Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is devoting his summer to playing catch-up on the campaign trail. After he spent most of last year as the presumed toughest challenge to former President Donald Trump’s reclaiming the GOP nomination, his poll numbers have slowly eroded. You’d think, then, that given the chance to explain why he’d be a better choice than Trump, he’d seize on the moment.
That wasn’t the case Tuesday as DeSantis campaigned in New Hampshire, one of four early primary states offering chances to put dents in Trump’s armor. It’s obvious that Florida’s governor would much rather talk about his track record than his top rival, despite having been given several opportunities to address the latter. That very much tracks, though, for DeSantis, a politician whose whole shtick as governor has been to punch down at minorities and others he sees as easy targets.
The irony is that DeSantis’ entire administration has been geared toward making him look like a strong leader.
At his New Hampshire town hall, DeSantis took unscripted questions from the audience, something he’d avoided doing during his last swing through the state. He may have regretted that choice, though: A high school student stumped him by asking whether Trump had “violated the peaceful transfer of power” after the 2020 election and leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. DeSantis said he “didn’t enjoy seeing what happened” that day but quickly pivoted to an attack on President Joe Biden. If the election is “about relitigating things that happened two, three years ago,” DeSantis insisted, “we’re going to lose.”
That’s a hell of a missed chance to hammer home how Trump’s recklessness isn’t what the country needs moving forward. It might have gotten some side-eyes from some in the crowd, but it would have at least reminded them why they were there and not at the rally Trump was holding 30 miles away. While DeSantis has at least started to (very, very) mildly criticize Trump, he has held back from the sort of all-out denunciations that we’ve heard from former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson.
The irony is that DeSantis’ entire administration has been geared toward making him look like a strong leader, one who’ll fight what the terminally online now call the “Woke Mind Virus.” He has tried to pitch his agenda in Florida as a “blueprint” for the country writ large. In practice, that has involved suppression of the very freedoms DeSantis claims to champion even as actual problems that Floridians face run amok.
These are the actions of someone who is used to bullying others and calling it a show of strength.
His crusade against LGBTQ rights has been carried out in the name of Florida’s families, ignoring that queer parents may want their kids to be able to talk about what’s going on at home during the school day. He has threatened public universities that dare teach about uncomfortable topics like the history of white supremacy in America and how its effects are baked into the country’s systems. He has backed attacks on public libraries and drag queens to supposedly protect children while supporting looser gun laws that actually risk children’s lives. He has signed one of the strictest abortion bans in the country, endangering the women of his state, who no longer have control of the course their lives take. He has spent millions to fly migrants around the country as a cruel stunt rather than invest in those migrants’ actually getting a shot at the American dream. And he has used the state’s budget to pursue petty vengeances, curry favor with allies and punish those who have supported Trump.
As for DeSantis’ fight with Disney: Normally a willingness to take on one of the biggest corporations in the world could be seen as a sign of bravery. But it has been less of a David-and-Goliath experience for DeSantis than he probably hoped. Not only was it done as part of his war on LGBTQ rights — trying to punish the company for not ignoring his discrimination — but by targeting Disney, DeSantis actually picked a foe that could match the state’s resources. It has resulted in a lawsuit against him, a massive waste of state resources and over a billion dollars in lost investment in Florida.
These are the actions of someone who is used to bullying others and calling it a show of strength. If DeSantis is going to have any chance of not flaming out during this presidential run, he’s going to have to learn how to punch up. Not just at Trump but at actual nodes of concentrated power in this country, which, historically speaking, haven’t included the Black and LGBTQ communities. Doing so would burnish the sort of populist image he’s trying to cultivate while also helping expand the reach of a campaign that has been built on straight, white grievances. But that would require mustering the sort of courage DeSantis has been so busy pantomiming as governor.
