How Ron DeSantis’ campaign unravelled

There was a moment, nearly a week ago, when Ron DeSantis appeared to realise that there was no point competing against Trump, especially in front of a GOP crowd which still wasn’t over its MAGA fever.
Speaking at an event, he laid out the real truth about the GOP that no candidate has dared voice: “You can be the most worthless Republican in America, if you kiss the ring, Trump will say you are wonderful. You can be the strongest, most dynamic Republican and conservative in America but if you don’t kiss that ring, they will try to trash you. You deserve a nominee that’s going to put you first, not himself.”
Now, DeSantis has stepped down and endorsed Trump. “Following our second-place finish in Iowa, we’ve prayed and deliberated on our way forward. If there was anything I could do to produce a favourable outcome, more campaign stops, more interviews, I would do it. But I can’t ask our supporters to volunteer their time and donate their resources if we don’t have a clear path to victory. Accordingly, I am today suspending my campaign,” DeSantis said in a video message posted on X, a social media platform.
“It’s clear to me that a majority of Republican primary voters want to give Donald Trump another chance. While I have had disagreements with Donald Trump, such as on the coronavirus pandemic and his elevation of Anthony Fauci, Trump is superior to the current incumbent, Joe Biden. That is clear,” he said.
“I signed a pledge to support the Republican nominee, and I will honour that pledge. He has my endorsement because we can’t go back to the old Republican guard of yesteryear. A repackaged form of warmed-over corporatism that Nikki Haley represents,” De Santis added.
DeSantis tried to appeal to the same base that loved Trump and appeared hoped to be the new MAGA hope when he launched his bid in May 2023 on a Twitter Spaces feed.
His campaign however was dominated by infighting. His oratory also failed to make the mark. While Trump was absent in the GOP debates, DeSantis was continuously dismantled by Trump’s stand-in surrogate, Vivek Ramaswamy.
DeSantis had huge plans with The Never Back Down super PAC promised to spend $200 million on a field operation that Axios called ‘a slow-motion train wreck as his polling endured a months-long free fall’.
While DeSantis’ star was highest after he swept his state’s elections in November 2022 and Trump’s candidates lost in Senate races.
As Prashant Jha pointed out in his piece in Hindustan Times: “…DeSantis faltered with a poorly managed campaign, ultra-conservative messaging, limited public speaking skills, and a generally less than charismatic demeanor. DeSantis’s campaign failed to distinguish itself from Trump on core concerns that mattered to Republican base, which then felt that Trump himself was best positioned to implement Trumpism. On the other side of the political flank, DeSantis’s messaging alienated independent voters or those disillusioned with Democrats but skeptical of Trump, a constituency that has helped keep Haley in the race.”
DeSantis banked his entire political capital on Iowa but still finished 30 points behind Trump and only 2 points ahead of Nikki Haley. As the campaign progressed, DeSantis criticised Trump more but it was a tad difficult to appeal to a GOP-MAGA base while criticising their chief deity.
What will be interesting is to see how Trump handles DeSantis’ exit and whether his allies will be back in the fold.
For their part, Trump’s campaign welcomed DeSantis dropping out and said: “With only a few days left until president Donald J Trump’s victory in New Hampshire, we are honoured by the endorsement from Governor Ron DeSantis and so many other former presidential candidates. It is now time for all Republicans to rally behind president Trump to defeat crooked Joe Biden and end his disastrous presidency. Nikki Haley is the candidate of the globalists and Democrats who will do everything to stop the America First movement. From higher taxes to decimating Social Security and Medicare, and to open borders, she represents the views of Democrats more than the views of Republicans.”
While we will have to wait and see how far Nikki Haley can go, Ron DeSantis’ failure is a redux of the 2016 GOP debates when Trump chomped up and spit out rival Republican candidates until he was the last man standing.