A group of top Michigan Republicans are pressing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to enter the 2024 presidential race, and the state House floor leader Bryan Posthumus personally hand-delivered a letter asking him to run.
The letter was signed by 18 GOP members of the state House, a quarter of the party's caucus, calling the governor "uniquely and exceptionally qualified" to replace President Joe Biden in the White House -- although it stops short of endorsing DeSantis over Donald Trump, according to excerpts provided by a Posthumus spokesperson to Politico.
“I think it is very significant that elected Republicans are so overtly looking for an alternative in 2024," said Jason Roe, a former Michigan Republican Party executive director who has criticized the former president. "It shows a seriousness about winning, at the risk of poking the Trump bear. I think we will see more of this in the coming months."
Posthumus spokesman Zach Rudat said the state legislator delivered the letter to Florida in December and met with DeSantis and his staff to discuss the presidential election, although a spokesperson for the governor declined to comment, and the move comes as Michigan Republicans try to regroup after a string of Trump-era losses.
“Republicans in Michigan went from controlling everything in the state to controlling nothing thanks to Trump,” Roe said.
However, the former president still enjoys a strong base in the state he won in 2016 but narrowly lost in 2020.
“What I can tell you is Donald Trump … still has a lot of support and strength in Michigan, America First is still alive and well,” said election conspiracist Matt DePerno, who ran unsuccessfully for attorney general in 2022. “It is still very strong and that is the movement that he started, and the grassroots movement in Michigan is still very much behind Donald Trump.”
