DeSantis Presidential Campaign Hangs in the Balance With Next Debate

Gary Varvel / creators.com
Gary Varvel / creators.com

Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) has been consistently coming up short in polls and with most of the American people. While he became the media darling for freedom-loving America during the days of lockdowns from COVID, he’s turned into a one-hit-wonder. Even the citizens of Florida are standing behind Trump, and he paid for his Florida Man status; DeSantis was born into it.

Now, the tide may be turning firmly against Gov. DeSantis, as his debate with Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) will be moderated by Sean Hannity on November 30th. In the eyes of WOR radio host Mark Simone, this is a must-win debate. Telling Fox Business host Larry Kudlow that DeSantis simply comes up short in debates. In his past gubernatorial debates, he was shamed by two charismatically weak opponents.

This weakness shows in the polls and explains why former President Donald Trump has refused to be a part of these early debates. With the RealClearPolitics polls from Nov. 9 to 26 showing Trump taking 61% of the vote, DeSantis can only muster 13.8%. His next closest rival is Nikki Haley who has generated 9.9% of the vote.

DeSantis showed early promise as the next President. His tactics for dealing with COVID by being one of the first to leave it to local authorities was genius. However, his refusal to work with personal care industries like barbers, beauty salons, or tattoo shops left a big distaste in the mouth of Floridians. Americans are now starting to hear more of the nonsensical rambling he fills FL airwaves with, and becoming disgusted with his low-class ignorance.

Former Trump administration official Monica Crowley told Fox News, “Governor DeSantis has done an extraordinary job in the state of Florida. The economy is booming, the out-migration from the northeast and Midwest and west where taxes and regulations are so high, he has welcomed them all, economy thrived, culturally, socially, economically, you name it, but the style factor is huge. Gavin Newsom is always full of it, Larry, but style tends to trump in formats like this.”

Newsom’s approval has dropped from 55% to 44% after mainstream media started talking about him to tag in for Biden as the Democratic rep for the 2024 ticket or running in 2028 should Biden run in 2024. Yet DeSantis’ campaign team thinks he’s the perfect opponent for DeSantis. Especially as so many are picking Newsome to be taking Biden’s place as the Democratic front-runner.

In a statement to the Daily Caller, DeSantis campaign manager James Uthmeier paints this debate as constructed to give the American people a sample of what Newsom in office would do.

“As Democrats ramp up their efforts to replace the historically unpopular and failed Joe Biden as their nominee, Ron DeSantis’ showdown with Gavin Newsom is even more timely.

A Newsom presidency would accelerate America’s decline, and November 30th will be the first chance to expose to a national audience just how dangerous his radical ideology would be for the country. Ron DeSantis will take this responsibility seriously and looks forward to sharing the stark contrast between his vision to revive our nation and Newsom’s blueprint for failure.”

Much like Uthmeier pointed out, this debate gives the American people the introspective into Newsom and DeSantis that they realistically need. Should DeSantis be outshined in this early debate, then how can the American people expect him to defeat him in a real race? Simply put, they can’t.

A ride-or-die moment this early into his campaign is a tough call for DeSantis to make. Opting to self-destruct if this doesn’t go swimmingly well only serves the best interests of the party. Sadly though, it sounds more like DeSantis is looking at this more as a message of going down swinging, and not that he’ll be victorious.