'Not picture perfect back home': Opponents plan to use Florida against DeSantis

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' 2024 presidential campaign got off to a rocky start on Wednesday, May 24 when a Twitter broadcast — which DeSantis and Twitter CEO Elon Musk used to announce the campaign's official launch — was plagued with technical problems. Never Trump conservative Matt Lewis, in a Daily Beast opinion column published the following day, argues that "the big threat for DeSantis is that this becomes a sort of metaphor" for a troubled campaign.

Of course, presidential campaigns can turn around. Joe Biden was, at first, criticized for lackluster debate performances after he entered the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, but those performances later became much more focused and aggressive. And Biden ended up not only winning the primary, but also, defeating former President Donald Trump by more than 7 million in the general election.

A big part of DeSantis' presidential pitch will be using Florida as an economic "blueprint" for all 50 states. But Politico reporters Gary Fineout and Sally Goldenberg, in an article published the day of DeSantis' announcement, emphasize that Florida has some economic problems that the governor's opponents will "use against him."

"As DeSantis sells his 'Florida blueprint' as a reason for conservatives and Republicans to back him for president," Fineout and Goldenberg explain, "everything is not picture-perfect back home…. Florida, where unemployment remains at 2.6 percent and jobs are relatively plentiful, is also dealing with a persistent affordability crisis that keeps driving up cost-of-living expenses, especially when it comes to housing and insurance."

The journalists add, "It's just one example of how DeSantis' record on those kitchen-table issues, coupled with his stance on national flashpoints like abortion and gun safety, is providing his Democratic foes and even some conservatives fodder for a well-funded opposition campaign launching in tandem with his presidential race."

Fineout and Goldenberg note that in the months ahead, DeSantis can expect to see his economic record attacked by everyone from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to former President Donald Trump.

DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison, in an official statement on DeSantis' campaign launch, argued, "Now, as Floridians suffer under some of the highest housing and health care costs in the nation, DeSantis has tripled down on a MAGA agenda — including banning abortion, making it easier for criminals to carry guns, signing laws that allowed book bans, parroting (Russian President Vladimir) Putin's talking points, and bailing out huge corporations while Florida families foot the bill."