That makes sense, but how did he manage to campaign successfully before?
Maybe I just missed it all.
I am guessing that up till now, Ron DeSantis has experienced most of his political success when he was more or less spontaneous, being himself, and had tighter control over who he was going to speak to when, where and about what.
What we are mostly seeing now, is Ron’s attempt to fit a pre-cast mold that “all presidential candidates” are expected to fit into, more or less. I think republicans would be more likely to stick to the ‘by the book’ template except for a few exceptions who refuse to do that. Donald Trump broke the mold (many times!) for what is considered a ‘proper’ republican candidate. Most candidates are not going to be anywhere near that self assured.
DeSantis won his US House seat in the Jacksonville area in considerable part because he was a former Navy officer running in a city with a large Navy base. In addition, DeSantis's wife Casey had been a popular local TV reporter and news anchor and was an energetic and effective campaigners with him.
DeSantis won the GOP nomination for Governor of Florida in 2018 because he was endorsed by Trump, but barely won though against a relatively weak Democratic opponent. With Florida's strong GOP organization and the advantage of incumbency, DeSantis easily won reelection in 2022.
As in Congress, as Governor, DeSantis developed a reputation for having an awkward manner and being hard to get to through staff. DeSantis also tends to churn though advisers, leaving some of them feeling ill-used and hostile. One of Trump's key current advisers, Susanne Wiles, was previously one of DeSantis's key advisers until she had a falling out with him.
Well, Trump did kind of pull him over the finish line.