Republican strategists fear DeSantis has lost his shine, stands no chance against Donald Trump

 
For Republican voters hoping to see someone other than Donald Trump at the top of their party’s ticket in 2024, the odds are looking slim.

“2024 is the final battle, that’s going to be the big one,” Trump said.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis – who is widely expected to challenge the former president in the Republican primary – for a time appeared within striking distance.

In interviews with nearly two dozen Republican donors and their aides, many told Reuters they are largely fed up with Trump, seeing him as chaotic and unelectable.

At an event on Friday, DeSantis portrayed himself as a fighter across multiple fronts in Republicans’ culture wars: attacking so-called ‘wokeness.’

“Woke ideology is a form of cultural Marxism,” DeSantis said.

His style has entangled him in a mounting dispute with Disney, a corporation that has criticised his policies on banning mention of gay and transgender issues in Florida schools. He responded with legislation aimed at stripping the theme part operator of some of its special status in the state.

“When a company takes all those privileges that have been bestowed over many, many decades and uses that to wage war on state policy regarding families and children. So we said that arrangement doesn’t work for us,” DeSantis said.

But so far those culture war touchstones aren’t paying off.

Trump held a strong lead over DeSantis among Republican and independent voters nationally in April – 58 per cent to 21 per cent in a Reuters/Ipsos poll.

And in recent weeks, Trump has surged into a commanding lead over DeSantis in polls of Republican voters.

Many Republicans have rallied around Trump since his indictment by a New York district attorney on April 4 over hush money payments to a porn star, earning him a surge in fundraising – nearly $19 million in the first quarter this year, according to his aides, as well as a slew of endorsements.

Trump has also intensified his attacks on DeSantis. His campaign has sent out email blasts this week attacking DeSantis, calling him a “loser” in his battle with Disney.

The Florida governor, in contrast, has defended Trump in his legal battles and offered only muted criticism of the former president.

“I don’t know what goes into paying hush money to a porn star to secure silence over some type of alleged affair, I just, I can’t speak to that.”

Political strategists stress that while the shine has come off DeSantis in recent weeks, it is still early in the nominating process and DeSantis is not yet even a candidate. #trending #featured