Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is hosting a three-day retreat this weekend with his top donors and supporters, some of whom are longtime supporters of former President Donald Trump.
The retreat is being held at the Four Seasons hotel, only 4 miles away from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence, and is being attended by approximately 150 attendees. The event is being billed as a celebration of the “Florida blueprint” and comes amid a highly rumored presidential run by the Florida governor, according to Politico.
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Among the attendees of this retreat include Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, Arizona Republican Jim Lamon, Texas fundraiser Roy Bailey, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, and Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee. The two governors were helped by Trump in their reelection bid in 2022, and the other three have been high-profile Trump allies.
While all the men have deep ties to Trump, who has been attacking DeSantis for weeks, they spoke glowingly of the popular governor rumored to be considering challenging the current leader of the GOP.
“Gov. Stitt believes Ron DeSantis has done an excellent job leading as Florida’s governor, especially through COVID, supporting law enforcement, reforming education, and supporting parental rights,” said Carly Atchison, a spokesperson for Stitt.
Others were hesitant to affirm they view DeSantis as a viable alternative to Trump, even if they were seen rubbing shoulders with him just down the road from the former president’s home.
Johnson, who participated in a panel discussion moderated by DeSantis on Friday night, is maintaining his reputation as someone who doesn’t get involved in primary contests.
“Sen. Johnson historically does not endorse in primaries and plans to continue this trend and remain impartial in 2024,” Corinne Day, a Johnson spokeswoman, told Politico.
While DeSantis might be viewed as a more palatable alternative to Trump by some members of the party who grew tired of his bombastic approach to governing and then his assault on election results in 2020, Johnson and others who were in attendance on Friday have a record of endorsing such rhetoric.
Lamon, who ran as a Trump ally for Senate in Arizona in 2022, was one of 11 Republican electors who claimed to be the state’s legitimate electors, saying Trump won there in 2020 and sending the document to Washington, D.C.
Likewise, a top aide for Johnson was involved in a scheme on Jan. 6 in which Vice President Mike Pence was supposed to be handed a list of false electors claiming Trump won in Wisconsin.
The Florida governor hasn’t said whether he thinks the results of the 2020 election are legitimate, and several candidates who ran on an election-denial platform in 2022 lost their contests. However, DeSantis hasn’t shied away from aligning himself with election deniers, campaigning for failed candidates Doug Mastriano (R-PA) and Kari Lake (R-AZ) during the last cycle.
DeSantis is seen by many to be Trump’s biggest challenger for the 2024 Republican primary race should the Florida governor announce his candidacy in the next presidential election. DeSantis has not yet announced if he will run, seemingly dodging questions on the subject.
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Aside from Trump, the only candidates who are running for the GOP 2024 primary are former South Carolina governor and former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley and billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy. Haley announced she would join the race on Feb. 15, while Ramaswamy announced his candidacy on Tuesday.
President Joe Biden has yet to announce if he will seek reelection in 2024. However, first lady Jill Biden said on Friday that ‘he’s not finished what he’s started.”
