Florida Government Ron DeSantis hit one difficulty after another during the Republican nomination campaign, forcing him to cut staff and really engage with the traditional media.
But the governor appeared to have worn a pair of pink glasses during a Fox News interview’ CommunicationBuzz on Sunday, downplaying the issues and pointing to his trips to the primary states. It’s there, he told host Howard Kurtz, where he found his voting audience — after they met him in person.
“We were just in Iowa on Friday at the Family Leaders Summit. It was really the start of caucus season in Iowa,” DeSantis said. “So the people of Iowa are starting to pay more attention to it. We were able to speak to thousands of people over a two-day period and the first thing I heard from everyone was this. They were like, ‘Yeah, you know, I know you did good things in Florida, but I haven’t met you, and now that I’ve met you, I support you.’”
DeSantis’ statement comes despite a flood of media reports about his personal embarrassment and questions about whether he has the charisma to succeed on the trail.
DeSantis sees the series of negative press stories as the work of a “corporate press” who doesn’t want to see him “abolish the administrative state”. He insists the Republican debates will be another means of highlighting his personality in front of voters.
“There are a lot of Republican voters out there who like what we did in Florida. They know I’m a good governor,” DeSantis said. “But they don’t know much about me up close and personally, so it gives us a great opportunity to be able to share our vision.”
Even with six months left before a single vote is cast in the race, DeSantis’ time to make that case with voters is short.
The candidate has largely restricted sit-down interviews to conservative media outlets, such as Fox News and the Christian Broadcasting Network. His finances were constrained, and he burned through nearly $8 million in the first six weeks of running for office, according to one report. NBC News analysis. DeSantis raised $20 million in the second quarter, millions of dollars ahead of Donald Trump, but $14 million of that was from donors who raised the maximum, and $3 million must be earmarked for the campaign. general election translation.
There are already signs of a change of strategy. DeSantis laid off about 10 event planning staff on Thursday, according to politics, though he still boasts the largest campaign staff in the Republican field. CNN also announced that Jake Tapper will interview DeSantis on Tuesday, the governor’s first extended interview online since 2017.
DeSantis refuses to address these issues directly in the process CommunicationBuzz interview, instead focusing on how well he did—once voters met him.
“The longer I am out there, the more support we get in these early states and this is a state-by-state primaries,” he said. “So I think it would be a political mistake to run for president just to focus on the country instead of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina. So that’s what we did. You can build the foundation, and we’re building the foundation in all of those states. That won’t really be reflected in the national poll because they’re such small states that you wouldn’t do that. We keep an eye on the prize.”
