The electoral campaign towards the White House in 2024 is heating up with a duel that promises to be ferocious: the popular governor of Florida, the ultraconservative Ron DeSantis, will run for the inside of the Republican party which today is led by the controversial Donald Trump, as made official this Wednesday. But the plaintiff got off on the wrong foot.
The launch of DeSantis, 44 e whom many consider a “Trump with a brain”, It was widely expected, but it took some time to materialize. He first formally submitted the documents to the electoral authority on Wednesday, then uploaded a video to his networks and later a live audio conversation on Twitter with Elon Musk, the owner of the social network who has become an ardent Republican.
The strategy made things easier for DeSantis the audience platform of 140 million followersHere is the billionaire has not only in the United States but all over the world. But his presentation was a real mess because the chat space on the network crashed from the moment it was started and crashed for almost 20 minutes with “glitches”. Unsurprisingly, Twitter was abuzz with memes poking fun at Musk and DeSantis.
Some have uploaded images of Musk’s rockets exploding in the sky, others like Trump’s son Donald Jr renaming DeSantis “DeSaster” (an idea his father will surely accept). President Joe Biden himself mocked with a tweet that referred to a link from his campaign: “This link works,” he wrote. This document will surely be remembered in any debate with Trump.
Trump comfortably leads the Republican Party in the house today with 53% of the vote to DeSantis’ 26%. (others loom farther), according to a CNN poll released Wednesday. But 2024 is still far away and everything could change: according to the same survey, large swathes of voters (80%) aligned with the Republicans are willing to consider one or the other, as well as several other candidates.
“Top Guns”
DeSantis is an ultra-conservative who claims to “fight for freedom”. “a warrior sent by God” and who fights hard against undocumented immigrants and all “woke” or progressive cultural prejudices.
Lawyer graduated from prestigious universities such as Yale and Harvard, DeSantis he joined the army as a “Top Gun” and continued to fight in Iraq. Married to a television presenter, father of three children, he then dedicated himself to politics, first as a state deputy before becoming governor. he took flight when faced the White House during the pandemic (especially in the Joe Biden phase) and resisted business closures and the mandatory use of the chin strap.
It also lowered taxes, and the Sunshine State became a magnet for many big-city Americans looking for a more relaxed climate and lower pay.
When DeSantis swept his re-election as governor of Florida last year, the party establishment said enough to the whirlwind of scandalsanti-democratic processes and episodes such as the assault on Congress by the former president.
And he began to turn his gaze to the south, towards a candidate equally or more conservative than the tycoon, but more prone to management than argument and furious verbiage: DeSantis is “a tidier Trump” or, as the Financial Times dubbed him, “a Trump with brains and no drama.”
Also, DeSantis has a more solid political career and a traditional family and so far without scandals, in contrast to the profile that the former president has had with women, who are moving away from the Republican party. Media outlets like Fox and big donors started backing him. Many see him as a fresher candidate, with a young son and a better chance to face 80-year-old Joe Biden.
According to a Quinnipiac poll, Trump would get 46% of the vote to Biden’s 48%., while DeSantis would have 47% to the Democrat’s 46%. Pretty much the same, despite the Florida governor just appearing on the national stage.
the same space
Trump is aware of its danger and has already christened it as “De Sanctimonio”, a pun on his surname and “prude” in English. Furthermore, he called him “ungrateful” because he believes he helped him politically in his early days as governor. DeSantis generally doesn’t answer them. The level of aggression is estimated to rise over time, especially if DeSantis rises in the polls.
Without too much charisma and sympathy, in the last year DeSantis has dedicated himself to shoring up his combative and ultra-conservative aura to counter Trump on the ground: he fought mercilessly against illegal immigrants, promoted in Congress the ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy , eliminating racial diversity programs in public universities or banning sex education in schools, just to name a few.
One of those laws, known as “Don’t Say Gay” pitted it against entertainment giant Disney and stripped it of autonomy over its Orlando parks.
Sean Freeder, a professor of political science at the University of Northern Florida, said so clarion that “De Santis occupies roughly the same political space as Trump, far right. The biggest difference between the two is not their ideology, but their approach to politics in general: De Santis is more of a “programmatic” politician, focused on political action, while Trump focuses more on rhetoric and publicity. When discussions begin in a few months, I don’t imagine they will find many areas of disagreement about policy, but rather differ on what they choose to emphasize.”
DeSantis he can absolutely defeat Trump in the primaries, but it will be an uphill battle, given that Trump already enjoys a very high status within the party”, says the expert.
“To win, De Santis will need to convince the party and its base that Trump is an erratic dragger who will continue to damage the party brand and will be less likely to win if he is the candidate in 2024. De Santis will have relatively little difficulty convincing the party of this, since the Republican elites have been looking for it for a long time a way to escape Trump’s influencebut it will be much more difficult for them to convince the grassroots.”
And he concludes: “From now on, Trump should probably be considered the presumed favorite, but De Santis can win and his numbers in the polls will improve. The same probably can’t be said of any other Republican in the race.”
Source: Clarin
Mary Ortiz is a seasoned journalist with a passion for world events. As a writer for News Rebeat, she brings a fresh perspective to the latest global happenings and provides in-depth coverage that offers a deeper understanding of the world around us.