In his first interview after dropping out of the race for the GOP presidential nomination, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he believes Republican voters have “checked out” of the primaries.
“[Voters] had basically been told that it was inevitable, that it was over ... they just totally dropped out of the process,” Mr. DeSantis said.
Mr. DeSantis, who suspended his campaign on Jan. 21 and endorsed President Trump, said the low turnout in the Republican Party of Iowa’s Jan. 15 Caucus demonstrated the lack of enthusiasm about the 2024 race.
“That shows you there’s a lot of our voters who have checked out,” Mr. DeSantis said.
His experience on the campaign trail demonstrated that while Republican voters may have liked what he, or another GOP challenger, had to say, they ultimately were not going to defect from President Trump.
After a long and expensive campaign in Iowa, Mr. DeSantis came in second place despite securing endorsements from key local figures like Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican. He secured 21.3 percent of the vote and finished only 2,335 votes ahead of former U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley.
Mr. DeSantis also blamed “Fox News and the conservative media” for rallying behind President Trump as the legal drama related to his presidency and business practices unfolded.
Along with that, he lamented how the “corporate media” has “flipped almost on a dime” from saying that President Trump cannot be beaten to now saying he doesn’t have enough moderate support to win back the White House. However, he mentioned when he was campaigning in Iowa he encountered voters who said they had voted Republican their entire lives but couldn’t bring themselves to vote for President Trump in 2024.
“That’s a problem,” Mr. DeSantis said. “He’s got to figure out a way to solve that.”
Without naming her, Mr. DeSantis also commented on Ms. Haley’s chances to survive the New Hampshire presidential primary. He concluded if President Trump wins by a large margin on Jan. 23, the momentum and media narrative will be impossible to overcome.
“You’re going to all of the sudden roll into South Carolina, even if it’s a two-man race between these two and just shift the narrative? How are you going to do that? Are there going to be debates? No,” Mr. DeSantis said. “Are you going to see the media be eager to say that this is a horse race? No. They’ve moved on,basically.”
Mr. DeSantis went on to say he didn’t expect a record turnout in New Hampshire, except maybe for liberal voters who would back Ms. Haley. He thinks primary turnout will continue to decline as Republican voters see President Trump’s nomination as a done deal.
Moreover, he expects President Trump to win New Hampshire “going away.”
A lot of the problems with the lack of enthusiasm in the party, Mr. DeSantis said, stem from a lack of results in Washington. He said Republican politicians make big, conservative promises on the campaign trail and then become “the junior partners in the DC ruling class” when they are elected.
He criticized the dearth of accomplishments from Republicans who’ve held majorities in either the Senate or the House since 2019. The Republican Party last controlled both houses in the beginning of 2019.
“I think our voters, they’re sick of having Lucy pull the football from Charlie Brown,” Mr. DeSantis said. “That’s what’s happened—time and time again.”
Finally, Mr. DeSantis was asked if he would consider running again. He said many voters liked him and his message, but thought 2024 was not yet his time.
“We'll see .. if we have a country left by 2028,“ Mr. DeSantis said. ”I view 2024 as really a hinge point in American history. And if we don’t get it right, I don’t know what it’s going to look like in the future.”
If Republicans do not win in 2024, Mr. DeSantis predicted “tough sledding” for the country.
“We’re going to need states like Iowa and Florida to be a refuge,” he said.
