DeSantis meets with Iowa influencer ahead of book release
The release of Ron DeSantis’ new book Tuesday is sure to spark a fresh round of speculation about the Florida governor’s political future, furthering the widely held belief that — no matter what the Republican leader says publicly — he’ll soon become a candidate for president.
Many GOP voters across the country, apparently, are eager for him to jump into the race.
DeSantis would start the GOP presidential primary as one of its two leading
candidates, according to a slate of recent polls, many of which show the governor and former President Donald Trump neck-and-neck in a hypothetical matchup while drawing far more support than other potential rivals.
In interviews with leading conservatives and party strategists, many describe him as something akin to a co-front-runner with Trump, despite never having sought national office and likely facing a field of GOP candidates with deep ties to the conservative movement.
“Right now, Trump is the front-runner,” said Bob Vander Plaats, CEO of The Family Leader, an Iowa-based social conservative group. “And if and when DeSantis gets in, he’ll be the front-runner of all those other than Trump.”
Vander Plaats, an influential evangelical leader from the state that hosts the Republican primary’s first nominating contest, met with DeSantis on Monday in Naples for a “short hour,” he said. (The meeting was arranged by a mutual friend whom Vander Plaats declined to name.)
Vander Plaats said the two men spoke generally about the challenges facing the country rather than the specifics of a presidential campaign. But a White House bid, he added, is plainly on everyone’s mind when they think about the governor.