Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said that he was ending his failing presidential campaign and endorsing former President Donald Trump just days before Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary.
“Ron DeSantis just endorsed the man who mocked, attacked, and belittled him for months on end,” said MSNBC executive producer Kyle Griffin.
DeSantis announced the news in a video posted on social media nearly a week after he finished 30 percentage points behind Trump in the Iowa caucuses.
His exit leaves the primary battle as essentially a one-on-one contest between Trump and Trump’s former U.N. Ambassador Nimrata Haley, who continues to trail in polling and placed a distant third in the Iowa caucuses where Trump finished with just 51 percent.
According to polls, Haley has the best chance of beating the indicted plutocrat in New Hampshire on Tuesday, but DeSantis endorsed Trump, whom he had severely criticized on the campaign trail.
At one point, DeSantis declared that”Donald Trump will lose to President Biden if he is the nominee.” The governor responded to the former president’s criticism about how Florida handled Covid by pointing out that voters rewarded him, and not Trump, with a second term in office.
DeSantis added to the blame that the former president was responsible for his defeat in 2020 by suggesting that Trump lacked the energy to lead the country once again.
“We don’t need any more presidents that have lost the zip on their fastball,” said DeSantis, arguing that the GOP nomination shouldn’t be a coronation, especially for “anybody that couldn’t even stop Joe Biden.”
DeSantis also took a shot without provocation at Trump’s failed promise to build a wall at the southern border and make Mexico pay for it.
“Let’s just be honest, he energized Democrats,” said DeSantis. “You could have John Kennedy walk through the door right now and he wouldn’t energize Democrats as much as Donald Trump does.”
Never Back Down, the super PAC supporting DeSantis’ presidential campaign, canceled $2.5 million worth of television ads in Iowa and New Hampshire about a month before the Florida governor backed down.
“It’s so tempting to pile on the Ron DeSantis jokes but I keep thinking about the Black voters he had arrested, the kids who had to leave New College, the migrants he tricked onto that plane – all for the sake of the worst campaign in American history,” said Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch. “It’s actually not that funny.”
“Ron DeSantis, a man who built his entire campaign on attacking and demonizing already marginalized communities, has finally suspended his failing Presidential campaign,” said Democratic Florida Representative Anna V. Eskamani, in response to the announcement. “As Floridians, we will be stuck with him until 2026, so continue to hold him accountable and demand better for Florida.”
Others responding to the news highlighted the extreme right-wing record on reproductive justice and LGBTQ+ rights DeSantis racked up as governor in Florida, where he signed laws nearly banning abortion and prohibiting educators from discussing sexual orientation or gender identity with their K-12 students.
“Ron DeSantis should be forced to carry his Presidential campaign to term,” said Melanie D’Arrigo, the executive director of the Campaign for New York Health.
With only days until New Hampshire’s primary, Haley is questioning Trump’s mental competence after he appeared to confuse her for Nancy Pelosi in comments he made recently.
“If there was anything I could do to produce a favorable outcome—more campaign stops, more interviews—I would do it,” said DeSantis, explaining his surrender. “But I can’t ask our supporters to volunteer their time and donate their resources if we don’t have a clear path to victory. Accordingly, I am today suspending my campaign.”