Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida, has submitted the necessary paperwork to compete for president in 2024, after months of rumors and speculation. By doing so, he has opened himself up to competition with Donald Trump, the current Republican frontrunner.
The former president responded to the news on Wednesday evening by ridiculing DeSantis on Truth Social with a series of posts, photographs of current polling data, and even comments from other social media users.
“I’d like to personally congratulate ‘Rob’ DeSanctimonious on finally announcing that he will be entering the race for President of the United States. Hopefully, he will get the full experience of being attacked by the Marxists, Communists, and Radical Left Lunatics of our Country, without which he will never know the kind of job he is doing. These Lowlifes & Misfits are far worse than the leaders of hostile foreign countries. They must be soundly defeated in order to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Trump posted.
Take a look at it:
“Ron DeSantis’ decision to announce his 2024 White House bid in a conversation with Elon Musk on Twitter on Wednesday will make a typically blunt statement about his campaign, the unruly populism of the modern Republican Party, and an accelerating conservative media revolution,” Stephen Collinson of CNN wrote a commentary on Tuesday before DeSantis’ campaign launch.
Fox News reports that DeSantis met with his top financial supporters in Miami this week and made his announcement at the same time.
In the meantime, the New York Times reported earlier on Wednesday that a well-known political organization is preparing an extensive voter-outreach campaign in support of DeSantis’ presidential campaign.
The ambitious campaign intends to contact every potential DeSantis supporter at least four times in New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina, beginning with a fifth contact in the crucial Iowa caucuses. To accomplish this, the organization is preparing a $100 million investment in its outreach efforts.
“As part of a comprehensive on-the-ground organizing operation, the campaign plans to hire over 2,600 field organizers by Labor Day. This substantial number of personnel is quite extraordinary, even for campaigns with substantial funding, highlighting the significant scale and scope of their organizational efforts,” the Times added.
The source added the following:
Top officials with the pro-DeSantis group, a super PAC called Never Back Down, provided their most detailed account yet of their battle plan to aid Mr. DeSantis, whom they believe they can sell as the only candidate to take on — and win — the cultural fights that are definitional for the Republican Party in 2024.
The group said it expected to have an overall budget of at least $200 million, including more than $80 million to be transferred from an old DeSantis state political account, for the daunting task of vaulting the Florida governor past former President Donald J. Trump, who has established himself as the dominant early front-runner.
In addition to securing endorsements in early primary states, distributing mailers, planning events on college campuses, airing television advertisements, collecting small campaign donations in an escrow account, and covertly mobilizing crowds for the governor’s events, the group has taken on a variety of typical campaign duties.
According to the Times, they are actively recruiting employees in 18 states and have plans to establish a variety of pro-DeSantis alliances, including those concerned with veterans, abortion, gun rights, and agricultural issues.
“No one has ever contemplated the scale of this organization or operation, let alone done it,” Chris Jankowski, the group’s chief executive, told the outlet. “This has just never even been dreamed up.”
The corporation has constructed a training facility outside of Des Moines, Iowa, ingeniously named “Fort Benning” after the former Army training facility.
189 individuals have already completed an intensive eight-day training session at the facility, representing the initial surge of a larger organizing force. Wednesday marked the beginning of door-to-door campaigning in New Hampshire, according to the Times.
As “DeSantis prepared for his first campaign events as a declared candidate, his allies for the first time detailed the show of force they are mustering to advance their strategy for prying away supporters of Mr. Trump,” said the outlet.