With Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ influence growing in the GOP, potential presidential candidates and their allies have ramped up attacks on the conservative candidate, who many speculate will be mounting his own presidential campaign.
Critics of DeSantis now include GOP heavy hitters like New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu and South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, in addition to former President Donald Trump, who began his criticism of DeSantis before the midterms.
Trump’s criticism of DeSantis comes as the former President — who announced his 2024 Presidential bid on November 15, 2022 — believes the Florida Governor will be his biggest competitor in the GOP primaries.
Although DeSantis is yet to announce a presidential bid, the criticism underscores his rise as the candidate to beat in what is shaping to be a bitter primary season for the Republican party.
Testing lines of attack to see what sticks isn’t unusual for Presidential candidates heading into the primaries, but everyone piling on DeSantis shows that he is considered the biggest threat.
Veteran Republican strategist, Keith Naughton, believes the attacks on DeSantis are designed to “slow down DeSantis a little bit,” giving his competition a shot in the 2024 primaries.
Sununu seems to be testing a line of attack regarding DeSantis’s war with private businesses due to his target on “woke” policies.
Sununu explained that he agreed “with a lot of those issues that Ron brings to the table” but didn’t think the Florida Governor should “punish private businesses because they don’t agree with the policy.”
Noem, through a statement from her spokesperson Ian Fury, attacked DeSantis for doing very little to curb abortion in Florida following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade.
