Florida Governor Ron DeSantis

officially

entered the race for the Republican presidential nomination on Wednesday a diminished mark in his party after a steady drop in polls in recent months, but still former President Trump’s closest rival.

The governor submitted his intentions to the Federal Election Commission ahead of his anticipated official announcement in an online conversation with billionaire Elon Musk on Twitter on Wednesday evening.

DeSantis has tried to position himself as a culture warrior who will carry on Trump’s legacy as a warrior without the associated baggage, including fundamental concerns about the former president’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election and at least one criminal charge.

Just a few months ago, DeSantis was seen as a potential frontrunner for the nomination. The former Trump protégé won reelection in November by a landslide margin in a state normally considered competitive. That win came in an otherwise disappointing midterm election cycle for his party in which many Trump-backed candidates fared poorly.

Appearing regularly on Fox News, DeSantis hailed his contempt for the media, vaccine mandates, critical race theories, and numerous other targets he labeled “awakened.” He signed laws restricting how American history about race can be taught in schools and forced the College Board to review its new AP African American History curriculum.

Somewhat surprisingly, he also targeted Disney, a vital driver of his state’s economy. The clash came after the entertainment giant criticized the “

D

not

S

Hi

G

ay” bill that limits what elementary school teachers can discuss about gender and sexuality.

In response, DeSantis focused on Disney’s Florida business operations. The state government and the company, which owns several theme parks and other businesses that boost tourism in central Florida, are now embroiled in a lawsuit, and Disney announced last week that it was canceling plans to open a new campus in central Florida which would have 2,000 workers employed.

The strategy received a lot of attention from DeSanti. But his polls are down and some backers are expressing reservations after DeSantis appeared to stumble.

In March, for example, he revoked his description of the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a “territorial dispute.” And some, including Trump, have criticized DeSantis for signing the state’s six-week abortion ban, one of the most restrictive in the country.

Hoping to regain momentum, DeSantis has released the

I

within a few weeks he renewed his effort to present Florida as a model to conservatives across the country, an important part of his campaign.

DeSantis supporters use the slogan: Make America Florida.

He has had signed bills passed by

its legislature is the Florida legislature

prohibit gender

–

affirm care for trans youth, expand private school vouchers, and diversity and equality programs at public colleges and universities.

California is a common target, with DeSantis often describing the liberal state as the antithesis of Florida. He sparred with Gov. Gavin Newsom on a range of topics,

of inclusive

COVID-19 Policy

until and

abortion Last July, Newsom aired an ad in Florida criticizing DeSantis’ policies.

Five years ago, DeSantis was a little-known Florida congressman who became governor in part thanks to Trump’s endorsement, a fact Trump often mentions.

Once allies, the race for the 2024 GOP nomination has increasingly turned the pair against each other. Trump, in particular, has taken it out on his main rival by calling him “DeSanctimonious” and running an attack ad in which he makes fun of his penchant for eating pudding with his fingers. Trump has also pointed to DeSantis’ previous support for restricting entitlement programs.

DeSantis has usually not directly attacked Trump, though he has swung sideways after Trump’s recent indictment for paying porn star Stormy Daniels hush money.

Trump’s firm grip on the GOP seemed to be slipping after losing the 2020 presidential race and seeing many of his favorite candidates falter in the 2022 interim. But over the past two months

the President Trump

has regained its place as the clear frontrunner, leading DeSantis by nearly 30 percentage points in many surveys.

DeSantis, 44, now appears to be hoping that Trump, 76, will once again become concerned about his viability in a general election, which could happen if he is charged with crimes related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Although DeSantis regularly rails against the liberal elite

,

,

he has impeccable elite credentials: he attended Yale University on a baseball scholarship and beyond

went

to Harvard Law School.

You may not like him, but he is smart, tough and skilled. Most Republicans are looking for a strong president, not a hug from our nominee, Republican strategist Kevin Spillane told The Times.

DeSantis

Florida is where Wake goes to die,

Hey DeSantis

boasted during a recent visit to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley

California

, echoing the language he used after winning re-election in November. In Florida we say clearly:

W

We will never surrender to the waking crowd.

While DeSantis’ willingness to raise the bar on culture war issues has elevated his position on the right, it has made him a villain on the left.

What he did in Florida has been really destructive to American politics, said Tony Hoang, executive director of Equality California. The fact that the governor really advanced his career in demagoguezing the most vulnerable members of our community, especially LGBTQ students, and transgender people as a whole

,

it’s really a pity.

In September 2022, DeSantis was criticized for using state funds to charter two planes carrying about 50 recently arrived migrants at the southern US border in faraway Texas. He flew them to Florida before sending them to the wealthy liberal island of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which subsequently filed a lawsuit against DeSantis and the state program that funded the flights, described them as a blatant and unlawful attempt to harass immigrants at the state level. DeSantis defended his actions, claiming the migrants had plans to move to Florida.

Perhaps the greatest feature of DeSanti’s journey to political stardom was his dealings with the

coronavirus (COVID-19

pandemic. He signed orders banning vaccine and mask mandates for Floridians, and his appointed surgeon general was skeptical of

the vaccine vaccine

effectiveness. He reopened schools and in

–

person dining many months before COVID-19 – cautious states like California. The state saw an increase in the migration of people and businesses from other states, such as New York

,

where pandemic policies have been restrictive.

Before becoming governor, he served in the House and was a founding member of the House Freedom Caucus, an ultra-conservative faction. His three-term voting record in Congress showed a politician’s attraction to small government; he voted to close the federal government and in a nun

–

binding vote, DeSantis supported raising the eligibility age for both Social Security and Medicare from 62 to 70

until and

65 years

,

respectively. In line with his small government ideas, DeSantis also supported the privatization of the two social safety net programs. Recent statements suggest that DeSantis may be moving away from these positions.

Florida remains one of the few states to reject Medicaid expansion as part of the Affordable Care Act and now has the country’s third highest percentage of uninsured residents.

DeSantis was comfortably re-elected in the 2022 gubernatorial election, defeating his Democratic challenger by nearly 20 percentage points. But Matt Nelsen, a professor of

P

politics

S

science at the University of Miami

,

warns against using this as a measure of the governor’s popularity in the state.

The Democrats had a very bad candidate for governor: Charlie Crist, the former Republican governor of Florida, he said. To be clear, I think DeSantis has a lot of momentum in the state of Florida among Republicans, but I think it’s very important to cautiously assume that he’s completely reshaping the political landscape in Florida.