It was meant to be a historic event: a major presidential candidate announcing his bid for the White House during a live social media Q&A with one of the richest and most powerful men in tech.
In contrast, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ May 24 Twitter Spaces chat with Elon Musk almost fizzled out before it began, with critics pouncing: It was “amateur hour,” to “debacle,” to “fiasco,” to “to melt,” to “total failure“with a”a small, small audience.”
“Wow! The launch of DeSanctus TWITTER is a DISASTER!” former president Donald Trump he wrote on his Truth Social platform, using one of his nicknames for DeSantis. “His whole campaign will be a disaster. I WILL SEE!”
A month later, has it been that bad?
Given how it started, one could argue that the governor’s campaign had nowhere to go but up. And since then, DeSantis hasn’t taken his foot off the presidential pedal, cruising through early primary states and racking up (and spending) millions in donations. So far, it hasn’t translated into much impact in the polls. On the day he announced, DeSantis followed Trump FiveThirtyEight national polling average, from 54.3% to 20.6%. As of Wednesday, it trailed 53.1% to 21.2%.
Here are some of the highlights, trends and key moments from the first month of the Florida governor’s presidential campaign.
He has taken the road
Despite speculation DeSantis may hold a series of early campaign rallies in Florida, including one in his hometown of Dunedin, his first public appearances as a declared candidate came in the key primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire and the Carolinas from the South He has spent at least half his days since May 25 traveling outside Florida, visiting border officials in Arizona, taking in a rodeo in Oklahoma and meeting with donors in Texas.
In North Carolina, he committed change the name from Fayetteville’s Fort Liberty to its former name of Fort Bragg, which was named after a Confederate general. He emphasized his support for a six-week abortion ban in conservative Iowa, however dodged the subject in bluer New Hampshire, where a 24-week limit has bipartisan support. And in “the once great city of San Francisco,” he said in one Twitter video“we saw people defecating in the street, we saw people using heroin, we saw people smoking crack cocaine.
“It’s no wonder why we’ve had so many people move from San Francisco to Florida over the past few years,” he said. “We must stop this madness. We must restore sanity to this country.”
He has been a big spender
In the first 24 hours after the launch, DeSantis raised $8.2 million, according to his campaign. It’s likely he’s raised a lot more since then, though we won’t know for several weeks, since federal receipts for the quarter ending June 30 aren’t due until mid-July.
But DeSantis was a prolific fundraiser long before he announced his candidacy. A political committee backing his latest gubernatorial bid had $86 million in the bank as of April 30; a month later he transferred $82.5 million of that to a committee supporting his presidential bid. That move prompted a complaint from a nonpartisan watchdog group that said it circumvented federal campaign finance rules.
Learn about Florida politics
Subscribe to our free Buzz newsletter
We’ll send you a roundup of local, state and national politics coverage every Thursday.
You are all registered!
Want more of our free weekly newsletters in your inbox? Let’s get started.
Explore all your options
Committees supporting DeSantis, including Never Back Down, which supported him long before his announcement, have passed over $15.3 million on ad buys this year, inclusive at least $4.5 million in June, according to tracking firm AdImpact. Most of June’s spending has gone to South Carolina and Iowa. And while DeSantis hasn’t spent nearly as much in New Hampshire, he is only candidate this month to target Nevada.
Their competition has grown
Before DeSantis threw his hat into the ring against Trump, others had already spoken out, including former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley, former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Vice President Mike Pence have since joined the race. So has Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, giving Florida three notable candidates.
None of the new candidates appear to have drawn the support of DeSantis, who remains well ahead of Pence and Haley in the FiveThirtyEight polling average. Haley and Trump have hammered him in attack ads; the other candidates have largely remained the same. And DeSantis has received support from Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, media personalities Joe Rogan and Ben Shapiro, and tech billionaires Peter Thiel and, yes, Elon Musk.
Still, Trump hasn’t seen a dip in the polls since his indictment this month on federal charges related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort. And DeSantis found himself having to side with Trump in the indictment, blaming the “weaponization of federal law enforcement” on “political bias.”
He has gone on the offensive
Before testifying, DeSantis did not want to speak against Trump. Since then, he has become more comfortable criticizing the former president’s COVID-19 lockdown and vaccine mandates, and questioning why Trump didn’t do more to clean up Washington during his administration. At one point, the DeSantis campaign ran an ad featuring fake footage of Trump hugging former health official Anthony Fauci that was reportedly generated by artificial intelligence.
Of course, DeSantis isn’t throwing out fiery barbs and nicknames like Trump routinely does in stump speeches. But he has referred to Trump as “small” and “youthful”, and has painted the former president as a hypocrite.
“He used to say how great Florida was,” DeSantis Iowa said. “Hell, his whole family moved to Florida under my governorship. Are you kidding me?”
His Twitter stumble has not been repeated
For all the bad press surrounding DeSantis’ Twitter Spaces startup, it didn’t become the subject of any late-night talk show jokes. That’s because a Hollywood writers’ strike has kept Stephen Colbert, John Oliver and other comedians off the air since early May.
That’s not to say the governor has escaped the kind of ridicule most presidential candidates usually face. A DeSantis clip chirping wildly during a may campaign stop in Iowa it went viralasking comparisons to the famous “YEAAAAAHHHH!” of former Vermont Governor Howard Dean. during his 2004 presidential bid.
And Trump, among others, used DeSantis over campaign videos and appearances in which DeSantis, not for the first time, changed the pronunciation of his own name, switching between “Dee-santis” and “Deh-santis.”
A Fox News reporter asked him to put his name on the record once and for all, DeSantis made a pass.
“This is ridiculous,” he said. “This stupid stuff. Listen, the way you pronounce my last name? ‘Winner.'”
• • •
The Rise of DeSantis: How Ron DeSantis Became a Presidential Candidate and What Could Happen Next
Test Your Knowledge: How Well Do You Know Ron DeSantis? A questionnaire.
Catch up on coverage: Read these 11 essential Ron DeSantis stories from his hometown paper
Video: Three moments that made Ron DeSantis a national figure
The First Lady: Casey DeSantis: The ‘X Factor’ in the Florida Governor’s Inner Circle
