Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced Sunday that he is withdrawing from the race for the Republican nomination and will support Donald Trump in the November presidential election.
“I am suspending my campaign today,” he said in a video posted on X (formerly Twitter). It is clear to me that the majority of Republican primary voters want to give Donald Trump another chance.”
Ron DeSantis, with tough positions on immigration and abortion, came second in the Iowa caucuses last Monday, far behind Donald Trump, with 21% of the vote against 51% for the former president.
“I cannot ask our volunteers to give their time and money if we do not have a clear path to victory,” he justified in his video.
“I have had disagreements with Donald Trump, like on the coronavirus pandemic,” but “Trump is better than the current incumbent, Joe Biden,” added the 45-year-old.
His announcement comes two days before the primaries in the state of New Hampshire.
For now, former United States ambassador to the UN and former governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley, is the last person to remain in the Republican nomination against Donald Trump.
“Fracture point”
As for DeSantis, one of the main factors which would have worked against him would be the first indictment of Donald Trump, for having bought the silence of a pornographic actress.
This unprecedented legal procedure in the United States against a president was a “point of fracture”, according to Rafael Jacob, associate researcher at the Raoul-Dandurand Chair.
“It created an extraordinary rallying effect” for Trump, underlines the expert.
At the same time, tensions within the DeSantis campaign team were exposed in the American media.
“Did Mr. DeSantis’ campaign make any mistakes? Yes, but even if she had been perfect (…), could she really have caught up with (Trump) and beaten him? I think it would have been difficult,” summarizes Rafael Jacob.
Running mate?
At this stage, it would also be “surprising” if DeSantis was named the American billionaire’s running mate, or his potential vice-president, adds the expert in American politics.
You should know that the American Constitution prohibits presidential and vice-presidential candidates from the same party from coming from the same state, underlines Mr. Jacob.
This is a situation that would apply to DeSantis and Trump, as the former is the governor of Florida and the latter is a resident.
Another argument to consider: the ex-president openly criticized DeSantis for his lack of loyalty by daring to confront him as a candidate for the Republican nomination.
Trump supported him in 2018 to win the governorship.
“He was dead as a dog, he was a dead politician,” he told journalists last year, according to Politico.
