Free Republic

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis gathered about 100 top supporters and donors over the weekend at South Florida’s Hard Rock Hotel and Casino to say “thank you” — and to foreshadow what might be next. DeSantis supporters see those moves, along with the weekend event at the Hard Rock, as clear signs the Florida governor is once again eyeing a White House bid. The main event Saturday evening featured DeSantis speaking with Reps. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., He needs to repair his image nationally,” said one of the attendees. “I don’t know anyone is going to be like...

Conservative groups backing former president Donald Trump in his re-election bid say they are "deeply disappointed" with his official position on abortion unveiled Monday, but it won't deter their support in November. The former president and presumptive GOP nominee in a video posted on Truth Social Monday morning said he cemented his position on the controversial issue, saying that abortion access should be a states’ issue and didn’t endorse a national, federal limitation – like a 15-week ban. Pro-life interest groups who have endorsed Trump expressed disappointment at his announcement, but it appears unlikely to sway their support in consideration...

Ron DeSantis isn’t committing to running for President again in 2028. At least not publicly. The Governor told Fox News Channel viewers that he didn’t “have any plans for the future” when asked about a future run by Maria Bartiromo on Sunday Morning Futures. The comments are interesting in light of those being his first public remarks since a reported conclave with donors and supporters in South Florida,

PALM BEACH, Fla. (NewsNation) — With dueling events this weekend, some of the nation’s biggest GOP donors will have to choose between former President Donald Trump or former presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Trump is expected to attend a major joint fundraiser between his campaign and the RNC on Saturday. A campaign source confirmed to NewsNation that it will be hosted at a private residence in Palm Beach. Expectations are high for Trump to offset President Joe Biden’s recent $25 million fundraiser, with the Trump campaign anticipating an estimated $43 million fundraising haul Saturday. That’s an effort that could...

Miami Beach, FL (NewsNation) — The relationship between former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis remains fractured following a contentious 2024 presidential battle. At a press conference Wednesday morning, DeSantis sounded unlikely to campaign for Trump. When asked by NewsNation’s Libbey Dean if he would join the presumptive GOP nominee on the trail, DeSantis was hesitant to commit. The governor’s reasoning: Florida isn’t “competitive” enough for him to stump for Trump. “This is not going to be a state that’s competitive in November,” DeSantis said at a news conference. “So, I don’t anticipate there being much campaign here...

"I noticed that he threw -- um -- Vivek under the bus. I've seen a candidate run for an office and basically campaign for another candidate in the same race before, but that's what's happened. And the minute he wasn't useful they dropped the hammer on him. That's just the way they are. We're going to go forward as a party. We can go forward in a way that's focused on peoples' issues and a great agenda for America, or we can go forward with Trump, which will be focused, the 2024 election, on legal issues, criminal trials, convictions, on...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' campaign for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination continues to slide in the latest Rasmussen poll, as he plunged to a tie for third place with former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. The poll released Tuesday showed former President Donald Trump with a commanding lead of 51% of those who were asked which candidate they would vote for if the GOP presidential primary were held today. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, the U.N. ambassador in the Trump administration, was next with 13%, followed by DeSantis and Christie at 9% each, and Vivek Ramaswamy at 1%.

Desantis won't even say his name. Coward! pic.twitter.com/e8cNOC2gxi— NN 1500 🇺🇸 (@SecretaryNikki) December 19, 2023DeSantis is a follower, not a leader. All of his campaign went quiet on this for hours only for him to punt to SCOTUS. He can't even say Trump's name. https://t.co/68D7ewcAK7— Jonathan Defren (@DefrenJonathan) December 19, 2023The Left invokes “democracy” to justify its use of power, even if it means abusing judicial power to remove a candidate from the ballot based on spurious legal grounds. SCOTUS should reverse. https://t.co/D4pCzZ7FhY— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) December 19, 2023You couldnt even draft your own statement, so you copy @chiproytx comments…You...

“What the left and the media and the Democrats are doing — they’re doing all this stuff, to basically solidify support in the primary for him, get him into the general, and the whole general election is going to be all this legal stuff,” DeSantis said Wednesday, speaking at the Westside Conservative Club Breakfast in Iowa. “What they don’t want is to have somebody like me, who will make the election not about all those other issues, but it’ll make the election about the failures of Biden, the failures of the left and how we’re going to be able to...

Former President Donald Trump is facing a backlash after calling one of the most conservative members of Congress a RINO who should be primaried—one week after the filing deadline. Trump blasted Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, on Truth Social after the congressman endorsed Trump’s rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, for president. “Has any smart and energetic Republican in the Great State of Texas decided to run in the Primary against RINO Congressman Chip Roy,” Trump wrote. “For the right person, he is very beatable. If interested, let me know!!!” Trump’s comments appeared to...

