MIAMI, Fla. — Plagued by technical issues, many are describing Gov. Ron DeSantis’ virtual campaign announcement via Twitter Spaces as a “non-launch.”
But the Republican presidential hopeful still has opportunities to right the ship.
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Twenty minutes of technical problems delayed the expected announcement of the candidacy of the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, for the Presidency.
“The servers are straining a bit,” Twitter CEO Elon Musk said about five minutes after the first transmission attempt.
After the announcement concluded, the DeSantis campaign tried to steer the narrative around the mistakes.
“It broke the internet because so many people were excited about being in that Twitter space,” DeSantis said in a video posted to Twitter Wednesday night.
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But the characterization of the stumble was almost unanimous among media sources, including conservative media who called it a ‘disaster’
DeSantis’ main primary opponent, former President Donald Trump, simply posted a video of a failed rocket launch with the tagline ‘Ron! 2024′.
“A few hundred thousand people and it’s not working, that’s not really breaking the Internet. This is really like Twitter breaking,” said UCF political science professor Dr. Aubrey Jewett.
Jewett argued that the issues with the launch diverted attention from DeSantis’ own candidacy.
Read: DeSantis’ presidential pitch draws hundreds of thousands of listeners, hits technical snags
He said that even when it launched, it reached fewer eyeballs or ears than a traditional release would.
“And so they cost themselves a lot of potentially free publicity,” Jewett said.
DeSantis is expected to meet with donors and supporters at the Four Seasons Hotel in Miami in the coming days.
The main goal: to get as much cash as possible to help get the campaign off the ground.
Read: Ron DeSantis officially joins the presidential race
In that regard at least, the campaign appears to have a lot to brag about, with more than $1 million raised within an hour of the governor declaring his candidacy.
And Jewett said the governor still has plenty of opportunities to catch up.
“If they raise money, if they hire people on the ground, they knock on doors, they start putting out a lot of campaign ads, they make a lot of speeches in the different states that have early primaries, they’re sure to come back. in the game,” Jewett said.
His first chance to recover will be a scheduled “campaign kickoff” in Des Moines, Iowa, next week.
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