, frequently jumping to their feet as Mr DeSantis railed against liberal policies.
The new darling of the conservative base, Mr DeSantis sees a winning strategy in modelling Mr Trump’s stoking of culture wars, but with a less combative approach that broadens his appeal.
It involves walking a fine line: avoiding attacking the former president, and thus alienating his supporters, while also subtly hinting that the Republican Party is no longer beholden to the former president.
Friday’s event was a rally for Doug Mastriano, a Trump-backed candidate in the Pennsylvania governor race who has parroted Mr Trump’s claims of voter fraud. But not once did Mr DeSantis allude to his maker by name.
Instead, he name-checked other former leaders and attacked Joe Biden, suggesting the 79-year-old was ill-equipped for the role.
“I think back to some of the other presidents we’ve had. Think about John Kennedy… think about president Reagan,” he told the crowd as he listed the country’s great leaders.
Whether it will work remains to be seen. Mr Trump retains a vice-like grip on the party base, as evidenced by this week’s ousting of his nemesis Ms Cheney from Congress.
Her outspoken criticism of the former president made her a top target and led to her crushing defeat by his hand-picked challenger, Harriet Hageman, in the Wyoming GOP primary.
Ms Cheney, however, has vowed to do all she can to block Mr Trump should he enter the 2024 race, hinting at a White House bid of her own.
She is just the latest prominent Republican to put a break with Mr Trump at the heart of a prospective bid.
Mike Pence, his former vice-president, Larry Hogan, the Maryland governor, and Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor, have all made similar rumblings.
But Ms Cheney’s landslide loss has put a spotlight on the former president’s ability to exact revenge.
In all, Mr Trump has weighed into more than 200 primary races this year. His preferred candidates have triumphed in more than 90 per cent of them, according to one analysis.
Mr Trump also remains the Republican Party’s unofficial leader in a string of polls, although most suggest there is ample room for a challenger.
They include a NYT/Siena College poll last month that found almost half of Republican 2024 voters would prefer another candidate to Mr Trump.
Mr Trump’s potential 2024 contenders spy a further chink in the 76-year-old’s armour as his legal woes mount.
Laura Ingraham, a Fox News anchor and influential ally of Mr Trump, is among those to suggest voters may be ready to “turn the page” on the former president in the wake of the FBI raid on his home.
“They’re exhausted by the battle, the constant battle, that they may believe that maybe it’s time to turn the page if we can get someone who has all Trump’s policies, who’s not Trump,” she said.
Young activists have signalled Mr DeSantis might be just the man for the job.
He is “one of the most popular leaders in America. He has become the model for a new conservative movement”, said Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point Action, a conservative youth group organising Mr DeSantis’s multi-state tour.
Hundreds of his supporters queued in the streets of downtown Pittsburgh for hours to hear him speak, equipped with red “MAGA” hats, and shorts and t-shirts in the style of the US flag.
“He’s very level-headed, very intelligent. I love what he did with the state of Florida, a lot of people are flocking down there because of him,” said Deb, a 68-year-old retiree who had come to hear Mr DeSantis in Pittsburgh.
It is the Florida governor’s “even temper” that would earn him her vote over Mr Trump in a hypothetical contest, she said. “These two guys have two different personalities. You could see that,” she added.
But for all the enthusiasm for Mr DeSantis, he has a difficult battle ahead if he is to wrest control of the Republican party from its current leader.
As Mr Trump continues to tease a third White House bid, many of those in the audience in Pittsburgh declared they would remain loyal to him.
Donna Ninehouser, 65, was unequivocal. “He is the only one who can save this country right now,” she said.
Travis, a 22-year-old university student, said he admired Mr DeSantis’s “backbone”, and his ability to “speak to everyday people”.
But faced with the choice in 2024, he still leant towards Mr Trump. He said: “President Trump has shown results over four years already.”
In stepping into the national limelight, Mr DeSantis may find that simply echoing Mr Trump may not be enough to supplant him.
