Devendra Kumar
Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor, dropped out of the Republican presidential nominating race on Sunday, with his campaign plagued by missteps and miscalculations. DeSantis began 2023 as a viable alternative to former President Donald Trump, but he struggled to articulate his own vision and missed opportunities to displace Trump’s loyal supporters. His campaign was also marred by internal strife, including staff shakeups, overhiring, and outsourcing key functions, which burned through cash at a rapid rate.
DeSantis’ reluctance to engage with Trump earlier in the race was seen as a major mistake, as Trump had a head start in announcing his candidacy. The governor’s campaign launch on Twitter, hosted by Elon Musk, was also a disaster, with a 25-minute audio-only feed plagued by glitches and technical issues. DeSantis ended his campaign on Twitter, just as he started it, with a blunder, quoting a fake Winston Churchill.
DeSantis’ bet on winning the Iowa caucuses, the first nominating state, failed miserably, with Trump finishing a distant second and DeSantis barely edging out Nikki Haley for second place. Despite pouring resources into Iowa, DeSantis lost all 99 counties and finished nearly 30 percentage points behind Trump.
The governor’s stance on the Ukraine war, calling it a “territorial dispute,” was widely criticized and forced him to walk back his comments. His policy positions, including an abortion ban and revised teaching standards that downplay the horrific consequences of slavery, also alienated some donors and Republican leaders. In August, DeSantis’ biggest donor, Robert Bigelow, announced he would no longer support DeSantis’ campaign unless he moderated his policy positions.
The DeSantis campaign also shared extreme videos that were condemned as anti-gay rights and racist, even by some fellow Republicans. In June, a video highlighted some of Trump’s past statements supporting gay rights, while in July, a pro-DeSantis video featuring him at the center of a Nazi symbol was shared and prompted the firing of a staffer.
On the campaign trail, DeSantis’ awkward style and off-the-cuff comments raised eyebrows, including his vow to “slitting throats” inside the federal bureaucracy and his claim to have been too busy overseeing an execution in Florida when asked about Trump’s latest court appearance.