Archived from Palomar College Political Science Department 2023 Submissions
By: H. Elizabeth Williams
As announced today, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis launched his presidential campaign and in less than 24 hours has been named a number one rival for Trump in the 2024 presidential election. “I am running for president of the united states to lead our great american comeback but we know our country’s going in the wrong direction. We see it with out own eyes. We feel it in our bones,” he stated during an event with Twitter (CNN Politics.” CNN, 25 May 2023). DeSantis is known as of late for a heavy book ban on educational history and diversity, which according to New York Times he stated as a “hoax”, as well as many call extreme anti-LGBTQ+ bills this past month. DeSantis won reelection last fall and is now stepping into the republican primary, later than other contenders, and is already high up in the polls along trump. This Florida governor received a decisive and career boost from Trump during the 2018 primary but seems to be no such direct criticism towards the former president of the united states. With such a surprise of an announcement, when asked how he would ensure his agenda becomes a reality Desantis stated “ Even my worst critics in Florida will acknowledge when I tell people I’m going to do something. I don’t make promises or say i’m going to do something lightly”(CNN Politics.” CNN, 25 May 2023).
Desantis goes on to criticize the NAACP, which is the country’s top civil rights organization not to mention a left-wing mostly interest group, as being a left-wing outlet. He denied the book ban accusations and any technical difficulties that happened in this virtual event. He also spoke out against limiting crypto currency saying “You have every right to bitcoin” (CNN Politics.” CNN, 25 May 2023).
As spoken on his virtual event, “Truth must be our foundation and in florida we proved that it can be done. We chose facts over fear, education over indoctrination, law and order over rioting and disorder. We held the line when freedom hung in the balance.” According to US News, from 2012 to the present Florida is in the top 5 states for school shootings with 36 (U.S. News & World Report).
Desantis filed paperwork wednesday to the Federal Election Commission to run for president, as is needed for the POTUS position. He has about $90 million left over from reelection big for governor last year and a super PAC supporting him so he expects to have a $200 million budget (NPR, 24 May 2023).
Many believe that because Trump is appearing vulnerable as of late with multiple legal threats and poor showing among trump- backed candidates in the midterm election, Desantis might have a shot (NPR). Trump’s standing is slowly improving over the coming months and it may just be a close race. NPR states “hes going to have to turn the narrative in his favor quickly just months until the first early state nominating contest in Iowa.” (NPR, 24 May 2023). Many believe Desantis owes much of his success to former President Trump, but he has been pushing for clarification on his entry not being anti-trump, especially seeing as Trump gave him a endorsement for governor.
Many are split on Desantis in florida, either he has gained popularity with the GOP base but others have “cringed” at his governing of Florida as of late. Many have opinion intensity about this man as of late when it came to his loudness of covid-19 efforts or by shipping migrants to Martha’s Vineyard or other cities run by democrats, he’s become very controversial where people are one way or the other about him quite strongly and it’s only getting bigger with time. Desantis has pretty much made culture wars a priority to his political identity and seems to be running that way in the GOP primary race for president. His policies have definitely caused an up rise of controversy across the nation but also elevated his profile with conservatives. Along with this announcement, there has been a sue file against Desantis from Disney, accusing the governor of weaponizing his political power to punish the company for exercising its free speech rights, but desantis refused to back down (CNN Politics.” CNN, 25 May 2023).
The CNN article was more about reactions on twitter with information about the launch of his campaign and what happened that day but the NPR article went not only in depth of what happened but also expectations to come and his past policies and what we can look forward to in the republican primaries. I also thought it was important to note that NPR dived in on his relationship with his now political rival former President trump quite a bit. That really helped out knowing and looking at what is to come.
Work Cited:
Contorno, Steve, et al. “Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Launches 2024 Presidential Bid on Twitter with Elon Musk | CNN Politics.” CNN, 25 May 2023, www.cnn.com/2023/05/24/politics/ron-desantis-fec-filing-2024/index.html.
Mazzei, Patricia, et al. “Florida at Center of Debate as School Book Bans Surge Nationally.” The New York Times, 22 Apr. 2023, www.nytimes.com/2023/04/22/books/book-ban-florida.html.
Montanaro, Domenico. “Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Top Rival to Trump, Jumps into the Race for President.” NPR, 24 May 2023, www.npr.org/2023/05/24/1166796229/ron-densantis-president-election-2024.
States with the Most School Shootings - U.S. News & World Report, www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/2022-05-27/states-with-the-most-school-shootings. Accessed 25 May 2023.
Comentários