The Sweep: Looking Out for No. 2

What to make of the early primary polling for 2024.

By
129
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks to police officers in the Staten Island borough of New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Is Ron DeSantis running? From NBC: 

DeSantis recently launched a tax-exempt organization that sponsored his speaking engagements to police groups in New York and the Philadelphia and Chicago suburbs last week. He hosted a retreat for top donors from across the country at the Four Seasons in Palm Beach this weekend.

Sure, but he’s also a sitting governor, right? But what’s the No. 1 tell that someone is about to launch a presidential campaign? 

In 2014, Carly handed me the manuscript for her book Rising to the Challenge. It was her second book and opened with the police knocking on her door late one night. Her stepdaughter was dead from an overdose. It was a gut-wrenching story that hundreds of thousands of American families have experienced themselves. But it was also the surest sign that Carly was all in for a presidential run. Books are the new platform. 

Start a Free Trial
Get unlimited access to our 10 daily and weekly newsletters, Dispatch Live broadcasts, article comments and community events. Get Started ALREADY A PAID SUBSCRIBER? SIGN IN
129
By
Comments (129)
Join The Dispatch to participate in the comments.
 
  1. Avatar photo
    Ben Connelly

    That passage from DeSantis makes me cringe so hard. He’s trying too obviously.

    Collapse
  2. Avatar photo
    Gibby

    my day will now be filled with thoughts of cottonmouths curled up in the kitchen.

    And I think to myself..........why would anyone want to live in the south?

    Collapse
  3. Jack H Wolf

    The larger question methinks is whether the non Trump contingent will attack each other and give it to Trump as they did in 2016 or have some sense and work on knocking off the Don first. Initial sniping between Haley and DeSantis suggests the former.
    Also without an agreement not to contest each primary but pick and choose, then Trump can rack up pluralities and many of the states on the R sid is winner takes all. Florida is one of those and a big'n which might help DeSantis.
    Everybody always wonders about a split convention more than actually happens, but if the non Trumps did divvy up the primaries and let Pence go alone in IN, DeSantis in FL, Haley in SC, maybe we would see a split convention.
    The future is less predictable than most peoples convictions about it, but the polls certainly show its Trump's to lose and one telling factoid is that Trumps lead over DeSantis increases when you compare head to head where Trump is usually up 5-10 then when you also poll the other candidates where Trump runs 10-20 ahead.

    Collapse
  4. S581122

    I like how guys like Clark Niely can just make blanket statements about a "flawed candidte" and then have that in their back pocket as if that is the prevailing thought and can be brought out anytime to quiet any argument. Based on fact??? or just the hopeful conjecture of a blissful idiot.

    Collapse
  5. Alex G

    I grew up south of Wichita, KS. Our road was gravel, we had a septic tank, and drank from a well. Well after year 2000, there were no cable TV lines.

    Idiot kids at my high school still paid for limos for prom. They were like ‘91 Cutlass Supreme limos, but limos nonetheless.

    Collapse
  6. Zjim0608

    Why no mention of the gentleman (I can't spell his name) who just joined the Republican race.

    Collapse
    1. Deleted Comment

      This comment has been deleted

    2. Karin

      https://thedispatch.com/newsletter/dispatch-politics/ramaswamy-grabs-the-mic/

      Collapse
  7. Avatar photo
    Dennis

    You had me at “septic tank.” (Actually something I’ve had experience with and not the good kind.)

    Collapse
  8. Rbrafford17

    I've never read and never will read one of those books written in anticipation of a presidential run (if I was the sole survivor of a nuclear apocalypse and those books were the only reading material available, I would break my own glasses), and that excerpt makes me feel very good about that decision.

    Some of the most rancid writing I've ever seen.

    Collapse
  9. Avatar photo
    Dave in Houston

    I'm calling BS on DeSantis never seeing a limousine. That's completely bogus. And writing that passage about Ohio/PA is disqualifying in and of itself.

    Collapse
    1. Brett

      Maybe you missed the part that his parents are from there. I might absolutely say I have Chicago south side values even if I was raised by Chicagoans in Tampa. Chicagoans yay Declan! But agreed never saw a limousine is BS.

      Collapse
  10. Avatar photo
    Normb1442

    The problem with scoping out the GOP field is that the two front runners are running on almost identical ideas, and those ideas clearly differ from Republican politicians in the recent past. Both Bushes, Dole, McCain, Romney -- these guys ran as heirs to Ronald Reagan. Trump blew that up and DeSantis has headed straight for the same lane. Presumably both men think the majority of the Republican ducks are no longer in Reagan's pond.

    Which leaves Republicans who are NOT populists in an impossible position. Pushing a third alternative -- say Pence or Rubio -- probably means a ton of Republicans staying home in November because they've gotten accustomed to populist red meat. There's a REASON Haley tried to one-up DeSantis on "don't say gay." But choosing between Trump and DeSantis alone means committing the party even more to populism. Right now, one can argue that it's a function of Trump's popularity and the fact that he won in 2016; if one of the present front runners gets the nomination, however, it will lock the party into populism for a generation.

    Collapse
Load More