Today is the Day for DeSantis – Top 3 Takeaways – May 24th, 2023
- Today is the day. Ron DeSantis is Florida’s governor today. He’ll be Florida’s governor tomorrow. But what he’ll be on January 20th of 2025 may very well begin to be decided today. As I’ve discussed over the past week Ron DeSantis is running for president and he’ll have to make it official no later than next Monday, Memorial Day. That’s because he’s already put official pieces in motion starting with a campaign headquarters in downtown Tallahassee, strategically located near the Governor’s mansion so America’s governor can multi-task while he attempts to become America’s president. And the reason why today was specifically to be the day DeSantis was expected to announce is due to another development which requires a legal process to playout. Governor DeSantis’ top donors and many trusted supporters have been summoned to the Four Seasons Miami today and tomorrow for the purpose of kicking off a campaign fundraising event. And that can only happen, the fundraising, if he’s officially filed the federal paperwork required to run for president. So, either DeSantis was playing a practical joke on some of his closest peeps in preparing them to smile and dial and instead they’ll have a couple of days together for fun in the sun...or this is about to become official. And there was one other tell yesterday on Twitter. The DeSantis’ both Ron and Casey, have taken the FL out of their personal Twitter handles. It’s now just @RonDeSantis and @CaseyDeSantis. That’s a high level of late attention to detail in what’s been a multi-month orchestrated entrance into the presidential fray. And speaking of Twitter...
- Tonight’s the night. Well, technically late afternoon but that doesn’t have the same ring to it. Musk and DeSantis one-on-one at 6pm on Twitter. Presidential announcements don’t get any bigger than that right? The only thing that’s missing that would make this must-see Twitter TV for the entire country is if Trump were there too with Musk moderating an immediate debate between the two. It’s a master stroke by DeSantis for multiple reasons. First, for winning over Musk. There’s no bigger endorsement one can win than that one. And while Musk has said his participation isn’t an implied endorsement of DeSantis, what he’s previously said (that he would support DeSantis if he ran) is strongly suggested. Second, DeSantis wants to show he’s a new generation candidate and his way to do that is on a social media platform with the world’s most interesting person who happens to own the platform. Third, because of the irony and the messaging. Here DeSantis is looking to take down Trump and he starts his campaign by dominating the platform that Trump himself once ruled. Truth Social will look that much smaller when DeSantis is being viewed by tens of millions while Trump is Truthing about DeSanctimonious to hundreds of thousands (the entire Truth platform has registered a total of 2 million users). The contrast will be clear. But here’s the thing and it’s a big one. Behind the scenes...
- All was not as it appeared. DeSantis got everything he wanted from the state legislature this legislative session, right? At least that’s how the story goes. Or had gone up to this point. But what happens in the state legislative session doesn’t stay in the legislative session. What passes in the session must make its way to the Governor’s desk before the agenda is really done. And that’s where not all is/ was as it appeared. Most political observers believe the legislature bends to DeSantis’ every whim and desire. But they don’t. And on what’s expected to be the biggest day of DeSantis’ political life up to this point, they made him sweat and negotiate. The final piece to the DeSantis presidential puzzle was/is to sign Florida’s Elections bill into law. That’s due to Florida’s updated resign-to-run provision being within it. Under Florida’s existing/previous policy Governor DeSantis would have had (kinda still does) to submit his resignation as governor of Florida ten days prior to announcing a presidential run. Florida’s new Election’s bill allows current Florida office holders the opportunity to make a presidential or vice-presidential run while retaining the ability to serve out the term for their current office. So here we are. The stage is set. All systems are go and yet... There’s was still no bill on the governor’s desk. It’s a not-so-insignificant detail that the Florida Legislature didn’t send the Election’s bill over to Governor DeSantis to sign until after the news of tonight’s Twitter campaign kickoff was public. They know darn well what they’re doing, and it wasn’t at all what DeSantis wanted them to do. As Governor DeSantis holds a line-item veto. One he’s used on each of the previous four budgets he’s received as governor, to cut out what he perceives as being unnecessary pet projects for legislators looking to win political points in their districts. While DeSantis usually holds all of the related cards as governor, the Legislature held a Trump card (pun intended) over DeSantis’ head. Without signing the Elections bill into law before filing his federal paperwork, which is the key for DeSantis’ day to go as planned today, he’d have had to break Florida law to do it. Behind the scenes you can bet there had been some serious heat exchanged about the budget, the elections bill, and the timing of Governor DeSantis’ presidential plans. Last night, the Legislature acquiesced and gave him the Election’s bill along with a host of others. Look for fewer line-item vetoes by the Governor in this year’s budget. And here’s what shouldn’t have been discounted during that process. The Trump factor. You might imagine some of his operatives were working to attempt to hold up that bill in Tallahassee. It’s going to work out for Ron today, however all hasn’t been and isn’t quite as it has appeared. But now that’s settled and today it’s game on.