Ron DeSantis has entered the US presidential race and stands as the strongest challenger to ex-President Donald Trump for the Republican nomination.
DeSantis, the governor of Florida, made international headlines on Wednesday when he launched his 2024 campaign in an unconventional way, on Twitter Spaces.
The 44-year-old is married to former TV journalist Casey DeSantis, who is acting as his chief political adviser. The couple have three children.
DeSantis, a Florida native, graduated from Yale University and Harvard Law School. He served as a Navy Judge Advocate General officer in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay. He ran and was elected to a congressional seat in his district in Orlando in 2012 and served three terms.
In 2018, DeSantis ran for Florida governor and won by 1 percentage point, then sailed to reelection in fall 2022.
As governor, DeSantis has notched multiple victories in his conservative agenda.
DeSantis signed the so-called Don’t Say Gay law, which prohibits instruction in public school classrooms on LGBTQ issues. Disney publicly opposed the law, prompting DeSantis to take away the entertainment company’s self-governing district status. A new board now oversees municipal services for Disney’s theme parks and hotels. Disney has sued DeSantis over the matter.
Throughout the ongoing legal battle, DeSantis has vowed not to cave to pressures from the entertainment giant or any other entities pushing ‘woke’ policies.
DeSantis has signed laws banning state and federal funding for diversity and inclusion programs and state colleges and universities.
His super political action committee sent flyers to primary voters calling him ‘a conservative leader who fights and wins’.
However, DeSantis’ opponents and news reports have raised questions around his ability to connect with political leaders and voters. He is reportedly socially awkward and brushes off small talk obligations, and has had peculiar behavior like eating pudding with three fingers.
Most of Florida’s GOP congressional delegation have endorsed Trump, who lives in Palm Beach, instead of DeSantis. Trump has repeatedly attacked DeSantis, calling him nicknames including ‘DeSanctus’.
After DeSantis nearly failed to launch his presidential campaign on Twitter Spaces on Wednesday due to technical difficulties around Elon Musk hosting the event, Trump hit at his former ally.
‘Wow! The DeSanctus TWITTER launch is a DISASTER! His whole campaign will be a disaster. WATCH!’ wrote Trump on his Truth Social platform.
DeSantis at the end of the live audio conversation, which finally carried out after nearly a half hour of troubleshooting, called Twitter a ‘great platform’ and said he would ‘like to see other platforms going in the same direction’.
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