DeSantis’s official campaign launch — an awkward, glitchy Twitter Spaces event with Elon Musk — fell flat. Since then, surveys have consistently shown Trump averaging more than 50% of the primary vote. DeSantis now trails him by more than 30 points.
to reset the DeSantis candidacy as an “insurgent” run: a “leaner-meaner” operation that will burn less cash, engage more with the press and burrow deeper into Iowa, the first caucus state.
But DeSantis’s latest do-over raises some make-or-break questions: Why, exactly, has the Floridian been such a bust? And can he actually turn things around in time to dethrone The Donald — or is it too late?Despite Trump’s incumbent-like status, a significant — and potentially growing — group of Republicans would rather not renominate him in 2024. In fact, thefound that less than half of potential GOP primary voters now prefer Trump over a hypothetical “someone else” .
The problem is: Who’s that “someone else”? For now, DeSantis looks like the only viable Trump alternative. According to, the governor is averaging about 18.6% nationally; the next-closest candidates are entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former Vice President Mike Pence , neither of whom, for different reasons, seems poised to win over a plurality of primary voters. No other candidate clears 4%.
So for Republicans who favor someone other than Trump , figuring out why DeSantis has flopped is the first step in determining how he can stop flopping in the future — or how a different “someone else” can avoid making his mistakes.There’s not much on the horizon that could radically alter the dynamic of the race — at least not until the first GOP debate in Milwaukee on Aug. 23. Even then, TrumpWhich further signals that the biggest factor shaping DeSantis’s fate is Trump himself.
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