Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who entered the 2024 presidential race with a bankroll rivaling that of coup-attempting former President Donald Trump, dropped his bid for the GOP nomination on Sunday — and endorsed Trump on his method out.
“No person labored more durable and we left all of it out on the sector,” DeSantis mentioned in a video posted on X, previously Twitter, earlier than happening to say, “If there was something I might do to provide a positive end result ― extra marketing campaign stops, extra interviews ― I’d do it.”
“However I can’t ask our supporters to volunteer their time and donate their sources if we don’t have a transparent path to victory. Accordingly, I’m at present suspending my marketing campaign.”
DeSantis then added that he was backing Trump over former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, the remaining main candidate within the race.
“It’s clear to me {that a} majority of Republican major voters need to give Donald Trump one other probability,” he mentioned, including, “He has my endorsement as a result of we are able to’t return to the outdated Republican guard of yesteryear, a repackaged type of warmed over corporatism that Nikki Haley represents.”
At a marketing campaign cease in Seabrook, New Hampshire, Haley acknowledged DeSantis’ announcement.
“I need to say to Ron, he ran a fantastic race. He’s been an excellent governor, and we want him properly. Having mentioned that, it’s now one fella and one woman left,” she mentioned.
The announcement comes simply days after DeSantis claimed he had gotten his “ticket punched” to proceed his marketing campaign regardless of ending a distant second to Trump within the Iowa caucuses. Late polls in that state confirmed that DeSantis might end third behind Haley. When DeSantis finally completed simply two factors forward of her, he tried to spin it as a victory ― although he had beforehand mentioned he needed to win Iowa to win the nomination.
DeSantis was polling even worse in New Hampshire and South Carolina than he had been in Iowa, and his marketing campaign appeared unsure of a technique going ahead. His first cease after Iowa was a marketing campaign go to to South Carolina, a contest that may be a full month after New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation major on Tuesday. He was to return to New Hampshire on Friday, however then was planning to move again to South Carolina on Saturday.
Republicans who feared Trump couldn’t win a normal election, notably rich social gathering donors, had initially lined up behind DeSantis after his practically 20-point reelection as governor in November 2022. That star energy allowed him to proceed accumulating donations of limitless dimension in a state account and finally switch greater than $80 million right into a federal tremendous PAC created to help him.
However DeSantis’ excessive level within the marketing campaign turned out to be simply after that reelection victory, when some polls confirmed him actually ahead of Trump for the 2024 nomination.
Nonetheless, that started to alter shortly. Trump entered the race simply weeks after these midterm elections and shortly started attacking DeSantis in speeches, on-line and even in tv adverts.
DeSantis selected to not enter the race himself till the tip of Florida’s legislative session in Could, by which level he was polling solely within the 20s each nationally and in Iowa and New Hampshire.
The poor polling resulted in weaker fundraising, which resulted in two rounds of workers layoffs and shakeups ― although a lot of the logistical work of the marketing campaign was successfully outsourced to the comparatively flush By no means Again Down tremendous PAC.
A good greater drawback for DeSantis, although, might have been one thing even the perfect fundraising might do nothing about: his persona. Longtime Florida Republicans instructed JS a yr in the past that DeSantis has by no means appeared to get pleasure from interacting with folks.
That trait, because it seems, grew to become a serious legal responsibility in a major race that also locations a excessive worth on private interactions with major voters within the early voting states.
“His drawback is that the extra folks see him, the much less they like him,” mentioned one influential New Hampshire Republican, talking on situation of anonymity.