Jeff Roe, longtime Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) consultant and chief architect of his flailing political operation, resigned Saturday from the super PAC charged with realizing the governor’s increasingly quixotic presidential aspirations. Roe announced his departure hours after a damning Washington Post report on the collapse of Never Back Down (NBD), the super PAC Roe conceptualized to send DeSantis to the White House and usher in a new era of super PAC-driven presidential campaigns. The Post report comes after five senior officials, pre-dating Roe’s departure, left NBD since late November and three others with Roe’s firm were fired. The Post writes...

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said he expects that if former president Donald Trump, the front-runner for the GOP nomination, were to lose the first Republican voting contests, in Iowa and New Hampshire, he won't accept the results. "He will say it's stolen no matter what. He will try to delegitimize the results. He did that against Ted Cruz in 2016," DeSantis said, referring to Cruz's victory in the Iowa caucuses. "I don't think there's been a single time he's ever been in competition for something, where he didn't get it, where he has accepted [it]," DeSantis added. "I think that...

DEVELOPING🚨: Ron DeSantis has asked Bob VanderPlaats, Steve Deace, and Kim Reynolds to go on the campaign trail with him in New Hampshire after results of a Monmouth University poll came out showing him in fifth place.

If Donald Trump and Nikki Haley are going to continue to spend millions against me on television with false attacks, they should at least have the courage to meet on the debate stage. Now that Nikki Haley has been shamed into coming to the CNN debate, it's time for Donald Trump to follow suit and join us.

Nikki Haley doubles DeSantis' support. Donald Trump leads him by 57 points. Gov. Ron DeSantis arguably had his best performance in a national debate this week, with a widely viewed showdown with California’s Gavin Newsom the week before. But new polling suggests it might not matter. In the latest Emerson College poll, the Florida Governor has fallen to 7%, his worst showing in any national survey in the 2024 cycle. Adding insult to injury, DeSantis is actually at 6.7%, benefiting from rounding to even hit the modest 7% threshold. DeSantis trails Nikki Haley, who has double his support at 14%....

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday took aim at fellow Republican Mitt Romney, painting the outgoing senator as a member of the "surrender caucus of Republicans" who "never fought for us in the beginning." "I don't really know Mitt Romney," DeSantis said in response to a question about a Romney-backed gathering of presidential candidates last month. But a black-and-white photograph from DeSantis' Harvard Law School yearbook unearthed by ABC News indicates that at one point, DeSantis campaigned on Romney's behalf. The image shows the cheerful-looking law student wielding a "Romney for Governor'' sign during the 2002 Massachusetts gubernatorial campaign --...

'I think there's got to be something different for people to see that heart of yours.' In Iowa Saturday, Ron DeSantis heard from a supporter who suggested his campaign wasn’t successfully showing his “heart,” laying the blame on “consultants” as he questioned whether the Florida Governor could win the Presidency. During an event in Muscadine, which was hosted by the Never Back Down super PAC, the 2024 presidential candidate was confronted with criticism of how the DeSantis message is delivered. “I don’t know what your consultants are telling you, and it’s good for me to be here today to see...

Team DeSantis is melting down over @TuckerCarlson going to UFC with @realDonaldTrump 😂😂😂 https://t.co/E1QAN15REb— Alex Bruesewitz 🇺🇸 (@alexbruesewitz) November 12, 2023

Haley — the former South Carolina governor and the only woman in the 2024 race — was asked Wednesday night by “The Daily Show” guest host Charlamagne tha God if she was going to wear heels so she can tower over DeSantis at the third GOP debate next week in Miami. “I don’t know. We’ll have to figure that out,” Haley replied...I’ve never hid that from anybody. I’ve always said, ‘Don’t wear ’em if you can’t run in ’em,’ so we’ll see if he can run in ’em.” Trump’s super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., also trolled DeSantis Wednesday...

[cut] Of late, DeSantis has been struggling to keep his name in the headlines and his once promising candidacy has become as menacing as a three-legged kitten - it's not going to hurt anyone and you kind of feel bad for it. That was until DeSantis started flopping across stages wearing plus-sized clown shoes like a loser in a Sideshow Bob lookalike contest. Now, I can't look away every time he unpresidentially waddles up to an event resembling a toddler playing dress up in daddy's oxfords. [cut] Ol' Tiny D with the sticky pudding fingers has traded his impressive track...