Desantis hints at 2024 bid with Trump jibe
RON DESANTIS said Republicans needed to reject a “culture of losing” in a veiled dig at Donald Trump that hinted of a White House bid, telling voters in Iowa: “I have only begun to fight.”
It was the closest the Florida governor, 44, has come to a formal declara- tion amid speculation from within his orbit that he could declare his presidential bid within a fortnight.
As Mr Desantis criss-crossed Iowa, the first state to vote in the 2024 Republican primary, Mr Trump, 76, was kept away from the Hawkeye State by bad weather.
The former president hoped to steal his nearest rival’s limelight by holding a sprawling rally in Des Moines, just as Mr Desantis was greeting voters 120 miles away in Cedar Rapids. However, Trump supporters who had waited for hours and endured torrential rain were left disappointed when a tornado warning forced the cancellation of the outdoor event on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Mr Desantis toured the state, saying: “We must reject the culture of losing that has infected our party in recent years.” He was alluding to Republican losses in the 2018, 2020 and 2022 elections while under the influence of Mr Trump. He added that the party must stop getting “distracted” by focusing “on the past”.
Later, at a hotel in Cedar Rapids, Mr Desantis boasted that he could win over not just Republicans but independent voters and even some Democrats, silently contrasting himself with Mr Trump’s Marmite appeal.
Insiders signalled the sideswipes were the beginning of an aggressive new approach by Mr Desantis who has, so far, let Mr Trump’s frequent verbal attacks go unchallenged.
The former president remains faraway the frontrunner in what is expected to be a crowded GOP primary field. He is leading Mr Desantis by double digits in a number of polls.
However, the Florida governor shrugged off concerns that there is too much ground to make up, telling Iowans: “I don’t look at polls to tell me what to do. I can tell you this ... I’ve only begun to fight.”
Steve Scheffler, president of the conservative Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition, said he thought Mr Desantis was very “well received” by the crowd.