Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis kicked off his 2024 presidential campaign in Iowa Tuesday with a few light digs at former President Donald Trump, who he has so far been reluctant to criticize publicly.
DeSantis is running far behind Trump in the polls — by about 30 percentage points on average — and there are questions as to whether he can run a campaign that feels distinct from MAGA but still has enough general appeal to be successful. That’s not an easy task to accomplish without turning off a Republican base that still approves of Trump, but DeSantis seems to be acknowledging that he will have to go on the offensive somewhat. On Tuesday, he did so without ever mentioning Trump by name.
DeSantis contrasted himself with Trump on abortion and Covid-19 policy as he seeks to run to the former president’s right on those issues. In his speech at an evangelical church outside of Des Moines, DeSantis touted his signing of a six-week abortion ban in Florida, a measure that some GOP donors worry will doom him in a general election and that Trump has called “too harsh.” And he hit back at the former president’s recent assertion that New York handled the pandemic better than Florida did.
“I could count the number of Republicans in this country on my hands that would rather have lived in New York under Cuomo than lived in Florida in our freedom zone,” DeSantis said in his speech. “Hell, his whole family moved to Florida under my governorship, are you kidding me?” he added of Trump, who made his home at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach.
DeSantis also indirectly threw shade at Trump’s bombastic leadership style, which he contrasted with his own successful efforts to advance conservative priorities in Florida this legislative session. “At the end of the day, leadership is not about entertainment, it’s not about building a brand, it’s not about virtue signaling. It is about results,” DeSantis said.
But unlike Trump, who is already running a
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