Florida Gov. DeSantis files paperwork for his 2024 presidential campaign

Ron DeSantis filed paperwork Wednesday to run for president in 2024, making a long-awaited entrance to a race that will test whether a Republican governor who rewrote Florida’s political rulebook — and often infuriated critics — can overcome the challenges of a race for the nation’s highest office.

The formal entrance to the race officially puts DeSantis, 44, on a collision course with former President Donald Trump, his onetime political benefactor whom he now faces in a Republican presidential primary. The two politicians are the top choices of GOP voters, according to early polls of the contest, although Trump has opened a substantial lead in recent months that has solidified his status as the race’s clear-cut front-runner.

In addition to Trump, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy have also formally declared as presidential candidates, with the winner of the primary likely facing Democratic President Joe Biden in next year’s general election.

DeSantis is expected to talk more about his presidential announcement Wednesday evening during an online Twitter event with billionaire Elon Musk, who owns the social media platform.

To win the primary, DeSantis will almost certainly have to defeat Trump, a feat that eluded both Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and former Gov. Jeb Bush in 2016. If he defeats the former president and wins the general election, he would be the first-ever elected official from the Sunshine State to occupy the White House.

DeSantis’ decision to enter the presidential race has been anticipated both inside Florida and nationally for years, ever since he became a national Republican star for his response to the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. In February, DeSantis published a new book — “The Courage to Be Free: Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Revival” — and he’s spent the last several months promoting it in stops across the country, including the electoral battlegrounds of Georgia, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania.

DeSantis’ entrance to the race marks a new chapter in his stunning political ascent, one that in six years has seen the lifelong Florida resident transform from a little-known congressman to a leading presidential candidate. In between, he twice won the election for Florida governor, in 2018 and 2022.

The governor’s reelection victory, in which he won by nearly 20 points in a year that saw many GOP candidates underperform expectations, is expected to be a major part of his message on the campaign trail. His allies have already spent months arguing that his victory in a state known for tight contests shows that DeSantis is the candidate most likely to beat Biden in 2024.

DeSantis’ pitch to Republicans is also likely to lean heavily on his record as governor, arguing that if president, he would sign into law a conservative agenda similar to the one he backed as Florida’s governor. Even before his campaign announcement, the governor put Florida at the center of his message, touting it as part of a book tour that described the state as a “blueprint” for the nation as a whole.