After a slow start, Republican candidates are trickling into the presidential race. Former President Donald Trump announced last year. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has been campaigning since mid-February. Even Perry Johnson, Michigan’s former candidate for governor, has launched a bid!
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been waiting… but he just seemed to hint at a timeline for any future announcements.
DeSantis intends to survey the national stage after Florida’s legislative session, confirming prior speculation about the timeline. Florida’s current legislature convened in early March, and it’s set to work through May.
“So we’re going to have a three-month run here where I think we’re going to be able to deliver more than we’ve already delivered. And we’ve delivered more than just about anyone,” DeSantis said in an interview with Fox News. “That’s going to be my focus, then when we get on the other side of that, assuming we’ve been successful, we’ll take a look at what that would mean for national.”
The late Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis referred to the different states as the “laboratories of democracy.” Over the next three months, DeSantis intends to use Florida as an incubator for national policy.
“Florida can do it right. Why is it that Florida can do it right? And we have other good Republican states that can do it right — but yet the Biden model is failing our country, it’s failing states like Illinois, and California. What is it about Florida? And so, you know, we talked about some of those things,” DeSantis said.
“I think it’s been a leader to not only be a model for other states. I do think it could be nationally.”
DeSantis even called his book The Courage to Be Free: Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Revival.
The governor attributes his optimism to the conservatives’ new supermajorities in the state legislature.
“We’re going to be working through over the next few months,” DeSantis said. “Now I didn’t always have such a favorable legislation, we came in, we had a narrow Senate Majority, we were able to get a lot done. Now we have supermajorities in the legislature because we had such a good 2022 election.”
DeSantis also made oblique swipes at some pundits‘ worries about his ability to win a mandate nationally. In the interview, DeSantis took credit about leading Florida’s change from a swing state into a red state.
“When I got elected, it was a one-point race almost every election between governor and president,” DeSantis said.
“We were able to go from winning by 32,000 votes to winning by over 1.5 million votes, sweeping Hispanics by over 60%, winning Miami Dade County by double digits. But we have built in an infrastructure for Republicans to where Florida should no longer be considered a swing state. I mean, this is a state that we have the strong advantage in now.”
Take a look —
The Horn editorial team