Ron DeSantis set to launch 2024 presidential bid next week

Florida governor expected to file paperwork declaring candidacy, pitting him against Donald Trump.

Ron DeSantis is set to formally announce he is running for president, sparking an inevitable showdown for the Republican nomination with Donald Trump.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis will officially enter the race for president next week as his campaign donors begin a fundraising blitz, people familiar with the decision said.

Mr DeSantis’s intentions have been clear for months, but the decision to file formal paperwork with the Federal Election Commission declaring his candidacy, corresponding with the donor meeting in Miami on May 25, begins a new phase in his quest for the GOP nomination and puts him in direct competition with former president Donald Trump and a handful of other candidates.

A more formal kickoff event or events would follow, but the details haven’t yet been made public.

Mr DeSantis, 44, is running second in polls to Mr Trump, who has opened up a sizeable lead in recent weeks and has sharpened attacks on the governor. But a number of analysts and people close to Mr Trump expect Mr DeSantis will gain back some ground after becoming an official candidate, garnering more attention from voters and the news media.

Mr DeSantis is coming off a Florida legislative session that ended this month, during which he pushed through a raft of conservative-pleasing legislation, from tougher immigration laws to restrictions on gender and diversity instruction in schools and a law allowing people to carry a concealed weapon without a permit.

Mr DeSantis signed a hotly contested bill dismantling efforts at colleges and universities to promote equality on campus as he burnishes his right-wing credentials ahead of an expected presidential bid.

This week, he and Mr Trump tangled over a six-week abortion ban the governor signed into law, with the former president saying in an interview with the Messenger that “many people within the pro-life movement feel that that was too harsh.” Mr DeSantis has stressed his antiabortion credentials and noted that Mr Trump wouldn’t say what abortion limits he supports.

Mr DeSantis on Saturday made his second trip to Iowa, where evangelical voters make up a large share of caucus goers. He was well received and capitalised on Mr Trump cancelling a planned Des Moines rally because of weather concerns. Mr DeSantis made an unscheduled stop at a barbecue restaurant in the area, generating favourable news coverage. He is scheduled to meet Friday with legislators in New Hampshire, which comes after Iowa in the nomination hunt.

Mr Trump has hammered at Mr DeSantis, calling him disloyal for entering the race — a Trump endorsement lifted the governor in his first run for the office in 2018 — and pointing to votes for proposals to raise the retirement age for Social Security when Mr DeSantis was in Congress. Mr DeSantis has distanced himself from that position.

Mr Trump is set to headline the field alongside Mr DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy and radio host Larry Elder.

Some GOP donors and officials who dislike Mr Trump have been worried so far by some of Mr DeSantis’s strategic choices and comments, particularly when he called the war in Ukraine a “territorial dispute” — a position he quickly moved to clean up. Critics of those comments included former vice-president Mike Pence, who is nearing his own decision to enter the race.

Along with Mr. Trump, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley is already in the GOP nomination contest, as are former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and radio host Larry Elder. South Carolina senator Tim Scott is expected to enter the race on Monday.

Mr DeSantis already has a team working on his behalf, in the form of a super PAC, which quickly raised millions of dollars and could soon get more than $US80m from a state committee Mr DeSantis recently relinquished control of. Legal experts say that move will likely draw complaints at the FEC, though the commission has deadlocked over the same issue in the past.

Mr DeSantis on Thursday afternoon will join a conference call of supporters and donors arranged by the Never Back Down super PAC. An invite reads, “All solicitations of funds in connection with this event are by Never Back Down, Inc. and not by Governor Ron DeSantis.”

The Wall Street Journal