Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) made a monumental announcement about his candidacy as President of the United States. Using the Twitter Spaces chat with Twitter CEO Elon Musk, his virtual campaign launch is the first ever for the presidential office. However, much like any other new tech, this one crashed on Musk and DeSantis left and right when they needed it most.
With the whole event starting late, entrepreneur David Sacks opened as the host before the audio began cutting in and out. This trend continued through the “call” with voices of people who were clearly not Musk or DeSantis breaking through. Serving as an example of what not to do, the entire affair left very few impressed with the results.
A subsequent poll by Economist/YouGov was taken just days after his formal announcement. In that survey, it was discovered only 24% of the people considered the event a success. Even more shamefully, 24% said it went “somewhat well,” and only 7% considered it went “very well.” Leaving little middle ground, 45% saw it as a failure. A shocking 24% saw it going “somewhat badly,” and 21% chose “very badly.”
These aren’t the kind of numbers that win the presidency of the local HOA, much less the President of the United States. While the 31% who were unsure could be seen as the numbers he needs to chase after most, they aren’t the opportune voter base DeSantis needs to capture if he wants a reach chance at winning this.
Yet, with that same poll discovering that Trump got 29% of the support amongst all polled, with DeSantis only getting 21%, he still has a long way to go with the public. Republicans are an even harder sell, with 52% giving Trump their support and 27% backing DeSantis. With Trump going squarely after DeSantis, these numbers seem indicative of what we’ll see going into the primaries.
The poll was conducted from 1,500 US citizens over 18 and was taken between May 27th and 31st. With a 2.9% margin of error, DeSantis should be very worried about these numbers.
Despite this survey, DeSantis isn’t discouraged very easily. His persistence in the early-voting states could pay off huge dividends and help flip these numbers. That’s only if he can reach people without outside static and interference. That will be an incredibly difficult goal for him to achieve, especially with how loud the rhetoric surrounding him as a Governor already is.
While there is still a long way to go in the campaign, his time to make changes is now. By getting the American people off the Trump Train and onto the DeSantis Destroyer, this Navy vet could have a shot at getting the nod. Many Floridians believe he can do it, yet given his position on Hispanics and Disney has turned a lot of his voter base against him, and instead ready to throw their support behind Trump.
Unlike Biden, the conservatives have the best problem to have before an election season; they have more than enough viable candidates in the running. DeSantis, Trump, Pence, and Christie are all already throwing their hat in the ring to try and have a run at the office. We haven’t seen such a push for the nomination in ages.
Previously we have seen a massive influx of the long-shot people signing up to try and run for office, but they just don’t stack up, and they quickly end up bowing out to help someone else take the whole thing. Their loyalists and support dollars will end up going to DeSantis at points throughout the election cycle, and it will be a huge help when he’ll need it most.
DeSantis did everything he could to set the bar low for himself in this election. He failed to make a proper announcement of his candidacy for President, he failed to even do a simple test to ensure that everything would work correctly. Since he was working with the CEO of Twitter, there was no excuse for this failure other than DeSantis not having a team to do the job right.
