Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis appears to be putting the ultimate pieces in place before he publicizes a bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
The governor’s political operation began moving out of its Tallahassee offices and right into a recent location Monday, a source aware of the situation told CNBC.
The associated fee of the move will likely exceed $5,000, a threshold that can trigger a 15-day countdown for the operation to file a so-called Statement of Candidacy form with the Federal Election Commission. The move, which NBC News reported Friday, is anticipated to essentially kick off DeSantis’ final sprint before he publicly publicizes his presidential bid.
Also on Monday, DeSantis’ press secretary, Bryan Griffin, announced he was leaving the governor’s office to “pursue other avenues of helping to deliver the governor’s success to our country.” Griffin is becoming the press secretary for the DeSantis political operation, in keeping with Fox News, which first reported the move.
“If I will be even a small a part of the revival and restoration of our great nation, then I’m prepared to offer it my all,” Griffin wrote in his resignation letter.
A spokeswoman for the governor’s office said in a press release that Griffin “has been a invaluable member of the communications team and worked tirelessly to serve Floridians, and we all know he’ll proceed to serve the Governor well in his recent role.”
The moves are among the many clearest yet that DeSantis is gearing as much as step into the first arena that former President Donald Trump has to this point dominated. Long seen as Trump’s top Republican rival, DeSantis has seen his standing decline in early national polls of the potential primary field, whilst he tours key states and touts a spate of recent legislative victories.
Trump, meanwhile, appears to have surged in the identical polls despite recently being criminally charged with falsifying business records and being found chargeable for sexual abuse and defamation by a Latest York jury. Trump has pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges and vowed to appeal the jury’s verdict.
The polling gap between the frontrunners has widened whilst super PACs backing DeSantis and Trump have each spent a comparable amount — greater than $10 million — on promoting in the first to this point, in keeping with data from ad-tracking firm AdImpact.
The professional-DeSantis political efforts could soon reap a significant windfall if the governor’s allies are capable of transfer nearly $86 million from the state GOP to a federal super PAC that may use it to spice up his national campaign. Some experts expect the Florida governor’s supporters to make that move around the identical time DeSantis publicizes his White House bid.
DeSantis has met with major donors in recent weeks to make his case as a presidential contender. A few of those potential benefactors have since extolled the governor’s abilities, though Bloomberg reported that one wealthy GOP donor, Steve Schwarzman, is holding off after meeting with him.
Meanwhile, DeSantis has continued to make use of his office to tee up his campaign platform. The governor earlier Monday signed multiple education-focused bills, including one barring funding for diversity, equity and inclusion programs in public colleges. Supporters and critics of those programs have each accused the opposite of stifling academic freedom.
The anti-DEI bill is a component of a wide-reaching, continuously politically divisive agenda that recently passed through Florida’s heavily Republican state Legislature.
“If you desire to do things like gender ideology, go to Berkeley,” DeSantis said on the signing event Monday.
DeSantis and Trump were each set to carry events in Iowa over the weekend, but the previous president backed out, citing concerns about severe weather.
After ducking that head-to-head moment, Trump turned back to repeatedly bashing DeSantis within the media.
“He doesn’t have the products,” Trump said of DeSantis in a multipart Truth Social post Monday that railed against Fox News for allegedly covering the potential GOP challenger too favorably.
“Without my Endorsement, he was a dead man walking. Even with Fox, he’s already pretty near that again!” Trump wrote.
