By Marc CaputoNBC
News
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Republican, will not say whether he will run for president, but he is beginning to acknowledge that his path to the White House could hinge on a big re-election victory this year.
For months, those closest to the Florida Capitol and Republicans familiar with the governor's thinking have speculated that
an outright victory in November would bolster his national bona fides as the
GOP 's top presidential contender.
even if his political benefactor, former President Donald Trump, decides to run again.
DeSantis has steadfastly refused to confront Trump in public or suggest he would challenge him in a primary, but in a new interview on the conservative podcast
The Truth with Lisa Boothe
that aired Monday morning, DeSantis made it clear that he is viewing his re-election bid as a springboard to something bigger.
“My goal would be that if we win the election in a big way, people like you who look at these things are going to say, 'The days of Florida being a swing state are over.
Florida is a red state.'
And I think that's because of a lot of what we've done,” DeSantis said when pressed specifically by Boothe, a contributor for the conservative Fox News network, about his White House ambitions.
Ella boothe did not ask if she would want to run in two years if Trump runs or wait six years.
DeSantis did not specify what a "really big" win would look like.
But in contested Florida -- where he won the job by less than half a percentage point in 2018 -- even a few points can feel like an avalanche.
And two sources close to DeSantis say he would like to outperform Trump's unexpected 3.3 percentage point margin from two years ago.
“You are never going to hear the governor challenge the [former] president,” one of the Republicans clarified.
“But there is definitely a marker that Trump has set, and he definitely wants to top it,” he added.
"It is a lack of respect".
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For his part,
Trump has not bad-mouthed DeSantis in public
.
But he has privately noted that his endorsement of DeSantis, once a little-known member of Congress, in 2018 helped him win the GOP gubernatorial primary against Adam Putnam, a better-known and better-funded rival who was agriculture commissioner of the condition.
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Since then,
DeSantis has become a magnet for controversy and national headlines
, starting with his staunch opposition to COVID-19 mandates and restrictions.
He remained relevant throughout the just-ended legislative session, in which he engaged in a political feud with LGBTQ activists and the Walt Disney Company, one of the state's largest employers.
DeSantis, who is likely to continue to make headlines as one of the leading Republicans active in the culture battle, told Boothe that he would be interested in banning transgender children from receiving hormones or surgery as part of "gender-affirming care," which the State Department of Health is examining.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), on February 24, 2022, in Orlando, Florida. John Raoux / AP
Trump advisers don't think DeSantis will challenge Trump in 2024, though they are eyeing DeSantis' sizable war chest as a possible source of money from super PACs. if he wins re-election handily and racks up tens of millions of dollars afterwards.
Those close to Trump have been discussing plans for him to announce his White House plans in early January, making it more difficult for a newly re-elected governor like DeSantis to announce a presidential bid without coming into direct confrontation with Trump.
"Trump made Ron, and if Ron ran against Trump there would be hell to pay," said a Republican who has discussed DeSantis and Trump's presidential plans with the former president.
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DeSantis is relatively popular in Florida, with 56% of voters supporting
him who approve of his job performance and 38% who disapprove, according to a Morning Consult poll released Thursday.
Florida polling also suggests DeSantis has a relatively comfortable lead over his main Democratic rivals for governor, Rep. Charlie Crist and Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried.
Most national polls, however, show Trump with a double-digit lead over DeSantis in a hypothetical 2024 primary.
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The topic of Trump never came up in his interview with Boothe, and DeSantis quickly deflected his questions about his plans to run for the White House.
But he acknowledged that he is now a national political figure who is so popular in the GOP that conservatives are buying “paraphernalia” bearing his name or likeness.
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And when it comes to running for president, he said "people always bring it up to me."
DeSantis boasted that, for the first time, registered Republicans outnumber registered Democrats in the state.
He attributed the dynamic in part to the number of people moving to Florida from other states, including Republicans like Boothe.
“That tells me that people like you, who came for a reason, are the norm,” he said, “and some of the people who would come from these [Democratic] blue state dumpster fires and then continue to vote the same way when they come here they are indefinitely the clear minority, which is a good thing”.
When asked, DeSantis said his wife, former Jacksonville television news anchor Casey DeSantis, is his top political adviser.
"She has a very good nose for BS, and she's like [the] kind of Middle American voter that we need," he said.
“I am not a governor driven by advisers.
I'm not going to call political consultants and say, 'Hey, what do I have to do?
That I have to do?
How do I have to handle this?'
I just manage it, and do what I have to do.
She is a great sounding board of what happens, ”she clarified.
