According to some of the polls and media talking heads, the 2024 presidential campaign of Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is not going particularly well following the initial buzz of its official launch in late May.
In fact, a panelist on the Fox Business program "Kudlow" went so far as to jokingly suggest that an "intervention" may be necessary to save DeSantis from ruining his own chances in future presidential races, Mediaite reported.
On Thursday's program, host Larry Kudlow noted a surprising surge in the polls for GOP candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and pointed out that "He’s closing in on DeSantis. DeSantis keeps falling. Is DeSantis going to be out of race?"
Conservative talk radio host Mark Simone replied, "Listen, we like the guy. We gotta do an intervention. We gotta tell him, 'You’re 44 years old. You’re way too early. Wait 10 years when you’re in your 50s and do it.'"
"He doesn’t have the campaign skills. He is -- talk about failure to launch. He’s just sinking," he continued and predicted that Ramaswamy would surpass him in the polls eventually. "I don't think he has to drop out. He's just gonna fade out -- just wither and die on the vine."
Kudlow then turned to Fox News contributor Kellyanne Conway for her take on Gov. DeSantis' campaign, and she said, "Look, I’ve been long on the record that he should have waited to run -- not just because of his age but because he’s got a really big job, he just got reelected to do of governor of our third-largest state."
"Got reelected by 20 points. A lot of pressure from media for him to run. When the mainstream media tells you which Republican can win, run the other way," she continued. Conway went on to suggest that DeSantis had perhaps been misled by donors who convinced him that he could defeat former President Donald Trump in a primary.
"I think DeSantis is ruining himself a little bit for 2028," Conway added, even as she acknowledged that it was still "early" in the primary season and the governor has reportedly raised substantial cash for his campaign.
The Fox Business host then turned to Fox News contributor Katie Pavlich for her view of the situation, and following some talking up of Ramaswamy's efforts, she then drew a comparison between Trump's wealth of experience gained over two prior presidential runs versus the relative lack of any national campaigning experience for DeSantis.
"Even though the policies implemented in Florida as governor could absolutely be beneficial to the country -- especially when you’re running against Joe Biden -- he has to start over and sell himself as a national candidate when he really is still at the state level," Pavlich said of the governor.
"And so, President Trump has the benefit of doing this again and having all that groundwork already ready to go and the infrastructure in place to have a different strategy, of course, in places like Pennsylvania and Michigan, Wisconsin, versus 2020," she added. "But you know, he’s been there before and DeSantis is starting over."
To be sure, the RealClearPolitics average of 2024 GOP primary polls do indeed continue to show former President Trump with a massive lead over the rest of the field, as he is drawing around 53 percent support from Republican primary voters.
That said, while the standing of DeSantis has declined somewhat over the past couple of months -- which seems to coincide with boosts for Trump that align with the criminal indictments against him from partisan prosecutors -- the Florida governor remains solidly in second place with around 21 percent support.
As for Ramaswamy, despite all of the positive talk about him by the "Kudlow" panel, RCP's average still shows him in seventh place in the field with just 2.4 percent support, which has him trailing behind the likes of former Vice President Mike Pence, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie -- at least for the moment.
