Ron DeSantis says he was better off as a gubernatorial candidate without Donald Trump than with him.
On Monday night’s Fox News “Special Report,” the Governor contrasted his narrow victory in 2018 with his blowout win for re-election, noting that in 2022 he performed better despite the former President not performing for him.
“I saw it in Florida in my re-election. You know, I won the first time by less than a percent, second time by 20. Why did people vote against me in ’18 but they voted for me in ’22. The number one reason they gave was because of Trump,” DeSantis said.
The Governor noted that “because in ’18 they said that they were voting against me to vote against Trump … even though they didn’t know much about me. By ’22, that was there.”
DeSantis brought that up to illustrate his belief that Trump can’t win a General Election, while he can, saying “there’s too many voters who just aren’t going to vote for him going forward.”
DeSantis also suggested that swing state polling shows him to be a better bet against the current President than the former President would be.
“So I think in states like Georgia and Arizona and, and look, I don’t put stock in the polls but you guys talk about them, the polls that come out,” DeSantis said. “I beat Biden in Georgia. Trump doesn’t. I beat Biden soundly in Arizona. Trump doesn’t. Those are just the realities.”
For months, meanwhile, Trump has told a familiar story about DeSantis begging for an endorsement with “tears in his eyes.”
“I’m a loyalist,” Trump said in March. “And when a man comes to me (with) tears in his eyes, he’s at almost nothing in the polls, and he’s fighting somebody that’s at 42, and he’s got almost $30 million in the bank. He’s at almost nothing. He’s got no cash. And I said, ‘I can’t give you an endorsement. There’s no way you can win. You’re dead.’”
Despite misgivings, Trump granted the endorsement, as DeSantis fought for him “just a little bit on the impeachment hoax.”
If DeSantis’ comments are any indication, he didn’t need Trump at all … and may have been hurt by him in his first run for Governor.
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