The ultra-conservative Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida and number two decliner among the Republican candidates for the 2024 presidential elections, has the most to lose in the first debate between the candidates for that party's primaries, convened today at 6 p.m. late (midnight in Spain). The colloquium is organized by the friendly chain Fox and will not have Donald Trump, who plans to counterprogram the call with the broadcast on the internet of an interview with his sympathizer the presenter Tucker Carlson, whom that same chain fired in April.
Regardless of the effect that his double slight on Fox and the Republican Party has on Trump, an effect that may be close to zero given the history, tomorrow's debate is critical for his competitors. Of the dozen of them who have entered the race, 8 will participate in the debate, which will be broadcast from Milwaukee. They are DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, Senator Tim Scott, Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, and North Dakota Governor , Douglas Burgum.
While for the majority the appointment represents the opportunity to make their proposals, and themselves, better known, for DeSantis the debate is a litmus test to either consolidate himself as number two behind Trump, but far ahead of the rest, or continue to lose positions and begin to be seen as one of the former president's rivals.
The Florida governor's campaign has been leaking since the day it began, May 24. That day, the candidate officially presented himself as such in a broadcast on Twitter, hand in hand with his new owner, Elon Musk, which was catastrophic due to serious technical failures in the transmission.
The already extremist DeSantis strove from the beginning to be or appear more ultra than Trump. In July, his campaign team released a video in which the candidate boasted of his homophobia, already well known to the public for his statements and his anti-trans laws.
But the strategy of seeing who is the most attractive did not give him good returns, quite the opposite. Some donors to his campaign began to distance themselves. Hotelier Robert Bigelow, who had already donated $20 million to him, warned that he would turn off the spigot if he didn't temper his speech to appeal to more moderate voters. And it is that the difference that Trump made to DeSantis did not stop growing. From April to today, the distance has doubled, to bordering and even exceeding forty points.
The positions of Trump's rivals, including businessman Vivek Ramaswamy -already close to DeSantis- will be important to the extent that the former president's legal problems could end up sidelining him from the race or taking away hegemony in the party.
The former president will appear tomorrow at the Fulton, Georgia, jail to be arrested and booked after being charged with 13 mafia acts and falsehoods aimed at reversing his 2020 defeat. Trump agreed on Monday to pay the $200,000 bail that the court imposed on him in order to remain free after arrest. The leader will also not be able to continue threatening witnesses and victims of the case. It won't be easy for him: bullying seems to be in his nature.
