After much speculation about when it would take place, this Wednesday the most awaited moment for the Republicans arrived: Ron DeSantis officially announced the start of his electoral race towards the White House. And he decided to do it in two settings loaded with symbolism: the social network Twitter, with a live conversation scheduled for 6 pm with its owner Elon Musk, and the leading television channel among the talkers, Fox News.
“America deserves the fight. Each. A. De las Veces”, advances the governor of Florida in a video in the purest Hollywood style, in his most recent publication on networks with his also until now more presidential tone.
At 44, Ron DeSantis will face Donald Trump, 76, in his party’s hotly contested primaries, the internal elections to choose a Republican presidential candidate who competes with Democrat Joe Biden at the polls for the presidency of the United States in 2024 .
Chronicle of an announced candidacy, with which the governor of Florida finally gave this week the start of the Republican battle for next year’s presidential elections, in which the two main rivals, DeSantis and Trump, are expected to lead the race without no one else can shade them.
The certain thing is that, from today, the republican fight is augured long and tricky. Despite the age difference, both political figures have a very similar profile. DeSantis, who has come to be called “mini Trump”, already faces various challenges. The most important of all, stealing the attention of his opponent. Something not easy, especially taking into account the various pending accounts that the New York tycoon has with the Justice, which have once again placed him frequently on the front pages of the press and in the headlines of the main American media.
Twitter Space, the audio platform of the influential social network, became this Wednesday the site chosen by DeSantis to launch his campaign, which also shows the generational transformation of the Republican Party, which during the Trump era the former president became his preferred channel of communication and now, with DeSantis, he breaks again with all traditional standards of conduct.
The same social network that blocked the former Republican president during his last term in the White House for inciting violence, which allegedly led to the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and for infusing false accusations of voter fraud after the results of the 2020 presidential elections. A gesture that many consider risky and that could well damage his reputation or, quite the contrary, mobilize his electoral base en masse.
Elon Musk has close to 141 million followers on Twitter, the social network that the eccentric businessman became infatuated with, materializing his purchase – not without controversy – in October 2022 for 44 billion dollars. An increasingly polarized platform, with the use that its new owner is making of it, and which, according to experts, could further alienate moderate voters, without whom it would be difficult for any candidate to win the election.
Neither in 2016 nor in 2020 were social networks able to stay out of the electoral contest, on the contrary becoming an essential propaganda tool for the presidential battle of the different candidates and their potential voters.
All options are, for now, on the table. Trump continues to often star in the news and also uses social networks to denounce the political persecution to which he claims he is being subjected, with multiple fronts open against him. In a possible scenario where he may finally be convicted of criminal charges while fighting for his candidacy, the tycoon faces an uncertain and, once again, unprecedented political future.
How that situation would benefit DeSantis, it’s too early to tell. What is clear is that, according to all the polls for months, the governor of Florida is the best placed candidate to wrest the Republican nomination from Trump. Without having presented his campaign, between May 18 and 20, a recent Morning Consult poll places Trump with 58% support of potential voters compared to 20% for DeSantis.
In his state, DeSantis has become very popular among conservatives, but he has also gained great support outside his own ranks, especially with some of the most controversial issues of the policies promoted by the current Administration, such as abortion or gender identity, which keeps American society more polarized than ever. His strong criticisms are clear examples of his political position, often branded as radical, with recent direct confrontations such as his legal battle with the multinational Disney, which has finally reached the courts.
And, in the case of the United States, it is not possible to speak of a candidate with options for the presidency without mentioning his more personal side. The family is a great added value in the race, especially for conservatives. For this reason, the entire DeSantis have been outlining their image as a presidential family in detail. The most obvious example of this took place during the election night in which the governor of Florida swept his state by running for re-election, going on stage accompanied by his wife and his three children in the most classic style. of the Kennedys. A stellar moment that went down in history as the coming-out of what seemed to be the prelude to his next candidacy for the presidency of the United States.
Who is Ron DeSantis? His wife explains it. “I get asked all the time,” Casey replies, with the most intimate image of the Republican, describing in one exact minute her husband, who was born in the same state where he is governor, Florida, and when he grew up he financed his studies himself, he volunteered for the Navy to serve his country and deployed with US troops in Iraq. Of him, her wife also remembers that she “fell in love with her from the moment she met him” and she promotes, with affectionate words, her father figure with photos of her three children aged 5, 4 and 2 years old.
“But if you want to know who Ron DeSantis really is,” continues a nearby Casey, sitting casually in jeans and cross-legged on the couch, “when I was diagnosed with (breast) cancer and faced the battle for my life, it was the father who took care of my children when I couldn’t, who held me when I literally couldn’t get up, who fought for me when I had no strength to fight for myself. This is Ron DeSantis ”, emphasizes his wife on the verge of tears.
Video that appears as a fixed tweet on the profile of her husband, Ron DeSantis, since he published it on October 22, 2022, just before the state elections in Florida, with the mention “I love you, Casey”.
