The Clock Is Ticking on DeSantis’s Presidential Bid

The governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, an oft-touted contender for president, will be facing a tough decision in the coming weeks: To run or not to run?Mr. DeSantis is expected on November 8 to sail to re-election in Florida, despite the best efforts of a former Democratic governor of the Sunshine State, Charles “Charlie” Crist.After the election, Mr. DeSantis — who would be ineligible to serve a third consecutive term as governor — would need to make a decision on whether to make his candidacy official.This would be done either by establishing an exploratory committee to test the waters regarding a campaign for office or by announcing a candidacy.Until one of these occurs, Mr. DeSantis’s campaign machinery would have to grind to a halt, which means he would be limited to raising or spending less than $5,000 and from engaging in typical campaign activities such as discussing their prospects with the press or advertising.Even to “test the waters,” which is a technical term in the world of campaign finance regulation, Mr. DeSantis would need to establish some sort of official committee.So, too, would President Trump, who has also neither officially declared his candidacy nor registered a committee with the Federal Elections Commission — at least as of yet.The gears of Mr. Trump’s political operation, however, appear to be whirring to life in preparation for a possible announcement in the two-week period following Election Day, according to the Associated Press.The 45th president has also begun to exert more of his political muscle, attempting to boost Republican enthusiasm days before the election with a new, closely aligned political action committee, MAGA Inc., which came online in October.According to a political ad spending tracking firm, AdImpact, the group has spent some $16.4 million across some of the most closely watched Senate races, including in Arizona, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Nevada, and Georgia.Mr. Trump is also facing the pressure of a potential indictment from the justice department, which in a leaked May memo signaled that it would take special care in the treatment of “politically sensitive individuals” before an election.This has led many legal analysts to speculate that an indictment of Mr. Trump would come, if at all, after the election but before Mr. Trump declares his candidacy.Mr. Trump’s former White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus, corroborating other reports of the former president’s enthusiasm to run for the office once more, told the Associated Press: “I’m like 95 percent he’s going to run.” “The real question,” he added, “is are other big challengers going to run? If President Trump runs, he will be very difficult for any Republican to defeat.”The clearest potential challenger to Mr. Trump would be Mr. DeSantis, whose simmering feud with the former president has come to a boil over his endorsement of businessman Joe O’Dea in the race for senator of Ohio.Mr. Trump responded by announcing that he would host a get-out-the-vote rally in Florida on November 6, with Mr. DeSantis conspicuously absent from the guest list.Now, Mr. DeSantis is apparently reconsidering his willingness to go toe-to-toe with the former president on the campaign trail, according to reporting by Vanity Fair.The magazine reports that Mr. DeSantis is indicating to donors that he is reconsidering a 2024 run, instead setting his sights on 2028. “He can walk into the presidency in 2028 without … [angering] Trump or Florida,” one insider told Vanity Fair. “What would you rather do? Be the governor of Florida for certain or go run for president?”Others close to the governor insist that he is ready to launch a campaign. While the governor, at 44 years old, might be able to bide his time and run in a later election, he would need to make a decision about 2024 sooner rather than later.

The Clock Is Ticking on DeSantis’s Presidential Bid

The Clock Is Ticking on DeSantis’s Presidential Bid

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