A Florida Republican running for Congress says DeSantis may have tanked his own political career in the state by running against Trump

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, left, and former President Donald Trump.

AP Photo

• Republican Alan Pincus told WaPo that DeSantis may have tanked his political future in Florida over his 2024 bid.
• DeSantis once led Trump in earlier Florida surveys of the Republican presidential primary.
• But Trump has continued to dominate the GOP race and DeSantis has had to reboot his campaign.

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida is at a major crossroads in the 2024 presidential race.

He entered the race in May as the top challenger to former President Donald Trump, hoping to carve out a lane among Republicans who wanted to see a nominee who was laser-focused on conservative policies and had the results to back it up. But his campaign has stalled in recent weeks, forcing him to lay off staffers and recalibrate his message as he faces an emerging threat from the candidacy of Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina.

But at DeSantis' core is his political appeal in Florida, where he won reelection last November by 19 points over former Democratic Rep. Charlie Crist, winning nearly every county in the state.

With DeSantis continuing to lag behind Trump in the state, some Republicans are also rethinking the governor's continued strength in the state which launched him to national conservative stardom. And many of those same Republicans have also stated that a bloc of voters are turned off by DeSantis' decision to challenge Trump in the first place.

Republican Alan Pincus — who backed DeSantis for governor in 2022 and is running for Congress next year — told The Washington Post that if DeSantis loses the GOP presidential primary, his political future in Florida may fizzle as well.

"DeSantis has no chance of winning," Pincus told the newspaper. "He really hurt himself, maybe permanently."

DeSantis once led in early Florida polling among the GOP presidential contenders.

But even in the Sunshine State, he's fallen behind Trump — in a head-to-head contest, the latest Florida Atlantic University/Mainstreet Research survey had Trump leading DeSantis 54%-37%.

In the FiveThirtyEight average of national Republican presidential polls, Trump currently sits at 52.4%, well ahead of the second- and third-place contenders — DeSantis (averaging 15.5% support) and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy (averaging 6.8% of GOP primary support).

Read the original article on Business Insider

Contributer : Business Insider https://ift.tt/Aa50LKs

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