“We are grateful for the nation’s prayers and well wishes for his continued protection during the campaign,” spokesman Bryan Griffin said Tuesday. His boss, who wants to be the next President of the United States, has just been in a car accident but was unharmed.
The four vehicles in his VIP column had to brake abruptly on Interstate 75 in Tennessee and crashed into each other. Classic rear-end collision. It’s been a long time since the Florida governor came so close to the man in front of him.
Because: Ron DeSantis is not political. Even not. For a long time, the 44-year-old was considered the best (because the only) right-wing alternative to ex-President Donald Trump. In mid-February, the two were still neck and neck in the polls before the DeSantis had even officially thrown his hat in the ring. Five months later, Trump has outperformed his presumably fiercest competitor, almost surpassing him: the two are now almost 37 percentage points apart.
How did that happen? Four reasons.
“I wouldn’t think I’d have a chance with him,” Trump mocked his former favorite in front of hundreds of conservatives in Des Moines on Friday. Here, in the capital of Iowa, the candidates for the presidential candidacy of the Republicans met for the first time before the internal party primaries.
The taunts were nothing new. Trump likes to step down. After all, there is no one above him. It was more interesting how DeSantis countered: namely not at all. Hardly anyone would be more vulnerable to attack than the right-wing leader: sexual harassment, illegal hush money payments, financial fraud, election rigging, inciting riots – the list of his alleged misconduct is almost endless:
The seduction may be great. Only no competitor dares to address the herd of elephants in the room, not even DeSantis. Because criticism of the accused would mean taking the side of the prosecution. And that is the enemy. That the “left” Democrats misuse the judicial system as a campaign weapon, as a tool for their political “witch hunt,” is part of the must-do agenda for every Republican candidate. From the point of view of arch-conservative voters, anyone who claims otherwise comes out as part of the corrupt elite – a political suicide.
That’s the DeSantis dilemma: if he attacks Trump, he alienates the voters he’s looking at himself. If he doesn’t, he won’t get it either.
When DeSantis throws a tentative punch, it can be embarrassing. Same at the end of June. At the end of Pride Month in the US, the culture fighter from Florida accused the East Coast billionaire of being woke in an anti-LGBTQ spot. Exactly. Because Trump once had no objection to the fact that trans women could use men’s toilets and participate in beauty pageants, he was a “pioneer in introducing gender ideology”. The attack oozed desperation. DeSantis’ team promptly deleted the video. The farce reveals the governor’s second major weakness: In truth, he hardly differs from his opponent in terms of content. Undecided voters are bound to ask themselves: Why buy the knockoff when you can have the original?
“Trump with brains” was a common nickname for DeSantis. What was meant was that the ex-Navy not only talks, but also acts. In his home country, he does things right: he took action against abortions, lowered the hurdle for the death penalty, established the country’s toughest immigration law (stern reported). At the same time, he fights a radical culture war against everything that even shimmers in colour. The idea: Florida as a petri dish – whoever chooses DeSantis knows what they are getting. “Make America Florida,” was the battle cry.
The big but: All of these topics are not alien to Trump – many of them he made “great” in the first place. DeSantis may be more dogged than his cousin counterpart. But that’s not enough to poach in its core constituency.
Possibly his best selling point to date, compared to Trump, has been the promise of “eligibility.” He praised the conservative Trump’s right-wing recipe for success without side effects. Its sympathizers should get the same policy minus a head of state to embarrass others. It’s just stupid that the voters not only love the goods, but also the seller – not despite, but because of his quirks. Trumpism without Trump obviously doesn’t work.
DeSantis – the C stands for Charm. The third shortcoming of the former conservative shooting star is his lack of ability to cast a spell over people. Donald Trump is eccentric, loud, aggressive. He employs toddler rhetoric that is blunt but undeniably captivating. But when the dead-eyed Florida man swings his speeches, it comes across as a play at times. As if he were meticulously following the manual step by step “How to inspire a conservative audience”.
A sore point that his secret weapon has been trying to smooth out so far: his wife Casey. As the US magazine “Politico” wrote, Casey made it her mission to “humanize the robot”. Where the governor seems cold and calculating on his crusade, Casey lends warmth to his words. For example, when she faltered in an election clip peppered with plenty of superlatives last year, explaining how much her husband supported her during her breast cancer illness and what an outstanding father he was. She also acts as a kind of press spokeswoman, who translates Ron’s rigorous demeanor “into softness” for the crowd.
The problem: The DeSantis like to emphasize their “dishwasher” career. However, little of this can be felt. Although it is actually Trump who was born with the silver spoon in his mouth, it is the southern couple who come across as an aristocratic couple in direct comparison. And since Donald Trump at the latest, the conservatives hate nothing more than “those up there”.
Republican candidates in particular like to rail against an allegedly corrupt Washington elite. The irony: to get to the capital, let alone the Oval Office, you have to bring a deep wallet yourself.
Because the election campaign machine only runs on one fuel: lots of money. According to a report by the Federal Electoral Commission (FEC) (which Stern reported), Donald Trump can draw on the richest war chest of all right-wing candidates. The 77-year-old has 22.5 million dollars in cash on hand alone, i.e. money that is immediately available. Surprise: Tim Scott is in second place – whose poll numbers are in the low single digits.
And what about the “real” competition? DeSantis is said to have scraped together more than eight million dollars in the first 24 hours after announcing his candidacy. However, the sovereign has not only received a lot so far, he has also spent a lot – more than eight million dollars in seven weeks. If his poll numbers continue to plummet, he will have to tighten his belt. Because the willingness to take risks on the part of major donors is finite.
Either way: Not only DeSantis’ campaign needs a reboot. He also needs to be better at home. But instead of campaign trips by private jet, the man of the people prefers to save on staff. True to the motto “always change a loosing team,” he fired 38 employees this week, a third of his campaign team. Maybe less is more in the end, at least Trump has managed with significantly fewer employees so far.
It is questionable whether DeSantis will make it out of the field of near-competition by the Republican primaries in mid-January. Perhaps the crash on Interstate 75 was also symbolic. Unfortunately, most people cannot look away when they are involved in a car accident. Apparently Ron DeSantis did.
