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Written by Gram Slattery and James Oliphant
WASHINGTON, Jan 21 (Reuters) – Presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, once seen as the Republican Party’s best shot at overtaking Donald Trump, withdrew from the primary on Sunday, but with relatively early results. ‘s exit highlights the iron grip the former president maintains on the party.
DeSantis, 45, endorsed Trump in a video posted to the X social media site.
Mr. DeSantis was widely seen as a front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination and a natural successor to Mr. Trump because of his combative style and deeply conservative views. In early 2023, he led several head-to-head polls against Trump.
But the Florida governor’s approval ratings have been weighed down by a flawed campaign strategy, a seemingly uneventful relationship with voters on the campaign trail, and Trump’s unchallenged grip on much of the party’s base so far. For these reasons, it has been declining in recent months.
The end of Mr. DeSantis’ candidacy means that former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley is the last Republican to potentially reject Mr. Trump’s nomination, albeit by a long shot. The winner of the Republican nomination contest will face President Joe Biden, the likely Democratic nominee, in the November general election.
According to most polls, more than 70% of Republicans have a favorable impression of President Trump. That put Mr. DeSantis in the position of having to appeal not only to voters who passionately dislike Mr. Trump, but also to those who still admire him.
DeSantis failed on both counts. Republicans seeking to remove the former president split their votes between candidates, but he had a hard time explaining to most Trump supporters why he was the better choice. Haley, in particular, has emerged as a favorite as her support base among moderate Republicans is solidifying. Mr. DeSantis differed from Mr. Trump in terms of his policies, mostly by advocating more conservative positions. He signed a six-week abortion ban in Florida in April, causing alarm among some donors and moderate Republicans but ultimately embracing it during the campaign.
Mr. DeSantis opposed additional U.S. military aid to Ukraine and spoke against the Walt Disney Co. after the company voiced opposition to a Florida bill that would limit discussion of gender and sexuality in classrooms. Punitive measures were taken.
The Disney battle was one that pro-business critics in the party argued DeSantis didn’t need to fight.
Many big donors supported DeSantis early on, but they started revolting already in the summer.
Robert Bigelow, who donated millions of dollars to a super PAC fundraising group supporting Mr. DeSantis, told Reuters in August that he was cutting off funding because he was fed up with the governor’s uncompromising stance on abortion.
campaign error
DeSantis’ problems started even before he entered the race.
When Trump was indicted in New York in March on charges of conspiracy to conceal hush-money payments to porn stars, the former president rose significantly in the polls as Republicans rallied behind him. Many of them believed Trump’s claims that law enforcement officials were targeting him to keep him from office.
Some DeSantis allies say the governor waited too long to become a candidate and only threw his hat into the ring in May, more than six months after President Trump. That left Mr. DeSantis under intense attack from Mr. Trump, while the governor himself offered little defense, insisting he was not a candidate.
When DeSantis officially launched his White House bid in May 2023, his Twitter account, now known as X, was a glitch-filled disaster, an inauspicious start for a campaign predicated on the governor’s executive ability It became.
The campaign then overhired and rapidly ran out of cash. Mr. DeSantis fired about 38 staffers in July and replaced his campaign manager in August, creating an internal turmoil that proved difficult to reverse.
He has outsourced much of the campaign’s traditional work to outside super PACs, which can accept unlimited donations but cannot coordinate with the campaign itself.
The campaign and the PAC known as Never Back Down became distrustful of each other. Successive departures of senior staff from the PAC in November and December caused turmoil and added to the perception that the governor’s campaign was mortally wounded. (Reporting by Gram Slattery and Jim Oliphant; Editing by Ross Colvin and Alistair Bell)
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