After the Florida governor’s difficult campaign début on Wednesday’s Twitter Spaces, a state Republican who had previously supported Ron DeSantis announced her support for former President Donald Trump.

According to the Tampa Free Press, New Hampshire State Representative Sandra Panek announced on Thursday, “I am hereby transferring my allegiance to President Donald J. Trump after being disappointed by Ron DeSantis’ official statement last night.

“We can’t expect someone to run the country if they can’t properly run their own campaign launch. The stakes are simply too great in 2024 to take a chance on someone as unreliable as DeSantis — we need a proven winner like President Trump to take back the White House and Make America Great Again!” she added.

In the interim, New Hampshire state representative Juliet Harvey-Bolia changed her “dual endorsement” of Trump and DeSantis to a single endorsement of Trump.

“I’m proud to announce my full endorsement for President Trump, and only Trump. He’ll keep us out of war and prosperous as he has in the past. Ron DeSantis will make a great candidate in 2028. I expect Republicans will unite behind President Trump.”

Trump has consistently led all of his opponents in GOP primary polls for months, but DeSantis has consistently placed second.

In addition, according to Politico, the governor’s political advisors “detailed the path forward for the Florida governor in the Republican presidential primary — and brushed aside bad headlines surrounding his rocky campaign launch the night before,” adding:

Appearing before a private gathering of around 150 donors at the Four Seasons Hotel, three top DeSantis lieutenants — Ryan Tyson, Sam Cooper and Jason Johnson — argued that the governor remained poised throughout a malfunction-plagued appearance on Twitter Spaces, where he unveiled his candidacy in a conversation with billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk.

They said DeSantis had a clear path to defeat former President Donald Trump, and added their belief that Florida would emerge as a key state that could help to determine the outcome of the nomination contest, according to two people present for the presentation. CONTINUE READING…