Reeher Weighs In on DeSantis’s 2024 Drama-Free Candidacy in Washington Examiner Article

December 28, 2023

Washington Examiner

Grant Reeher

Political Science Department

Campbell Public Affairs Institute

Federal

U.S. Elections

United States

Washington Examiner

Grant Reeher

In the months leading up to Gov. Ron DeSantis's (R-FL) announcement he would be running for president, he was portrayed as the candidate most similar to former President Donald Trump but without the drama, chaos, and vitriol.

But nearly seven months after DeSantis became a presidential candidate, his campaign has failed to overtake Trump and hold back other rivals. And Never Back Down, the super PAC that has acted as a surrogate campaign for the Florida governor, is beset with recent staff resignations and firings that are threatening DeSantis's efforts to win the Jan. 15 Iowa caucuses.

"Having the turnover in the organization that he's had is nowhere near the chaos that the disrupter in chief caused both as a candidate and as president," Grant Reeher, professor of political science and director of the Campbell Public Affairs Institute, says of DeSantis's aim to be a drama-free Trump. "So in that sense, then that claim is still reasonably valid. I don't know what it gets him."

Read more in the Washington Examiner article, "DeSantis's drama-free 2024 candidacy threatened by super PAC problems."