Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is not running for president—at least not officially, not formally, not yet—so it is not necessarily surprising that the Sunshine State’s Republican chief executive has not responded to preemptive attacks from potential rivals for the 2024 GOP nod.
Way-too-early polls show DeSantis and former President Donald Trump are, far and away, the top two potential hopefuls among survey respondents to emerge victorious from Republican primaries beginning next February, and in the following fall to challenge the Democratic candidate, now likely but not certainly, incumbent President Joe Biden.
Trump officially announced on Nov 15 that he was running in the 2024 presidential election and has zeroed in on DeSantis with a withering string of criticisms.
DeSantis has not responded directly to Trump’s attacks, including his claim that as a relatively little-known United States Representative in 2018, he came to the president with “tears in his eyes” to “beg” for the endorsement that put him into the Governor’s Mansion in Tallahassee.
Not known for not responding to challenges, DeSantis and his varied campaign committees and supporters have been relatively quiet in pushing back against Trump’s targeted barbs at the governor.
Instead, DeSantis in near-daily briefings, touts his initiatives and successes as the governor of the nation’s third-most populous state, contrasting his leadership against that of Biden in the White House and Democrats elsewhere.
