Ron DeSantis Backers Urge Him to Jump Into 2024 Race ASAP, as Pudding Boy’s Poll Numbers Bite the Dust

Something you may be surprised to hear is that Ron DeSantis has not yet actually announced he is running for president in 2024. Oh, sure, with his trips to DC to drum up Republican support, the memoir he released in February, and the overseas tour he’s currently on, he sure seems like a guy who is quite obviously gunning for the White House, but officially, he is not. And according a new report, the Florida governor’s backers are desperate for him to jump in ASAP—with some fearing it might already be too late.

NBC News reports that a number of DeSantis’s allies are “urging him to declare as early as May 11, to counter the creeping national narrative that former President Donald Trump is the overwhelming front-runner for the 2024 GOP nomination.” After a post-midterms honeymoon period in which the dominant consensus was that the Florida governor was the future of the Republican Party—and that Trump was an old news loser—the ex-president has surged in the polls. In the most recent one released on Tuesday, Trump held a massive 37-point lead over DeSantis among potential GOP primary voters. “A good politician knows when their moment is and they seize the opportunity; there’s no question that the door is swinging against DeSantis,” Dennis Lennox, a Michigan-based GOP strategist told NBC News. “Gov. DeSantis is the only Republican who can beat Trump. He is the only Republican who can beat Joe Biden. But he’s starting to look like a Scott Walker in 2015, Newt Gingrich in 2012, and Fred Thompson in 2008—maybe even a Chris Christie, who ended up not getting into the race.” (Christie opted against running in 2012, which many politicos—including, apparently, DeSantis—see as a missed opportunity.)

In addition to allowing unfavorable comparisons to take hold, DeSantis’s decision to mostly not respond to Trump’s near-daily attacks on him have also been cause for concern. Among other things, the ex-president has hammered the Florida governor on his record on Medicare and Social Security; blasted him over his war against Disney; and implied he may have groomed high school girls while working as a teacher. He’s also claimed, more than once, that DeSantis cried while begging him for a gubernatorial endorsement in 2018; that he would be working at a “Pizza Hut” if it wasn’t for the former president; and that DeSantis may have a small penis.

(Asked about Trump’s grooming claims, DeSantis told reporters: “I spend my time delivering results for the people of Florida and fighting against Joe Biden. That’s how I spend my time. I don’t spend my time trying to smear other Republicans.”)

The decision to not jump into the race yet has also given the country time to take a closer look at DeSantis and, in many cases, decide they don’t like what they see when they see him: