2 More Florida Congressmen Plan to Endorse Trump: Exclusive

[ad_1]

In another blow to the unofficial presidential bid of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, two other Republican members of Congress from his home state are preparing to endorse Donald Trump for another term. Rep. Gus Bilirakis and Carlos Gimenez each plan to announce their support for the former president this week, multiple sources familiar with the matter tell TIME.

Their pledges continue something of a downward spiral for DeSantis, who continues to lose endorsement battles for lawmakers from his own backyard. The development is all the more remarkable after his political team recently tried to stop the bleeding by asking Florida Republicans to hold off on endorsing Trump. DeSantis has yet to formally launch a campaign, but he is laying the groundwork for a run. He is widely expected to enter the race after the Florida legislature ends its session next month.

Bilirakis and Gimenez also promised to be at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach on Thursday night, as the former President hosts members of the Florida delegation who have already endorsed him, including Reps. . Matt Gaetz, Anna Paulina Luna, Cory Mills, and Greg Steube. It is not yet clear if Rep. Byron Donalds and John Rutherford, who also endorsed Trump.

Neither Bilirakis nor Gimenez responded to requests for comment. Rep. also said. Brian Mast, another Florida Republican, told colleagues he plans to formally endorse Trump in the coming days. And on Wednesday, Rep. officially put Vern Buchanan threw his weight behind Trump. TIME reported last week that Buchanan was planning to endorse Trump in the coming days.

All of their endorsements would bring Trump’s tally of members of Congress from Florida to ten, while DeSantis has just one, Rep. Laurel Lee, who expressed her support for the governor on Tuesday. Before winning his seat in the House last year, Lee served as DeSantis’ first Secretary of State. Most of Florida’s 22 Republicans in Congress have not yet taken sides in the presidential race.

Last week, TIME reported that four House Republicans from Florida—Reps. Buchanan, Kat Cammack, Brian Mast, and Greg Steube—told colleagues they were preparing to publicly endorse Trump. All but Cammack have done so.

The addition of Bilirakis and Gimenez comes amid a flurry of days for DeSantis’ presidential prospects. Over the weekend, one of his top donors said he was ending his plans to fund the governor’s presidential bid because of his proposals to ban LGBTQ-themed books and his signing into law of a six-week abortion ban.

DeSantis also recently angered some Floridians by claiming in a speech in New Hampshire that Florida had no “state pride” before he became governor. It caught the attention of DeSantis’ predecessor as governor, Sen. Rick Scott. “I’ve always been proud to live in Florida and I’ve never met another Floridian who wasn’t proud to live in the Sunshine State,” Scott told TIME on Monday. “We have good weather, low taxes, and pride in our state and our country and its history.”

Scott’s advice came shortly after DeSantis made headlines for threatening to build a state prison next to Disney World, the latest development in the governor’s long-running feud with the company over its opposition. in Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law, which prohibits teaching lessons on sexual orientation or gender identity from kindergarten through third grade. (The Florida Board of Education on Wednesday approved expanding the measure to apply to all Florida students through 12th grade.)

DeSantis suffered another embarrassment on Tuesday, when he met with a group of congressional lawmakers in Washington, DC, hosted by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank. Within a few minutes after the event, one of the attendees, Rep. Lance Gooden of Texas, endorsed Trump. “I met with Governor DeSantis,” Gooden said in a statement. “And while he has done admirable work in Florida, there is no doubt in my mind that President Trump is the only leader who can save America from the leftist onslaught we are currently facing.”

But the pushback from Florida lawmakers is particularly striking. Steube, who endorsed Trump this week, told Politico Playbook that DeSantis has not contacted him once in the past five years, nor has he responded to Steube’s attempts to connect. That all changed last week when more members of the Florida delegation came out with their endorsements of Trump and TIME reported on Steube’s plans to support the former president. DeSantis’ aide Ryan Tyson called him moments later to stop him.

While Bilirakis and Gimenez are not among the group of lawmakers who have reportedly reached out to DeSantis’ team in recent days, their plans to endorse Trump are another sign that DeSantis’ efforts to prevent his potential rival to run up the scoreboard is just around the corner.

More Must-Reads From TIME

Contact us at [email protected].

[ad_2]