PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. – Gov. Ron DeSantis keeps making moves that have many expecting him to announce his campaign for the White House at any moment.
A lot of people think the end of the Florida legislative session Friday made Monday the official start to DeSantis ‘24 watch.
When he’ll announce is his call. He already has a campaign staff in place, more than a hundred million in cash to spend, and daily attention.
Now that the legislative session is over, the question of “will he or won’t he?” become more front and center, if that’s even possible. DeSantis won’t say — and doesn’t have to — until the first primary filing deadlines this fall.
He has been promoting successes - the Republican supermajority in Tallahassee delivered most of his wish list bills, one included blocking his public travel schedule and visitors to the Governor’s mansion from public records.
Here are all DeSantis’s moves of a pre-presidential contender:
Global travel, his family in tow, national appearances in primary states and this weekend in Wisconsin.
And he’s sticking to stump speech scripts which, lately, have included taking on the Biden administration.
And DeSantis watchers know he has not engaged with or even mentioned former President Donald Trump, whose support put DeSantis on the map in 2018 and who now drags DeSantis as his main competition.
Video of 2018 debate prep leaked and obtained by ABC News showed that even then DeSantis was trying to figure out Trump.
“I have to figure out how to do this without pissing off all his voters,” he said.
There have been reports and predictions of the governor’s announcement date, all based on anonymous sources.
The governor — at every opportunity — discredits any source that is anonymous.