{"id":16848,"date":"2022-06-28T13:06:40","date_gmt":"2022-06-28T09:06:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/?p=16848"},"modified":"2022-07-02T10:08:54","modified_gmt":"2022-07-02T06:08:54","slug":"desantis-builds-national-profile-out-of-trumps-view","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/desantis-builds-national-profile-out-of-trumps-view\/","title":{"rendered":"DeSantis builds national profile out of Trump\u2019s view"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is carefully cultivating a national network of support amid speculation of a 2024 presidential bid, even as he continues to downplay any notion that he has political ambitions beyond his home state.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rising Republican star has amassed more than $100 million for his reelection campaign, a sum more on par with that of top-tier presidential contenders than a candidate for governor. He\u2019s met with donors in South Carolina, stumped for Republican Senate candidate Adam Laxalt in Nevada and attended fundraisers in several states.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But DeSantis has also been careful to avoid many of the moves typical of someone weighing a run for the White House. Unlike other prospective candidates like former Ambassador Nikki Haley or Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), DeSantis hasn\u2019t yet traveled to early primary and caucus states such as New Hampshire or Iowa, nor has he weighed in extensively on midterm campaigns outside of his home state. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Multiple Republican strategists and operatives described DeSantis\u2019s strategy as both brash and calculated, noting that he appears intent on cultivating his reputation among conservatives nationally while being careful to avoid any move that could put him directly in former President Trump\u2019s crosshairs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like everything else in Republican politics in this country. It all comes down to how you deal with Trump,\u201d Keith Naughton, a veteran Republican strategist, said. \u201cIf he was out campaigning, then Trump has more of a license to attack him and to really knock him down directly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs long as DeSantis is just running for reelection and doing this passive-aggressive 2024 campaign \u2014 because he is running \u2014 Trump has a hard time going after him.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite Trump\u2019s preeminence among Republicans \u2014 he has repeatedly claimed that he would easily beat DeSantis in a 2024 primary match-up \u2014 there are signs that DeSantis could actually challenge that status.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A University of New Hampshire poll<\/a> released this week showed him pulling ahead of Trump among likely GOP primary voters in the first-in-the-nation primary state. He also topped Trump in the Western Conservative Summit\u2019s 2024 straw poll earlier this month, marking the second year in a row that he finished in the top spot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrew Smith, the director of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, said that Trump\u2019s slide in the Granite State Poll is \u201cpart of a typical pattern.\u201d While he remains perhaps the best-known figure in the Republican Party, voters often begin to look at other potential contenders as the presidential primaries draw nearer.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With DeSantis regularly grabbing headlines, that pattern appears to be playing out in his favor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA party\u2019s losing candidate in the prior election is typically the best-known person in their party,\u201d he said. \u201cAs the primary gets closer, new candidates emerge and attract more media attention, and therefore more voter attention, than the losing candidate from the previous election.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

DeSantis has brushed off questions about his future political ambitions. In an interview on Fox News earlier this month, DeSantis said that it would be \u201cfutile\u201d to keep asking him about a potential White House bid. Asked if he would still run for president if Trump mounts another campaign, DeSantis didn\u2019t offer up any ground. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNice try,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For now, DeSantis maintains that his primary focus is winning reelection this year, though with his massive fundraising and a largely positive job approval rating he appears well on his way to a second term in the governor\u2019s mansion. He\u2019s booked some $2.4 million in ad reservations through November, with the first spot set to debut next month. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But for a governor seeking reelection, DeSantis\u2019s public schedule can look unusual at times. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019s raised money in states like Wisconsin and California, attended Nebraska\u2019s annual Steak Fry \u2014 a conservative gathering hosted by Gov. Pete Ricketts \u2014 alongside other prospective presidential candidates and has spent more time attacking President Biden than either of the top Democrats challenging him for the governor\u2019s mansion this year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump has reportedly griped privately about DeSantis\u2019s growing national clout, though both he and DeSantis have denied rumors that their relationship has grown rocky. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in one notable change from the past, Politico reported<\/a> last week that the Florida governor has no plans to seek Trump\u2019s endorsement ahead of the November election.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One Republican donor who has given to both Trump and DeSantis said that the Florida governor had built up his own brand enough to forgo a Trump endorsement, calling it a \u201ccalculated decision.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe\u2019s smart enough to know that if he gets too close to him, if he asks for the endorsement, he\u2019s going to get sucked into all of Trump\u2019s nonsense and all the demands,\u201d said the donor, who requested anonymity to speak candidly about the matter.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A former Trump aide said Trump would almost certainly endorse DeSantis if he sought it out, but added that \u201cit would come with some strings attached.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think he still wants to hear that DeSantis won\u2019t run if he does,\u201d the aide said. \u201cI don\u2019t know if that\u2019s part of it, but I think DeSantis has the right idea. He\u2019s got enough of a reputation now to where the endorsement just doesn\u2019t matter as much.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2018, when DeSantis first sought the governor\u2019s mansion, Trump\u2019s endorsement helped him overcome what once appeared to be a longshot primary campaign against former state Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since then, however, DeSantis has transformed himself into a political heavyweight in his own right.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He earned praise from conservatives for his laissez-faire approach to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as for his efforts to crack down on alleged censorship by social media companies. He has also emerged as a leading Republican voice against the teaching of critical race theory in schools and has built a reputation as an opponent of what conservatives dub \u201cwoke\u201d culture.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Naughton, the GOP strategist who is also an opinion contributor for The Hill, said that DeSantis\u2019s focus on his work as governor has already given him a leg up over most of his potential competitors in the 2024 Republican presidential primary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other would-be candidates \u2014 former Vice President Mike Pence, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo or Haley, among others \u2014 are either not currently serving in public office or are relegated to the minority in the Senate, Naughton said. DeSantis, by contrast, has a built-in megaphone in the governorship. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhere DeSantis is \u2014 he\u2019s got this great voter base in Florida,\u201d Naughton said. \u201cHe\u2019s an elected official, he\u2019s an executive, he\u2019s actually doing things and he\u2019s kind of captured Republican imagination.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nhttps:\/\/thehill.com\/\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is carefully cultivating a national network of support amid speculation of a 2024 presidential bid, even as he continues to downplay any notion that he has political ambitions beyond his home state.\u00a0\u00a0 The rising Republican star has amassed more than $100 million for his reelection campaign, a sum more on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16849,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16848"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16848"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16850,"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16848\/revisions\/16850"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}