Ron DeSantis, who once exercised near-complete political control over Florida, might be watching the final days of his reign. The Florida governor, whose presidential campaign continues to sink further and further into oblivion, is beginning to see his wishes defied by the very state officials he appointed, as detailed in a Politico report Friday. And some Florida Republicans are even welcoming his downfall on the presidential stage.
“There’s no love lost between the legislature and DeSantis,” one Tallahassee lobbyist told the outlet. “They are faking it. They are waiting long enough to see the king drained of all his power. It’s a slow-motion coup.”
One of the clearest signs of DeSantis’s waning power came last week, when the state Republican Party annulled a loyalty pledge that would have compelled GOP presidential candidates to support the eventual nominee, whomever it may be. This reversal, which directly countered DeSantis’s preference, was done at the request of Trump backers in Florida. (For his part, Donald Trump last month also refused a loyalty pledge put forward by the Republican National Committee.) Meanwhile, according to Politico, Christian Ziegler, chairman of the state party, has promised neutrality in the presidential race and encouraged some party members to appear at all Republican events days after Trump asked Florida Republicans to join him for a dinner at Mar-a-Lago.
“Few members of the legislature have a relationship with Ron DeSantis,” a former Republican official told Politico, noting that the DeSantis campaign’s plea to Florida lawmakers for fundraising help had left a sour taste in the mouths of some members. “He’s like the Wizard of Oz behind the curtain,” the former official added. “You can’t get to him. All you hear about is the great and powerful Oz.”
DeSantis has also faced pushback from some in the state’s education system, an arena where he has expended significant political capital. According to the Tampa Bay Times, earlier this week the board of trustees at Pasco-Hernando State College, the majority of whom were appointed by the governor, voted not to elect a member of the DeSantis administration as the school’s next president.
Responding to Politico, Bryan Griffin, press secretary for the DeSantis campaign, said that while “lobbyists, the DC crowd, and the agenda-driven college board members will have unpleasant things to say, Ron DeSantis stood up to all of them to do the right thing and deliver for his constituents.”
Of course, DeSantis’s presidential problems extend well beyond Florida. A poll this week from CNN and the University of New Hampshire found that DeSantis was the fifth most popular choice among Republican voters in the Granite State, putting him behind Trump, Vivek Ramaswamy, Nikki Haley, and Chris Christie, respectively.
But the DeSantis campaign hasn’t prioritized New Hampshire. Instead, the campaign views Iowa—home to the opening contest in the Republican primary—as something of a last stand, according to The Washington Post. There, DeSantis has sought to court the evangelical bloc that accounts for a strong portion of Iowa’s GOP electorate: He has shown up at church services; rubbed shoulders with various pastors and evangelical leaders; and brandished his antiabortion bona fides, including the six-week ban he signed in Florida this year.
“It’d be goofy to say the preponderance of the resources are not being spent in Iowa,” a DeSantis adviser told the Post. “There is a belief by him and others in the campaign that the evangelical community gives him a good shot there, and [Iowa governor] Kim Reynolds is going to help.”
And yet, second-place DeSantis still trails Trump by more than 30 points in the state, while Ramaswamy and Haley continue to gain on the Florida governor, whose Iowa support has steadily eroded since the official launch of his campaign early this summer. In June, DeSantis was polling as high as 28% in Iowa, according to the RealClearPolitics composite average; he now sits at less than 15%.
Caleb Ecarma
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