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It’s not exactly a secret that Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign is not ending 2023 on a positive note. The Florida Republican hoped to be in contention for his party’s nomination by this point, but instead, DeSantis has faltered as the race unfolded.
As the year got underway, polling averages from FiveThirtyEight found DeSantis in a strong second-place position, trailing Donald Trump by roughly 11 points. Now, the gap between the two is nearly 50 points.
The race certainly isn’t yet over, but as The New York Times reported, the governor shared a few thoughts late last week as to what went wrong.
Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida said that the indictments of former President Donald J. Trump had “distorted” the Republican presidential primary, tacitly admitting that the former president’s legal problems have helped him. “If I could have one thing change, I wish Trump hadn’t been indicted on any of this stuff,” Mr. DeSantis told David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network in an interview that aired on Thursday.
The governor added that the indictments had “just crowded out, I think, so much other stuff and it’s sucked out all the oxygen.”
In context, the CBN anchor asked, “Is there anything you, if not regret, you look at this campaign and go, ‘I wish I would’ve done that.’ How do you feel about that?”
The GOP candidate wasted little time in turning his attention to the former president’s indictments.
On the surface, and as a matter of political analysis, DeSantis’ point is hardly unreasonable. Trump’s multiple criminal indictments represented a political earthquake of sorts, especially in Republican politics. The charges turned the former president into something of a far-right martyr; they gave Trump a fundraising boost; they reinforced ridiculous conspiracy theories the party’s base wanted to believe anyway; and Trump’s rivals felt compelled to go along with the narratives established by their party’s frontrunner.
In other words, when DeSantis said the indictments “sucked out all the oxygen,” and made it difficult for Trump’s intra-party competitors to gain traction and make their cases, he raised a credible point.
But just below the surface, it’s worth appreciating the broader point that the governor didn’t acknowledge. In 2023, the party that enjoys talking about “law and order” saw its presidential front-runner brought up on credible criminal charges, bolstered by extensive evidence, and filed by prosecutors across multiple jurisdictions. It raised the prospect of the Republican Party nominating a convicted felon for the nation’s highest office.
DeSantis was asked about his disappointments, and Trump’s indictments were the first thing that came to his mind. But consider what this tells us, not about the governor’s troubled candidacy, but about the state of contemporary Republican politics.
In a normal and healthy political party, when candidates for powerful public offices find themselves credibly accused of multiple felonies, that tends to be problematic for their campaigns. But in 2023, DeSantis and his rivals for the GOP nomination found it impossible to capitalize on Trump’s legal plight — they hardly even tried — because the more the former president looked like a criminal, the more the party’s voters rallied behind him.
Ordinarily, a second-place contender would be thrilled to see the candidate they’re trailing get indicted before voters weighed in. The fact that Republican politics unfolded in a more ridiculous way this year says a great deal about the state of the GOP, and none of it’s good.