The Humiliating Implosion of Meatball Ron
January 22nd, 2024
Is it too clichéd to say “stick a fork in him, he’s done?”
From his May 24, 2023, launch to his meek bow out on Saturday, DeSantis managed to crash and burn so spectacularly that Scott Walker winced. In his eight month long campaign, DeSantis managed to waste tens of millions of dollars for a mere second place in Iowa.
DeSantis was an exceptionally distant third in New Hampshire polling as well as South Carolina. If DeSantis barely snuck into second in Iowa and couldn’t crack double-digit polling in either New Hampshire or South Carolina, there was no way he could win in even his most fevered of dreams. The more people got to know Ron DeSantis, the less they liked him.
For the guy whose SuperPAC is named “Never Back Down,” he certainly backed down hard.
DeSantis’s gubernatorial campaign and presidential campaign focused on attacking “woke” and rightwing culture war talking points, to the degree where his longtime supporter and fundraising backer Ken Griffin opted to no longer support him, citing the attention DeSantis paid to anti-LGBTQ issues, including targeting trans people.
DeSantis’s big bet on Iowa simply didn’t pay off. Despite having between 300-400 field organizers knocking on doors to persuade voters to caucus for DeSantis, the general sentiment was simply that Trump was the only choice. If I was a Republican voter, I might feel the same way-if I could have a New York Strip steak for the same price as a veggie burger, why the heck would I even contemplate a veggie burger?
No one can overstate how major the DeSantis flame out was. If he had focused on things that people actually cared about, like economic issues or immigration, maybe he’d be a serious contender. But I doubt it. As I wrote in my paid subscriber exclusive piece last week, the GOP nomination is over already, pending more black swan events than anyone could ever dream of.
The beauty in this, I think, is that DeSantis has completely destroyed his political future. He doesn’t have a lot of goodwill in Tallahassee and I’m sure there are plenty of legislators out for blood after getting rolled on many, many issues. Some schools are even now banning the dictionary as part of his “war on woke.” DeSantis was truly the Florida Man candidate.
And now, he is gone.