As Ron DeSantis continues to stumble on the campaign trail, the Florida governor has reportedly lost significant ground to not just Donald Trump but other Republican primary challengers. GOP insiders are now predicting that DeSantis is headed for a downfall, and frankly, they’re not surprised.
“The more he is met by people, the more they are not going to like him,” Florida State Senator Joe Gruders told The Washington Post. “The more he’s out there, the more his numbers go down. It’s not a good long-term scenario for him. I fully expected the downfall of his campaign a long time ago.”
According to Florida GOP insiders, DeSantis’ interpersonal skills are not the best. The governor reportedly has a “my way or the highway” approach to negotiations and “infrequently talked to some senior members in his own Cabinet, including his top law enforcement officials, or other leading Republicans.”
Via The Washington Post:
“It’s kind of what I expected to see,” Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), whose backing of Trump stung DeSantis, according to people close to the governor, said of the DeSantis campaign. He added: “In presidential politics, you have to be able to engage and connect with people. It’s through TV, it’s through interviews, it’s charisma. You know it when you see it … I never felt like it was something the governor would be able to do or accomplish.”
The damning Washington Post report on DeSantis’ flailing campaign arrived on heels of another GOP strategist recently telling CNN that the governor is getting “killed in the focus groups.”
“We always ask people who do you want to see be the 2024 nominee? And six months ago, Ron DeSantis, he would always come up. He was the first one. If it wasn’t Trump, it was him,” Sarah Longwell told Inside Politics via Newsweek. “People don’t even mention him right now. They’ve said [Senator] Tim Scott, they’ve said Vivek Ramaswamy and he’s just not even getting mentioned—there was one guy who liked him… That is brutal.”
(Via The Washington Post, Newsweek)