A new report from the Daily Caller indicates that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is clearly positioning himself for a run at the U.S. presidency in 2024.
"DeSantis and his team have been coy about the governor’s presidential aspirations, with the governor speaking in hypothetical terms about his candidacy and declining to directly confront front-runner former President Donald Trump," the outlet reports.
"The Florida GOP’s filings with Secretary of State Cord Byrd’s office tell a different story, however," the outlet adds.
What those filings show is that DeSantis, behind the scenes, has been making some big moves.
The Daily Caller quotes a "Florida Republican operative familiar with the DeSantis team’s relationship with the party" as saying, "it is an open secret that they’re running the campaign out of the Florida GOP."
This does appear to be what is happening. The Daily Caller reports, "the state party’s expenditures list includes payroll for 24 current or former employees of the DeSantis campaign."
The outlet adds, "all 24 of the DeSantis campaign employees on the Florida GOP’s Q1 payroll worked on the 2022 campaign . . . Of those 24 employees, 17 list themselves as currently employed by Ron DeSantis for Governor on LinkedIn."
The Daily Caller further reports:
The DeSantis campaign gave nearly $9.6 million to the state GOP in 2022, according to campaign documents filed with the Secretary of State’s office, and has paid the party more than $200,000 as a vendor during Q1 2023. The state GOP returned $3 million to Friends of Ron DeSantis, the official DeSantis campaign committee, in Q1 2023.
DeSantis declined to comment on the Daily Caller's report.
If you have been following the national news, then it will come as no surprise that DeSantis is positioning himself for a 2024 run. After all, DeSantis has already made appearances in several key primary states - including Iowa, Nevada, and New Hampshire - and he has met with GOP donors.
Accordingly, it seems as though it is only a matter of time before DeSantis makes the big announcement. Reports indicate that it is likely to come at the end of Florida's legislative session, which is in May.
Probably the least surprised person of all - that DeSantis is aligning himself for a 2024 run - is former President Trump. Trump, for some time now, has already been vigorously campaigning against DeSantis.
Just recently, for example, Trump put out a message on Truth Social, saying:
Ron DeSantis is a young man who is not doing well against me in the polls, to put it mildly. I believe that if he decides to run for President, which will only hurt and somewhat divide the Republican Party, he will lose the cherished and massive MAGA vote, and never be able to successfully run for office again. If he remains Governor, which is what Florida voters assumed, it would be a whole different story….JUST SAYIN’ - But who knows?
In the polls, Trump and DeSantis are clearly the two frontrunners for the Republican Party's presidential nomination in 2024. Trump, though - particularly as of late - has been dominating DeSantis.
