With his presidential hopes dimming, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is now getting tripped up by persistent rumors that he secretly wears insoles in his boots to look taller.
His rival, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who is quickly gaining ground in GOP primary polls, joked, “We’ll see if he can run in them” during a recent appearance on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show." Which was apparently enough to goad DeSantis into a partial response.
DeSantis, who says he is 5-foot-11 and wears “standard, off-the-rack Lucchese boots,” has tried to dodge the allegations with some fancy footwork. “This is no time for foot fetishes,” he said in an interview with Newsmax on Thursday. “We’ve got serious problems as a country.”
The allegations have swirled for months. There have been amateur TikTok investigations. Whoopi Goldberg called him "Yosemite Santis" on ABC's "The View," and the show's co-hosts went on to discuss his footwear at length. Politico asked professional shoemakers to analyze photos of his shoes. Stephen Colbert made fun of him on CBS' "The Late Show."
As governor, DeSantis rose to national prominence over his hard-right stances on culture war issues, and he was cast as a potentially formidable primary rival to Donald Trump. But his campaign, which banked heavily on a standout performance in Iowa, appears to be losing what traction it had.
Recent polls show DeSantis still lagging far behind the former president, as well as trailing other Republican rivals in hypothetical matchups with President Joe Biden.
His run for president has also arguably hurt his public persona as an "anti-woke" conservative. He also appears to be losing favor in his home state; a recent Morning Consult poll found that 45% of Florida voters disapprove of his job performance, making him the second-most unpopular governor in the country after Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds.
DeSantis' awkward interactions with voters and his eerie demeanor on the debate stage have become reliable meme fodder, and the rumors about his height-boosting insoles have further exposed him as an object of ridicule. His campaign’s defensive online retorts have not served him well, either; if anything, they've opened him up to even more mockery.
There may be a host of reasons why DeSantis is underperforming in polls, none of them related to whether he can reach the top shelf without a ladder. But lesser things have sunk a man’s presidential dreams — just ask Howard Dean.
CORRECTION (Nov. 3, 2023, 4:45 p.m. ET): A previous version of this article misstated Gov. Ron DeSantis’ disapproval numbers. A recent poll put it at 45%, not 51%.