Governor Ron DeSantis managed to avoid major conflict with other candidates on the debate stage Wednesday night, despite speculation he’d be seen as the main target of attacks.
In an interview with Brian Kilmeade Thursday morning, the Florida Governor defended his strategy.
“Well look, there was kind of a lot of cross chatter that was going on and you know, my thing is like look, we’re auditioning to be the President of the United States. You know, I’m not here to get in a food fight,” DeSantis said.UNF political science professor Dr. Michael Binder argued while staying out of the food fights can be a safe strategy, the tactic doesn’t necessarily lend itself to breakout moments on the debate stage.
“That’s kind of a performance or an outcome you’re looking for if you were the Donald Trump of the world and you were up by 30 or 40 points. That would have been great. But you weren’t,” Binder said. Binder predicted DeSantis’ debate performance isn’t likely to hurt him in the polls, but he doubts it will do much to help him either.“It was a safe play. In some senses he got off light because nobody went after him and he didn’t have to respond to people, but on the downside of that is he didn’t get the attention, he didn’t have to opportunity to fire back. That doesn’t generate headlines the following day.
Over the next month, polls will reveal whether DeSantis managed to boost his support as a result of the debate.He and the other GOP candidates will have another chance to make their case to voters on the debate stage on Sept. 27.
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