DeFeated: DeSantis Ran One Of The Worst Campaigns In History
Ron DeSantis is a man of no qualities
Florida Correspondent, Darby Shaw
Ron DeSantis’ presidential run was a flop, a dud, an absolute fiasco. It fell flat, it went haywire, it didn’t work. There wasn’t a moment over the course of the whole campaign they weren’t stepping on rakes, shooting themselves in the foot.
DeSantis had been preparing to run since he was a Tampa Bay boy on his way to the Little League World Series. Every part of his life, from Harvard Law to his service in Fallujah carefully crafted, one step closer to fulfilling his God given destiny.
Always dreaming of this, from Yale undergrad fantasizing about a national sales tax to candidate for governor groveling to Trump, a lifetime of preparation and yearning, it’s all been a part of a bigger project, it had all been building to this. What a flop.
DeSantis’ campaign launch told us everything we needed to know - no music, no vision, just empty air on Twitter, deathly boring conversations over issues no one cares about, and long asides from the hosts alternately complaining and congratulating themselves. Canceling a launch rally in his hometown in favor of a limited access sit down with a right wing billionaire. Another mark that Republican donors have no clue how to pick a good candidate.
A debacle that played out in broad daylight before the entire nation Ron DeSantis ran one the worst presidential campaigns in American history. From the disastrous launch onward his campaign never missed an opportunity for a self-inflicted wound.
How did it get there and how did it get so bad?
The Midterms: Coming off the pandemic DeSantis was covered breathlessly and feted by the media as the nearly inevitable future of the Republican Party. Before a national campaign unveiled the product, all over the country Republicans were saying — “Hey, I like what that Florida governor is doing. Maybe this is my guy?” Polling showed DeSantis had a tremendous opportunity. No candidate had a better setup. The idea of DeSantis, routinely led Donald Trump in high quality head to head polls.
At the beginning of 2023 DeSantis was coming away from a sweeping victory in a recent swing state while other Republicans across the country had lost brutally, much of the blame for the disappointing midterm placed squarely on Trump’s shoulders. A fleeting mood that if Trump were to be the nominee again Biden could easily cruise to victory. Even after being impeached twice, charged with multiple federal crimes, and encouraging the January 6th riot Trump never suffered a loss of support - until November 2022, a very unique and brief period over the last eight years of Republican politics.
Many of the attacks weren’t coming from liberals but from conservative media. Fox News and other Murdoch owned entities proclaimed the end of Donald Trump and the beginning of the “DeFuture.”
The midterms made Trump look weak and like a loser. Unlike in the 2020 election, Republicans conceded their defeats. Trump himself acknowledged the disappoint midterms, even subscribing some of the failure to the overturning of Roe v. Wade. No alternative facts this time.
The midterms let DeSantis, who won a swing state in a landslide, to contrast with Trump without needing to directly hit or engage with him.
Strategy: Ron should’ve had one. The DeSantis campaign and super PAC raised more money than any other campaign, including that of the former president, and conservative media had fawned relentlessly over DeSantis for months and months. Instead of pouncing on this opportunity DeSantis waited for months to announce his candidacy, by that point he’d been beat up by Trump for six months without punching back. The DeSantis campaign should have defined their candidate as Trump-plus, something like the former president but better. Instead of merely trying to imitate Trump, they needed to add something. Why wouldn’t a Republican go with the real deal?
Instead, they offered the voters store brand. DeSantis pretended to be like Trump but less entertaining. The campaign and super PAC spent millions on advertising that failed to move voters to their candidate. They never produced a compelling piece of creative. To be fair, many self-appointed Republican strategists believed that’s what voters wanted, though the voters, inconveniently, kept rejecting it.
The campaign never recovered from its pitiful Twitter launch, its awkward candidate and the sputtering purpose of his candidacy. Their biggest “idea” was an American invasion of Mexico. To the campaign’s surprise, the message that “I’m just like Trump but shorter, boring and weird” didn’t catch on among voters. Republicans loved the idea of DeSantis but the reality is that he’s an imp, whether it’s in a debate or an interview with a friendly outlet, who stumbles, stutters, and fumes whenever something slightly deviates from the script - not coming across as a divinely ordained fighter sent to Earth to shepherd America.
There were missteps from the very beginning:
DeSantis’ campaign hired dozens of staffers in the earliest stages of the race, robbing the operation of necessary early cash. Within the first two months, 40% of initial hires were fired to conserve resources.
A cash strapped campaign elevated the role of super PAC Never Back Down, which promised to spend $200 million boosting DeSantis’ bid but ended up mired in infighting and overshadowing the campaign itself with negative news. The source of many a “reset.”
A near singular focus on culture war fights cost DeSantis donor support, as many of the biggest anti Trump GOP donors who originally supported him eventually gave to other candidates or sat out the 2024 election cycle.
Staff: The celebrity consultant known as Jeff Roe loses virtually every race he touches and, according to his own boasts, makes mad money in the process. His string of losses in Senate races over the past few years distinguishes him: Kelly Craft (Kentucky), Adam Laxalt (Nevada), Carla Sands (Pennsylvania), Dave McCormick (Pennsylvania), Jim Lamon (Arizona), Josh Mandel (Ohio) and Martha McSally (Arizona, twice). Roe is your man if you want to light millions of dollars on fire fast.
It Doesn’t End Here
DeSantis is a twerp without a doubt but his foul and vile ways will live on even after his failed presidential bid. His legislative agenda has been copied across the country spreading corrosive and barbaric politics. In Florida, DeSantis’ has maximized voter suppression and gerrymandering to centralize power to an unprecedented degree, made abortion functionally illegal, made government institutions less transparent and accountable, denied and ripped away healthcare from tens of thousands, bullied and mercilessly picked on children, defended slavery as a “positive good”, blocked cities from setting clean energy goals, signed legislation authorizing toll roads through hundreds of miles of wild, precious land, let utility giants run wild, and engaged in absolutely shameless pay to play, a Tampa Bay Times article revealing that “since assuming office in 2019, DeSantis has accepted roughly $3.3 million in campaign donations from 250 people he selected for leadership roles—a 75% increase in the number of donors appointed” over predecessor Rick Scott’s first term in office.
DeSantis flopped in this pursuit but that a hack like him became governor of the third largest state shows that we must always be diligent in the fight against reactionary forces. We can never settle for the apathy or the status quo, a “that's how it’s always been done” or “it’s too hard” attitude. A lifetime commitment to positive change entails a dogged pursuit of excellence and progress, both for ourselves and our communities. Constantly asking the questions, “how can I best serve others?” and “how can we do this better?”