Ron DeSantis is expected to announce his presidential candidacy later this week but, unless he makes some major adjustments, the Florida governor likely won’t last long in the Republican race, according to a Washington Post columnist.
Eugene Robinson wrote that despite his proclamations that he’s the only Republican who could beat President Joe Biden in 2024, DeSantis’ flagging poll numbers suggest a dramatic course correction is in order.
Robinson noted that, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average, DeSantis’ popularity has nosedived in recent months. DeSantis trailed former President Donald Trump by just 13 points in late February, a deficit that’s since ballooned to 37 points.
Robinson wrote: “This trend line is hardly encouraging for DeSantis’s theory of the case.
“His bet is that Republican voters want a nominee who has a proven track record of enacting conservative policies and who models Trump’s pugnacity but is not burdened with the former president’s mountain of baggage.”
DeSantis has used the Florida legislature as “a campaign billboard,” Robinson wrote, noting the Republican governor has enacted a series of measures including loosening gun laws, lowering the threshold for imposing the death penalty and so-called “anti-woke” laws that have imposed restrictions on teachers and administrators, along with a six-week abortion ban, among the nation’s toughest, all of which figure to appeal to conservatives.
Robinson contends that DeSantis’ dispute with Walt Disney Co. over the company’s criticism of his “don’t say gay” law that bans discussion of gender and sexuality in public schools seems to be “wildly at odds with traditional conservative values” and “seems really stupid.” He notes that Disney CEO Bob Iger has since announced plans to abandon a $1 billion office campus that would have added 2,000 jobs to the Sunshine State.
Robinson writes that “the Disney thing would just be a loopy sideshow if it didn’t highlight traits that could hold DeSantis back as a presidential candidate — and that would be dangerous for the nation and the world if, heaven forbid, he ever became president: paper-thin skin, a propensity to hold grudges and a tendency to go way too far.”
DeSantis last week told donors that he, along with Trump and Biden, are the only credible candidates but that only he and Biden can win.
“You have basically three people at this point that are credible in this whole thing, Biden, Trump and me.” DeSantis told donors on a call organized by his “Never Back Down” super PAC.
“And I think of those three, two have a chance to get elected president — Biden and me, based on all the data in the swing states, which is not great for the former president and probably insurmountable because people aren’t going to change their view of him.”
Robinson argues that DeSantis’ support for far-right policies make it hard to see how he’d appeal to swing voters.
“But how does he imagine his six-week abortion ban, his law letting Floridians carry concealed firearms without a permit, his attempts to squelch free speech on college campuses, and his death-match against the Magic Kingdom will play in those swing states? Why would suburban women who voted for Joe Biden in 2020 vote for Ron DeSantis in 2024,” Robinson writes.
“Great politicians learn from their mistakes and course correct as necessary. DeSantis seems not to understand that going full-speed ahead is a bad idea if you’re approaching a cliff.”
