Is Ron DeSantis Already Running for President? – Top 3 Takeaways – March 1st, 2023
- Once the dust settles. The book is on the shelves, his tour is well underway and The Courage to Be Free: Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Revival is already an Amazon #1 Best Seller. And while all on the right this side of Donald Trump are seemingly on board with the blueprint of America’s governor, what everyone isn’t unified on is where his story should go from here...or at least when it should. As DeSantis made the media rounds with the debut of his new book on Tuesday, the most predictable question of all was consistently met with the most predictable response of all. DeSantis didn’t commit to running for president but at the same time didn’t shy away from it either. I’d recently mentioned his answer to the question which has naturally only become more frequent, has evolved. From iterations of being focused on Florida, to what he said on Fox and Friends and with Clay and Buck yesterday... We’re going to do some stuff on the book, tell the story of Florida, and then deliver a lot of victories. And then once the dust settles from that, you know, we can see where things lay. Now, the state legislative session starts on March 7th. Presumably the doing some stuff on the book and telling the story of Florida happens between now and then. At that point it’ll be time to focus on delivering a lot of victories. The state session ends on May 5th, it’s at that time the dust will perhaps begin to settle. Now, while many have thought an announcement might be forth coming with the release of his book, I’ve consistently suggested an announcement, yay or nay, would come after May 5th.
- That much has now been made clear by the governor (at least through my interpretation of his dust settling message). But so too is the seriousness with which he’s at least considering a run. If he weren’t at least seriously considering a presidential bid, he wouldn’t have evolved his message about the question from anything other than remaining focused on Florida. And it would be easy for him to say he’s not planning on a run. And of course, there’s also DeSantis’ history. Here’s a fun fact. More people had purchased DeSantis’ new memoir in the first minute of it being released than purchased his first book during its original release. Essentially an unknown in 2011 when he released Dreams from Our Founding Fathers: First Principles in the Age of Obama, recorded book sales totaled 125 copies. Total. It reminds me of my advice for people who’ve asked me about whether they should write a book. I’ve always said that if you write it, and you’re the only one who reads it, and you’re still happy, you should do it. If not, don’t. That was almost literally true in the case of Ron’s first book. The irony is that due to that book bombing originally, with so few copies making it to circulation, it’s worth huge money today with original copies which having sold for thousands of dollars. But aside from the fun fact it’s also instructive. His original book was a setup. It was released just in advance of his first bid for Congress in 2012. So, he has a history of having written a book as a setup for running for federal office before. It’s likely that’s the case once more. Only this time with a bestseller on his hands and one you won’t have a hard time getting your hands on. The original print run by HarperCollins is 250,000 copies, which they said based on preorder demand, was one of the largest printings they’ve ever done. There’s clearly a lot of demand for America’s Governor but how much demand is there for him to take that next step? On that note...
- Do you want DeSantis to run for president? It’s fascinating watching and listening to what’s happening here. I’ve been a political wonk my whole life. I’m well-versed in Republican primary politics having even written a paper in college in the spring of ‘99 about why if George W. Bush were to run for president, he’d not just win the primary but would become president. But what I’ve never seen, not even in the heat of primary debates with votes ready to be cast, is the amount of passion and polarization among Republicans as what I’m seeing and hearing with a potential DeSantis bid. It’s the Trump factor to be sure, and when I posed the question yesterday on Twitter it was more of the same. On the question as to if you want Governor Ron DeSantis to run for President: 52.4% of the participants said no, compared to 47.6% who said yes. The evenly divided but prevailing thought was summarized well by this tweet: I’d like him to wait 4 years! If we get Trump again for 4 years than Ron! That would give the world 12 years commonsense! World would be in much better shape! But while there remain very strong feelings, including a strong divide on the right about whether Ron should be running, there’s an increasing air of inevitability about it happening.