Joe Biden became America’s president in 2021 because the alternative was four more years of Donald Trump. If Ronald Dion DeSantis, who has announced his candidacy on Twitter today, wins the Republican party nomination next year, it will also be because the alternative is you-know-who. Trump fatigue is a real phenomenon: even many Trump supporters think it’s time to move on, which is the key to the 44-year-old DeSantis’s appeal. He is Trump but he gets stuff done. He is Trump but you get two terms.
At the same time, DeSantis’s biggest problem is that he’s up against Donald Trump, one of the most effective political campaigners of the 21st century. DeSantis’s record as Governor of Florida is impressive: he’s fought culture wars and come out on top; during Covid, he rebelled against the biosecurity consensus and won. In the November mid-terms, as various high-profile, Trump-endorsed candidates failed, DeSantis was re-elected in Florida by over 20 percentage points.
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