Staff Reports
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) may have announced his 2024 presidential bid with a lot of hype, but his campaign has hit some major snags, much to the delight of former President Trump and his other opponents. DeSantis, who had been riding high after winning a second term as Florida’s governor, quickly found himself falling behind Trump in the polls and struggling to regain his former close standing.
First off, DeSantis’s campaign launch was a hot mess. Instead of holding a traditional in-person rally, he opted for a virtual event on Elon Musk’s platform X, the app formerly known as Twitter. But this move backfired as Musk’s app crashed several times, and the audio quality was garbage. This high-risk, low-reward tactic ended up costing DeSantis two endorsements from New Hampshire legislators. Talk about a rocky start!
Three times the DeSantis campaign shot itself in the foot. Just three? Methinks they miscounted. #DeSaster https://t.co/uA5b6SLq6B
— Lesley Abravanel ? (@lesleyabravanel) December 21, 2023
As if that wasn’t bad enough, leaks started pouring out of DeSantis’s campaign, revealing a serious lack of communication and internal conflicts among the nearly 100 staffers. The campaign was reportedly “on the brink,” with low morale and donors starting to question if DeSantis could really take on Trump. The campaign tried to bounce back with a “reboot,” but no one was really sure what that meant, and DeSantis began participating in more traditional media events and talking less about “wokeness.”
And to top it all off, the campaign’s money management was a disaster. After burning through a whopping $7.9 million in just six weeks, DeSantis had to let go of nearly 38 staffers to cut costs. This raised major red flags for donors and left the campaign in a tough spot as former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley was sitting pretty with more cash to spend after carefully raising money.
With all these setbacks piling up, it looks like DeSantis’s presidential bid is losing steam faster than a Florida summer storm. Will he be able to turn things around, or is it game over for his White House dreams? Only time will tell, but for now, it’s not looking too good for the Florida governor.
