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A long slog’: Inside DeSantis’s early struggles and effort to reboundWashington Post, Jul 15, 2023
Ron DeSantis’s allies were eager to regain momentum on the eve of his presidential campaign launch in May. Supporters gleefully predicted that the sheer buzz from a splashy announcement — live on Twitter — would rival Donald Trump’s 2015 ride down a golden escalator. Fundraisers were upbeat as they convened at the Four Seasons Miami, some convinced Trump’s daunting lead would shrink as DeSantis finally got in the race. That hasn’t happened.
More than seven weeks in, skepticism about the Florida governor’s 2024 bid has grown. Some people who have advised and supported DeSantis have raised private concerns about his message, and the effectiveness and insularity of his campaign operation, according to people familiar with the comments, among the more than 30 people interviewed for this story.
The doubts extend to long-friendly Fox News — where a recent headline asked, “Will DeSantis sink and fade out?” — and its owner, the conservative media magnate Rupert Murdoch, according to another person who speaks regularly with Murdoch about the presidential race. “He was excited about him at the beginning, but the more he shows himself, the less appealing he is,” said this person, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private deliberations and talk more freely. Murdoch will “come back to Trump if he thinks Trump can win,” this person added. A representative for Murdoch declined to comment Saturday.
A slew of bad news for DeSantis has underscored the danger of high expectations for a rising GOP star who began the year neck-and-neck with Trump in some polling, fresh off a landslide reelection in November in Florida. Traveling the country for nearly a half a year now to raise his profile, he’s lost ground to Trump and hovers in a distant second, spooking some donors and emboldening his rivals.
DeSantis has expressed confidence in his position and the ground game his allies are building in early states, saying he’s campaigning for the long term. “Watch and learn,” he said in Iowa on Friday when asked how he’d diminish Trump’s lead.
More:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/07/15/desantis-campaign-2024-presidential/
