Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis throughout a press convention in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, Monday, April 17, 2023. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune Information Service through Getty Photographs)
When Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis got here to Washington this week to attempt to woo lawmakers forward of his seemingly White Home run, solely a dozen reportedly confirmed up.
That was no shock to one of many Florida governor’s former Home colleagues.
Former Michigan Rep. Dave Trott reached out to Politico, with out prompting, to explain precisely what DeSantis was like in particular person.
“I sat proper subsequent to DeSantis for 2 years on the International Affairs Committee, and he by no means mentioned a single phrase to me,” Trott emailed. “I used to be new to Congress, and he didn’t introduce himself and even say good day.”
Trott was even blunter in a cellphone name with the publication.
“If you happen to’re going to enter politics, sort of a basic talent that it is best to have is likability. I don’t suppose [he] has that,” Trott advised Politico. “He by no means developed any relationships with different members that I do know of. You’d by no means see him speaking on the ground with different individuals or palling round. He’s only a very conceited man, very targeted on Ron DeSantis.”
“I feel he’s an asshole,” he concluded. “I don’t suppose he cares about individuals.”
Trott’s sentiment appears to be fairly broadly shared among the many Republican lawmakers who know DeSantis effectively—or at the very least, those he ought to have befriended alongside the best way if he wished to run for president.
DeSantis has solely three endorsements from sitting members of Congress to date. Laborious-headed iconoclastic Reps. Chip Roy of Texas and Thomas Massie of Kentucky have each backed him, and freshman Florida Rep. Laurel Lee, who DeSantis had beforehand appointed Florida’s secretary of state, endorsed him this week.
Examine that to former President Donald Trump, who has already pulled in almost 50 congressional endorsements. That features seven Florida lawmakers, whose endorsements his staff gleefully timed to announce throughout DeSantis’ “hey guys, keep in mind me?” journey again to D.C., the place he served three phrases in Congress.
His stilted model and disinterest in speaking to those that might assist him is apparent at any public occasion. His awkward character has been well-covered for months. The main GOP donors he’ll must woo so as fill his marketing campaign coffers have discovered it deeply off-putting. And whereas his landslide 2022 win and prolonged document of coverage wins is powering his help with the GOP base nationally, the extra voters see of him, the extra they’ll see of his character.
Trump and his allies are already seeking to paint DeSantis as a bizarre, conceited geek. Trump’s allies’ first advert attacking DeSantis leads with the cringey report that he eats pudding cups together with his fingers:
Being an asshole isn’t a deadly flaw in politics—if it had been, we’d have a really completely different set of politicians in workplace on either side of the aisle— and the latest historical past of the GOP exhibits that it might probably truly be a bonus to needle the individuals your base hates. DeSantis gained the governorship in one of many nation’s largest states by profitable a major towards a man who was well-liked and had deep connections throughout the social gathering.
DeSantis has risen to fame on the GOP aspect a lot the identical approach Trump did: By exhibiting he might piss off the left and personal the libs extra successfully than anybody else. He gained the GOP major in 2018 with a slew of Fox Information appearances and an endorsement from Trump himself. He raised boatloads of cash for his 2022 reelection with out brown-nosing with megadonors.
His character and disinterest in making mates hasn’t stored him from turning into the one man to emerge who has any sensible probability of defeating Trump within the GOP major.
And it’s not like Trump is Mr. Rogers both—he gained the GOP nomination in 2016 though a lot of the social gathering’s donors and lawmakers actively hated him, or maybe as a result of they did. They rapidly fell in line.
However as abusive as he could be to perceived enemies, Trump has used the carrot as a lot because the follow get Republicans to fall in line. He continuously works the telephones with lawmakers and recurrently invitations them to dinner at Mar-a-Lago. He’s truly put the hassle into back-slapping and posing for thumbs-up footage with anybody who’ll have him.
If DeSantis goes to tug off a wild upset over Trump, he’ll must make mates and allies all through the GOP, profitable over early-state kingmakers, main donors, and lawmakers who will go on TV to be surrogates for him even on unhealthy days. He’ll must make voters who haven’t dominated out Trump need to truly vote for him, too, which is more durable in the event that they suppose he’s a bizarre dude.
It’s very early within the presidential race—DeSantis hasn’t even introduced but—and quite a bit can change. However first impressions have a tendency to stay round, and DeSantis isn’t precisely overwhelming individuals together with his allure.
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