Ron DeSantis needs to campaign to the “right” of Donald Trump on major issues in order to have a chance at claiming the GOP presidential nomination, according to Kayleigh McEnany, who served as press secretary during the Trump administration.
The Florida governor is expected to announce the official launch of his 2024 campaign on Wednesday evening at 6 p.m. ET as part of an audio-only Twitter conversation with the site’s owner, Elon Musk.
The decision by DeSantis to jump into the presidential ring follows recent Morning Consult polling showing him garnering 20 percentage points of support, lagging behind Trump by 38 points. The long-awaited speculation surrounding the governor’s entrance into the race has allowed others, including Nikki Haley, businessman Vivey Ramaswamy and Senator Tim Scott, to advance their campaigns and fundraising efforts.
DeSantis has a strong gubernatorial record to run on and can advocate as a “common sense” candidate, McEnany told the panel of Fox & Friends on Wednesday morning, though “the national polling depth is huge” because he has sat on the sidelines and taken numerous attacks from Trump.
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“If [DeSantis] focuses on policy distinctions (he can win),” McEnany said. “If I’m on the DeSantis campaign, I’m looking at this, and I’m saying, ‘Where am I to the right of Trump? I’m to the right of him on Disney and corporate America and fighting for our children; I’m to the right of him on abortion; I’m to the right of him on vaccination mandates.’ Trump’s not for mandates, of course, but he did call himself the father of the [COVID-19] vaccine.”
“If I’m DeSantis, I’m going to ignore the name-calling, knock it in the mud and I’m going to lean to the right on policy,” she added.
Trump, who maintains a stronghold on the Republican Party, has ratcheted up his attacks on possibly his most formidable 2024 challenger. In a string of new Truth Social posts, Trump called out DeSantis for voting to “obliterate” social security and “badly wound” Medicare—as well as his association with former House Speaker Paul Ryan, who has publicly blasted Trump on numerous occasions.
“Also, he desperately needs a personality transplant and, to the best of my knowledge, they are not medically available yet,” Trump wrote about DeSantis. “A disloyal person!”
John Ellis, a political analyst and founder of the daily newsletter News Items, told Newsweek that DeSantis will likely attempt to make up for three months of lost time by focusing his efforts and campaign war chest—which is reportedly bigger than $110 million—on winning either the Iowa or New Hampshire primaries, or both. If he does, Ellis believes DeSantis “has a shot” at giving Trump a challenge.
Ellis said that American politics is largely defined not by education, not by income, but by where you live. He refers to four main types of voting blocs: urban, suburban, ex-urban and rural.
“Trump’s base is ex-urban. It is rock solid,” Ellis said. “It hasn’t moved one inch since the 2022 midterms, even though everybody and their brother was saying that Trump was a loser and that he was finished. And if you looked at his support in rural and ex-urban America, he was the strongest he ever has been.
“If DeSantis is going to beat Trump, he is going to have to take rural voters away from Trump. The way he has chosen to go about that is to go very hard right on cultural issues,” he said.
That includes DeSantis’ six-week abortion bans, being extremely vocal about education and literature in schools, and his battle with Disney. Evangelicals make up one-third of the primary and caucus electorate, Ellis added, which DeSantis could focus on for a support system with these social issues—although it could still be an uphill climb on issues like abortion if Mike Pence enters the race.
“If [DeSantis is] going to take extra votes out of Trump’s pile, he’s going to have to figure out a way to put together populist and evangelical issues to do so,” Ellis said.
Timothy Weaver, associate professor of political science at the University of Albany, told Newsweek that DeSantis’ key problem is that Trump remains highly popular among GOP primary voters—and his lead is only widening based on polling.
“Although DeSantis might be able to outflank Trump on the right, on issues like abortion, Trump has a pretty compelling response: that he gave GOP voters the majority on the [Supreme] Court to overturn Roe,” Weaver said. “Moreover, were DeSantis to prevail and become the nominee, such right-wing positions would almost certainly undermine his chances in the general election.
“That said, Trump is very much in the driving seat. I think the only thing that stops Trump getting the nomination is his imprisonment,” he said.