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DeSantis Makes 2024 Pitch: Trump Has No Chance of Beating Biden

The Florida governor is expected to officially announce his presidential campaign next week

May 18, 2023

Ron DeSantis 2024 Pitch — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks to Iowa voters gathered at the Iowa State Fairgrounds on March 10, 2023 in Des Moines, Iowa. Scott Olson/Getty Images

Ron DeSantis is running for president. He hasn’t made an officially announcement — that’s reportedly coming next week — but he made his pitch to donors and supporters on Thursday, claiming on a call that there are only two people who can win the 2024 election: him and President Biden.

“You have basically three people at this point that are credible in this whole thing: Biden, Trump, and me,” the Florida governor said, according to The New York Times. “And I think of those three, two have a chance to get elected president — Biden and me, based on all the data in the swing states, which is not great for the former president and probably insurmountable because people aren’t going to change their view of him.”

It’s long been apparent DeSantis intends to vie for the Republican nomination, and he has already secured multiple congressional endorsements. Trump, who declared his candidacy late last year, has far more of them, though, including in Florida. Trump is also crushing DeSantis in most polls, something the former president has long been crowing about on Truth Social while repeatedly bashing his most formidable Republican opponent.

DeSantis has been hesitant to go after the former president. He got a few jabs in on Thursday, though. “You know, Trump was somebody, we liked his policies but we didn’t like his values,” he said, quoting a voter he spoke with in Iowa. “And with you, we like your policies but also know that you share our values.”

The Florida governor also said that Trump was the preferred candidate of the “corporate media,” and indirectly knocked the former president’s fundraising practices. “There are some that kind of raise money just for themselves,” he said.

DeSantis isn’t exactly a paragon of old-fashioned conservatism. He’s been busy cracking down on both cultural and commercial freedom in Florida ahead of his expected 2024 campaign, lording over college curriculums, women’ bodies, and even the business practices of the state’s largest taxpayer. It hasn’t been going well. Disney announced on Thursday that it was canceling a $1 billion development project that would have brought 2,000 jobs to Florida, citing “changing business conditions.”