How Ron DeSantis’ Endorsements Compare to Donald Trump’s

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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis picked up dozens of state legislative endorsements for his 2024 presidential campaign prior to confirming that he’s running, but he’s still well behind Donald Trump in terms of backers.

DeSantis, who has long been thought to be the former president’s biggest challenger in the GOP primary, is set to declare he’s a candidate for the White House in a Twitter Space audio announcement on Wednesday night, alongside the social media platform’s owner, Elon Musk.

Ahead of his 2024 confirmation, DeSantis managed to secure backing for his likely presidential bid from 99 of Florida’s 113 Republican state lawmakers, including the state’s two main legislative leaders, Senate President Kathleen Passidomo and House Speaker Paul Renner.

Earlier in May, the pro-DeSantis Super Pac Never Back Down announced that the Republican had also managed to pick up endorsements from 37 GOP state lawmakers in Iowa—where the first-in-the-nation Republican presidential primary caucus will take place in 2024—including Iowa Senate President Amy Sinclair and the the state’s House majority leader, Matt Windschitl.

Ron DeSantis speaks with Donald Trump at a campaign rally at the Pensacola International Airport on November 3, 2018 in Pensacola, Florida. The Florida governor is set to confirm his 2024 presidential bid.
Mark Wallheiser/Getty Images

“We need somebody that’s accountable to the people that has proven in their state that they can do this job and take that same prosperity and spread it throughout America,” Windschitl told the Des Moines Register.

Other states where DeSantis has racked up dozens of state legislators’ support include Utah, New Hampshire and Michigan.

However, while it’s still early days in the GOP primary, DeSantis is struggling to garner support from current congressional lawmakers, including in his own state.

So far, only five Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives have endorsed DeSantis’ expected 2024 bid—reps. Laurel Lee of Florida, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Chip Roy of Texas, Bob Good of Virginia, and Georgia’s Rich McCormick—with no current U.S. senators announcing they will support DeSantis’ campaign.

In comparison, Trump has already received endorsements from 11 sitting U.S. senators, including Ohio’s J.D. Vance, South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham, and Tennessee’s Marsha Blackburn.

More than 50 Republican members of the current House of Representatives, such as Ohio’s Jim Jordan, Texas’ Troy Nehls and New York’s George Santos, have announced they are supporting the former president since he confirmed he would be running again last November.

Trump has also received the official backing of two GOP governors—South Carolina’s Henry McCaster and West Virginia’s Jim Justice—as well as waves of state lawmakers in New Hampshire, Florida, Iowa and New Hampshire, among others.

It should be noted that large numbers of Trump’s 2024 endorsements, such as those from Georgia rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Florida congressman Matt Gaetz, are from MAGA loyalists who were always expected to back the former president.

However, others have suggested that it doesn’t bode well for DeSantis that almost all of Florida’s congressional delegation have opted to endorse Trump.

“When your calling card is Florida and folks in your own backyard defect that is never a good sign,” Ford O’Connell, a Republican consultant who was a Trump campaign surrogate in 2020, told Reuters in April. “They have the DeSantis campaign in a vulnerable position.”

Polls show that Trump is the overwhelming favourite to clinch the GOP presidential nomination in 2024. According to FiveThirtyEight’s national average tracker, Trump is ahead in the GOP primary with 53.5 percent, with DeSantis a distant second on 20.8 percent.

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