Ron DeSantis has long been considered the Republican best positioned to take on former President Donald Trump in 2024.
He’s viewed as “Trump without the baggage,” a reputation that was cemented in November after DeSantis won a second term as governor of Florida in a landslide victory.
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His win even came as Trump’s hold over the party seemed freshly in doubt, with a string of candidates he endorsed in the midterm elections losing pivotal races.
But DeSantis has stumbled in recent weeks, most recently — and visibly — on Wednesday with a glitchy campaign launch on Twitter Spaces.
His missteps, which have been accompanied by a slide in the polls, have been mocked by Trumpworld and Democrats alike.
But the negative attention has the rest of the GOP field emboldened, too, as they compete to be the next best alternative to Trump.
The campaign of former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley released a memo this week painting DeSantis as nothing more than a “mini-Trump.”
“Today, DeSantis is echoing Trump on everything from policy to his body language and hand gestures,” her campaign manager claimed.
The memo is as much a rebuke of Trump as it is DeSantis as Haley appeals to voters “tired of all the drama of the past.”
But it also underscores the opening 2024 hopefuls are seeing in what had long been considered a two-man race.
Never Back Down, the super PAC supporting DeSantis, insists the primary is still between the governor and Trump and points out that DeSantis only announced his run this week. Yet for months, he’s faced scrutiny over everything from his eating habits to his difficulty attracting congressional endorsements.
More troublesome for DeSantis is his slip in the polls — he at one point trailed Trump by around 15 points, on average, a gap that has since widened to more than 35.
The drop has perhaps more to do with renewed GOP sympathy for Trump than DeSantis’s own candidacy — he started to cut heavily into DeSantis’s support on March 31, the day Trump was indicted on business fraud charges that conservatives have denounced as political.
But DeSantis’s 2024 rivals are seizing on every perceived fumble they can to siphon off that support for themselves.
Haley’s campaign claimed DeSantis is “not ready for prime time” following a book tour in which he was panned as “tightly scripted” and unlikable. And she said America must not adopt a “weak in the knees mentality” after DeSantis described the war in Ukraine as a mere “territorial dispute.”
Haley is the 2024 candidate most critical of DeSantis, but she is not alone. Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said his feud with Disney — DeSantis is trying to revoke the company’s special tax privileges — is anything but conservative.
Biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy similarly swiped at DeSantis as being for Disney before he was against it, helping grant the company “crony-capitalist privileges.”
So far, the attacks have not done much to move the needle for Haley, let alone any other candidate. Haley is a distant fourth, and DeSantis still polls at 20%.
Regardless, GOP strategist Alex Conant speculated the attacks could be a bid to attract more donor support. He recounted meeting one over the weekend who is backing DeSantis simply because he polls better than other Trump alternatives.
“For some of those other candidates, you know, they really look at DeSantis as a challenge to their own fundraising,” he told the Washington Examiner. “She may be making an argument, not to voters but to donors, that DeSantis is not the right horse for them to pick.”
Trumpworld is relishing what it mocks as the fight for a second-place finish.
DeSantis has staked his candidacy on the conservative bills he signed into law this legislative session. That includes concealed carry for firearms, universal school choice, and mandatory E-Verify.
He’s fond of hailing Florida as the state “where woke goes to die.”
But Trump senior adviser Chris LaCivita jokes that “his biggest accomplishment in this campaign is generating more candidates.” The head of Trump’s super PAC says 2024 hopefuls smell “blood in the water” over his recent stumbles.
Reports on Monday that Glenn Youngkin was newly considering jumping into the race contributed to that narrative until an adviser for Virginia’s Republican governor tamped down speculation he would run.
Yet it’s undeniable that DeSantis has an enormous target on his back.
Several candidates are still expected to get into the race, including former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Vice President Mike Pence. Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) announced his campaign on Monday.
Each will be jockeying to convince voters that they, not DeSantis, are the strongest alternative to Trump.
The former president doesn’t seem particularly concerned. He and his allies have adopted a “more the merrier” attitude, understanding that a crowded field helped Trump win the presidency in 2016.
He is, however, fixated on DeSantis. Trump has pummeled him as a “highly overrated” governor who would be nowhere without his early endorsement. His Truth Social is filled with disparaging posts.
Trump’s campaign gloated about his polling lead in a Tuesday fundraising email, yet it’s clear that he continues to view DeSantis as his greatest threat.
The former president has questioned why he should participate in the primary debates this cycle given his front-runner status, raising the prospect that Trump may not share a stage with the rivals looking to displace him.
But DeSantis’s unique place in the polls means he will enter the first debate, slated for this August in Milwaukee, as the proverbial punching bag whether Trump attends or not.
“Everyone’s going to be gunning for DeSantis if he’s still a strong second place,” said Conant.
Conant thinks it’s too early to read into polling and even sees softness in Trump’s own numbers. But he said DeSantis must challenge the former president head-on, something he spent months reluctant to do, if he wants to regain his footing.
It’s advice Conant has for each of the candidates. The primary electorate may still like Trump, but he sees GOP voters as open to nominating someone else if they can make their case convincingly.
And that will mean taking shots at Trump, not DeSantis.
“Look, in order to beat Trump, you’ve got to beat Trump,” he said, “and I think any voters who are open to somebody other than Trump need to hear the argument why that person is better.”
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Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), a close ally of the former president, nonetheless predicted that none of the 2024 candidates will be able to dislodge him.
“Trump has an emotional connection with the base of the Republican Party,” he told the Washington Examiner. “It’s very, very hard for somebody to break through that.”
