So now the time has come, Ron DeSantis is now officially applying for the job as US President. An appearance on Twitter was therefore planned for early Wednesday evening American East Coast time – in conversation with Elon Musk, the owner of the network, Florida’s governor wanted to explain his candidacy. But in the afternoon it became known that he had submitted his application for the next presidential election to the election commission.
This means that DeSantis is also officially in the running and is likely to be Donald Trump’s only serious rival in the Republican primaries. The first vote in the state of Iowa will start in February. Then the Republicans will begin their ballot and decide who will run against Joe Biden in November 2024, the Democratic incumbent, who probably does not have to fear an opponent from his own party.
Will age matter? DeSantis is only 44 years old
Despite his age, 80-year-old Biden wants to stay in the White House for four more years, which he announced in April after much hesitation. Trump, 76, has been a candidate since autumn 2022 – for the third time after his victory in 2016 and his defeat in 2020, which he still does not recognize as such. Others like Nikki Haley and Tim Scott want to challenge him but won’t stand a chance. On the other hand, Trump may have to be wary of Ron DeSantis, 44, even if he recently surpassed him in the polls.
The rise of this adversary began with Trump’s support. The mentor at the time helped him win the Florida election in 2018 and advance from congressman in Washington to governor in Tallahassee. DeSantis later emancipated himself from Trump, and the two most prominent Republicans are now at odds. At the 2022 midterms, DeSantis was confirmed in his post by a wide margin, while several Trump-picked candidates lost in their regions.
After that, it looked like this Sunshine State man might actually be a threat to the patron of the Grand Old Party. He is significantly younger than Trump (and Biden, of course) and has far fewer legal problems, behind him lies a tailor-made career. The grandson of Italian immigrants, he studied law at Harvard and history at Yale, where he also captained the elite varsity’s baseball team. During his time in the US Navy, he advised the elite SEALs unit in the Iraq war and also served in the infamous Guantánamo prison camp.
DeSantis is pursuing an ultra-conservative course
He is married to a former TV presenter, his closest adviser. Nationally, DeSantis first attracted attention when he relaxed the pandemic rules in his area and switched to an increasingly arch-conservative course. During his first term in office, he dealt with issues such as environmental protection. Most recently, DeSantis took up arms against everything that seemed left or woke to him. “Make America Florida” is his motto. He, with the help of his majority in both chambers of the regional congress, banned gender debates in elementary schools and abortion after the sixth week. He flew migrants from the US-Mexico border, with which Florida actually has nothing directly to do, to a democratically governed holiday island.
He is currently arguing with Disney, one of the best-known brands in the United States and one of Florida’s largest employers at Disney World near Orlando, because the top management had criticized his offensive against sex education. The dispute and other measures seemed to go too far even for a number of Republicans, and Donald Trump has been gaining momentum again since his indictment in New York for the allegedly veiled payment of hush money to a former porn star. Trump taunts DeSantis as “DeSanctimonious”. But DeSantis wants to convince his party colleagues by pointing out that Trump was the loser before and that he had better chances against Biden.