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By Steve Cortes
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Governor Ron DeSantis represents the best possible option to win the presidency in 2024 and to govern as a highly capable, patriotic populist leader.
I have worked as a dedicated spokesman and advocate for Donald Trump for much of the last seven years, so I do not arrive at that conclusion flippantly. But our America First movement has always been bigger and more important than any one individual, and heading into this crucial election, our activism and our votes must be guided by a clear-eyed assessment of recent failures and potential future successes.
Here are the three most compelling reasons to support Governor DeSantis:
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1. We've seen this Biden-Trump movie already—and no one likes it.
Is a rematch of 2020 really the best America can do in a moment like this one?
The country is miserable. That's not some biased or uninformed right-wing opinion, but the harsh reality revealed by data and evidence. Nearly three out of four Americans believe the country is on the wrong track, per the latest Morning Consult poll. Partisanship aside, only one in five independents believe the country is headed in the right direction.
Similarly, a recent Fox News poll revealed that 70 percent of Americans believe the economy is getting worse for their family. A demoralizing 78 percent of Americans now do not believe their children will live better lives in the future, by far the worst mark in the history of a Wall Street Journal poll that goes back decades.
Given this intense pessimism, this crisis of confidence, will a rematch of two incredibly unpopular politicians really inspire a national renewal?
The latest NBC poll finds that a whopping 70 percent of Americans do not want Biden to run for reelection. AP polling reports the exact same proportion—70 percent—do not want Donald Trump to run again, including a massive 44 percent of Republican voters.
Despite these clear supermajority voter preferences, the Biden-Trump establishment insists on thrusting this dismal decision upon the people. In fact, both camps insist that a party-directed coronation should unfold, rather than competitive primaries, with Biden and Trump both vowing to avoid meaningful debates with rivals. The two figures actually agree on many key macro-level issues, such as runaway spending and deficits, COVID tactics and Anthony Fauci, and the ridiculous idea that California and Gavin Newsom somehow compare favorably to Florida and Ron DeSantis.
So, given the pervasive pessimism of the country broadly and widespread dissatisfaction with the idea of a Biden-versus-Trump rematch, doesn't it make eminent sense to consider the most compelling candidate who can break that logjam: Ron DeSantis? We are better than a rematch, America.
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2. There is no substitute for victory.
After extremely disappointing losses in 2018, 2020, and 2022, the Republican Party and the broader patriotic populist movement must find a way to halt the trend of losing and pivot to winning candidates and approaches for 2024 and beyond.
America is a philosophically center-right country, but in recent years it has been governed like some national version of Berkeley, California, because of these preventable election losses. The days of Republican voters screaming from their couches in anger must end. Without victory, our conservative agendas—however correct or well-formed—mean little.
So, how to win?
We can start by looking to the lone statewide bright spot of November 2022: Florida. Not only did Ron DeSantis win a smashing runaway victory in the race for governor by nearly 20 points, but he also lifted Republicans in the entire slate, ushering in a full GOP sweep of statewide offices for the first time since the Reconstruction era.
In addition, DeSantis proved the appeal of competent governance combined with the fighting spirit of patriotic populism. The governor's landslide win included tectonic shifts of constituencies that Republicans previously struggled to convince. For example, after losing urban, diverse Miami-Dade County in 2018 by 21 percent, in 2022 DeSantis prevailed in the Miami area by 10 percent, an amazing swing of 31 percentage points in just one term in office.
That kind of win provides the exact model the GOP needs for 2024 on the national level. DeSantis' soaring 2022 success was fueled by persuading women, Hispanics, suburban voters, and independents.
Speaking of independents, consider that half of all Americans now identify as independents. This "party" is now as big as the Democrats and Republicans combined. Only DeSantis has shown a record of winning over independents, and the latest Quinnipiac poll shows the governor beating Biden among independents by a gigantic 19 percent margin, more than twice the margin projected for Trump over Biden among independents.
Similarly, a Wall Street Journal poll recently found that, among the supermajority of voters who disapprove of both Trump and Biden, the current president "tops Mr. Trump by a big margin, 54% to 15%." America cannot take that risk of a 39-point shellacking among the dissatisfied legions.
3. Discipline and policy results over chaos.
Winning is the foundational imperative, of course. But just as crucial is the ability to translate electoral victory into effective policy and governance. Here, the record of Governor DeSantis truly shines and elevates him as a proven executive with laser-like focus on goals, process, and personnel. Governor DeSantis proves that a steady, unified, drama-free team achieves far better results than loud social media grandstanding.
Consequently, during DeSantis' tenure in Florida, the state has transformed into a beacon of economic opportunity, cultural sanity, and science-based policy agendas. During the COVID pandemic, Florida confronted the illogical abuses of school shutdowns and ridiculous federal dictates from Washington. Combined with DeSantis' enterprise-friendly economic approach, masses of Americans rallied to this Florida vision.
In fact, Florida boasts the highest domestic migration numbers in America as moving trucks charge southeast to join in this remarkable renaissance. Visitors flock there, too, with the highest number of tourists in Florida history last year.
Largely because of these successes, many corporate media figures despise DeSantis and press a propaganda narrative that depicts Florida as some unwelcoming backwater, just because the governor takes on big business to protect the innocence of young children against indoctrination on issues like gender and sexuality. Amazingly, Trump joins along the liberal media in this line of attack.
But the proof lies in the reality that people vote—both at the ballot box and with their feet as DeSantis' Florida gains new citizens.
Now it's time to take that same approach for the nation. In Ron DeSantis, Republicans can rally to a fresh, vibrant, and optimistic agenda, one that includes electoral victory followed by disciplined and focused policy achievements.
Steve Cortes was a senior advisor to President Donald Trump's 2016 and 2020 campaigns. He now serves as an advisor and surrogate for the pro-Ron DeSantis PAC, Never Back Down.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
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