Trump’s main Republican rival officially enters 2024 race – Reuters

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has formalized his bid for President of the United States, setting up a showdown with former backer Donald Trump for the 2024 Republican Party nomination.

The DeSantis campaign submitted a filing to the US Federal Election Commission confirming his candidacy for president on Wednesday afternoon, hours before the governor made a public announcement on Twitter. He has long been considered a leading contender for the Republican nomination, drawing the ire of former President Trump.

Voters’ sentiment seemed to be soft in DeSantis’ favor last November, after winning reelection by the largest margin for a Florida governor in 40 years and helping congressional candidates on the state’s Republican ticket do better than expected. . In fact, a February poll by Yahoo/YouGov indicated that DeSantis had a 45% to 41% lead over Trump. Several high profile candidates endorsed by Trump in the midterms of Congress performed worse than expected and lost their races.

However, Trump has seen a resurgence in support among Republican voters since he was indicted last month in New York on criminal charges of falsifying business records. A CNN poll released Wednesday showed Trump is the first choice of 53% of Republican voters for the party’s 2024 nomination, nearly double the 26% total for DeSantis. Both men are far ahead of the rest of the pack, including former Vice President Mike Pence and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, both of whom had 6% support. South Carolina’s Tim Scott, the only black Republican in the U.S. Senate, entered the race on Friday.

Trump took credit for getting DeSantis elected as governor of Florida in 2018 and dubbed his former ally “Ron Desanctimonious.” In recent weeks, the former president has accused DeSantis of being “unfair” and one “RINO (republican in name only) globalist.”

DeSantis has raised his national profile by sending illegal aliens to Democrat-controlled cities — drawing more attention to the country’s border crisis — and opposing Covid-19 lockdowns and vaccination mandates. He also engaged in culture wars, signing bills banning biological boys from participating in girls’ sports and banning the teaching of critical race theory in Florida schools.

The governor declined to trade insults with Trump, saying: “I don’t spend my time trying to smear other Republicans.” He said his goal would be to defeat the Democratic incumbent, President Joe Biden. “If I had to run, I’m running against Biden,” DeSantis said in a March interview with Piers Morgan.