Trump and DeSantis to give dueling keynote addresses at conservative conference
Mabinty Quarshie
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A conservative Christian conference scheduled for next month will likely be the first major cattle call of the 2024 GOP presidential nominating race since Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) announced their bids for the White House this week.
The Faith and Freedom Coalition announced on Friday that former President Donald Trump is the latest major Republican candidate to keynote the “Road to Majority” policy conference in the nation’s capital. The group previously announced DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley will all keynote the conference as well.
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Notably, the event will be the first time Trump and DeSantis, the two front-runners of the GOP primary race, will appear at the same event — albeit on separate days. The conference will take place on June 22-24, with the former president scheduled to address the conservative attendees on Saturday, June 24, at the Washington Hilton, while DeSantis is set to address the audience one day before.
Pence is also scheduled to speak on the same day as the governor. Meanwhile, Haley will compete with Trump for attention on Saturday.
Trump and DeSantis traded veiled and outright barbs at one another as DeSantis marched closer to launching a presidential campaign on Wednesday evening. But now that the governor is a candidate, the political elite and media will be watching Trump’s and DeSantis’s keynote speeches to see how the two candidates make their cases to conservative activists, a core group of GOP primary voters who will decide which candidate will become the GOP’s next presidential nominee.
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If history is any indication, Trump will not hesitate to attack DeSantis, whom he has spent weeks denigrating on social media and in campaign emails to reporters. DeSantis, who had subtly attacked Trump for losing to President Joe Biden during the 2020 elections, has seemingly walked away from the cautiousness and is now directly swiping at Trump.
Other invited guests include Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA), who has flirted with a 2024 campaign; Scott, who has not been confirmed as a keynote speaker; and Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, another unconfirmed conference speaker.