Though a lot of oxygen has been sucked out of the 2024 GOP presidential campaign room by the Trump indictment/arraignment news, shockingly enough the other GOP presidential candidates out there are still trying to make their respective cases to Republican voters in hopes they can break through at some point despite the current “Trump bump” in polls.
One of them, of course, is Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who in primary polling has thus far been finishing a distant second behind the former president, though national general election polls have shown DeSantis and Trump both being competitive and with the ability to defeat the current Oval Office occupant Joe Biden and, alternatively, Vice President Kamala Harris should Joe Biden have to bow out and Harris win the Democrat nomination.
DeSantis is not going to let up. He campaigned in Nevada last weekend, before heading to California to meet his second-most prominent critic, Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Newsom’s Neck of the Woods was his first stop for fundraising:
Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican candidate for president, went to the backyard of his loudest critic, a Democratic politician, on Monday. He courted donors at a fundraiser near Gov. Gavin Newsom, governor of California, who sent two planeloads full of migrants to the state’s capital just weeks after he had done so.
The fund-raiser at a suburban Sacramento country club, which was hosted by a Republican developer, had been closed to the media, and DeSantis didn’t make any public statements. The location of the event itself highlighted the political squabble that has been escalating between the two governors for over a year.
DeSantis made the trip to California after making comments about Newsom. Newsom had been trying to elevate his national profile by attacking DeSantis and even challenged DeSantis for a debate despite the fact that the California governor was not running himself.
Stop stomping your feet! DeSantis asked during a speech at Fort Pierce, Florida: “Are you going to throw your hat into the ring and take on Joe?” “Or will you sit on the sidelines, chirping?”
DeSantis, who was Monday making his mark in the state Newsom is supposedly “leading”, released an ad that blasted Newsom for the mass exodus occurring due to issues such as the high cost, out-of-control crime, and rampant homeless, while contrasting the Sunshine State. The ad also included video clips from DeSantis’ speech at the Reagan Library, where he compared his leadership style to Newsom’s.
DeSantis stated during his speech in March that “we have had a wonderful experiment, a fantastic test of governance philosophies.” “If you take a look at the last four-year period, we have seen a mass exodus of Americans from states that were governed by politicians who imposed leftist ideologies and delivered poor results.”
Watch:
The debate is already settled.
California’s liberal governance is a disaster. @RonDeSantis’ conservative policies have Florida thriving, and would do so for the nation. pic.twitter.com/c4a8P5g5UQ
— DeSantis War Room 🐊 (@DeSantisWarRoom) June 19, 2023
DeSantis vs. Newsom is the matchup I think America needs to watch in the general elections because DeSantis could easily cut Newsom to size, as he represents everything DeSantis, and conservatives, fight against every day. This would be the most interesting political contrast we’ve seen in a long time.
Newsom sugarcoats his past when he isn’t being truthful. That’s something easy to point out.
In 2024, however, this matchup will not be possible because, barring any unforeseeable events, Newsom will wait until 2028. What will happen to DeSantis after 2024 is still to be determined.
It is worth the wait to see if they meet in 2028. Stay tuned, as they say.
