DeSantis faces growing criticism from fellow 2024 Republicans

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Potential Republican presidential candidates and their allies are stepping up their attacks on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as he emerges as the early front-runner for the GOP nomination in 2024.

In recent days, DeSantis has come under fire from fellow GOP heavyweights like South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu. He has also harassed former President Trump, who is running for the White House again and sees DeSantis as perhaps his biggest obstacle to getting the GOP nod.

DeSantis has yet to decide on a presidential bid and is still likely to make no announcement about his intentions. But recent criticism underscores how much the Florida governor’s profile has risen and foreshadows a potentially bitter 2024 primary season for the party.

It’s not uncommon for potential candidates to test lines of attack against potential rivals as they search for a way forward in a nascent presidential race. But Keith Naughton, a veteran Republican strategist, said it made it clear who they saw as their biggest threat.

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“They are looking for something; just testing things out to see if they can get some traction,” Naughton said. “They want to slow DeSantis down a bit to have a chance. The thing is, I don’t think it will be easy to do. »

Sununu brushed off DeSantis last week in an interview with Fox News, saying that while he ultimately agreed with the Florida governor’s efforts to target “woke” politics — a term that has become an inseparable part of the DeSantis brand politics – DeSantis’ stance against private companies who disagree with him cross a line.

“Look, I’m from the ‘Live Free or Die’ state, and private companies can and should act like private companies without fear of being punished by people who might disagree with them,” Sununu said, who has just come out of a successful re-election campaign. told Fox News.

“I agree with a lot of these issues that Ron brings to the table – I think he’s right – but to necessarily punish private companies for not agreeing with policy or whatever. either these types of culture wars are pushing their way into the private sector, that’s definitely not, I don’t think, where we want to be as Americans.

The context of Sununu’s remarks is hard to ignore. In the same interview, he acknowledged that he had been approached to launch a presidential campaign in 2024 and was having conversations about it.

In another attack that made headlines, a spokesperson for Noem, another 2024 prospect, lashed out at DeSantis last week over the Florida governor’s record on abortion.

In a statement to the conservative National Review, spokesman Ian Fury accused DeSantis of doing little to crack down on abortion in Florida despite the Supreme Court’s decision last year to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark abortion rights case.

“Where was Governor DeSantis? Hiding behind a 15-week ban,” Fury said. “Does he believe that 14-week-old babies have no right to live?”

DeSantis signed a bill last year banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, although he indicated he was prepared to support a stricter ban on the procedure.

With the Iowa caucuses — the first nominating contest of the 2024 primary season — still more than a year away, DeSantis has emerged as an early favorite, even with Trump in the running. A recent poll matching DeSantis and Trump shows the Florida governor in the lead, suggesting trouble for the former president.

DeSantis’ growing popularity within the GOP — as well as his repeated refusal to divulge his political ambitions — angered Trump, whose endorsement propelled DeSantis to victory in his 2018 gubernatorial bid. winning a staggering 19-point victory in his re-election campaign in November, Trump went on the attack, accusing DeSantis of playing political games and giving a nickname: ‘Ron DeSanctimonious’

“He says, ‘I’m just focusing on the Governor’s race, I’m not looking ahead.’ Well, in terms of loyalty and class, that’s really not the right answer,” Trump said in a lengthy statement.

Of course, there’s no guarantee that DeSantis will maintain his apparent favorite status. Many favorites in presidential races have fallen short of expectations in the past, giving way to other candidates.

In mid-2015, for example, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush looked like the candidate to beat in the 2016 GOP presidential race. In the end, a lackluster campaign combined with attacks Trump’s murderous sprees forced him to drop out of the race before Florida ever held its primary.

Nor is it a given that the issues that have fueled DeSantis’ rise to prominence — his opposition to COVID-19 restrictions and a focus on culture war issues — will remain a priority for voters in the months ahead. coming.

“A lot of his brand is tied to COVID and the culture wars,” said Thomas Kennedy, a member of the Florida Democratic National Committee and a vocal critic of DeSantis. “I think over time a lot of these things become useless and are replaced by other issues. How much of this stuff is going to be irrelevant or just not going to hold up in a year?”

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And while DeSantis may beat Trump in head-to-head polls, several surveys testing a wider field of Republican candidates show him running behind the former president.

An Emerson College poll in November showed Trump had 55% support in a multi-track primary that also included potential candidates like former Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas ). DeSantis finished in second place with 25% in that poll.

“I think there’s a feeling that DeSantis isn’t bulletproof and there’s still room for other people,” said a Republican strategist who has worked on campaigns presidential. “The poll kind of reflects that, you know, of course, if it’s DeSantis and Trump, DeSantis looks really good. But with larger land, there are no guarantees.

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