Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) suspended his presidential campaign on Sunday, just days before New Hampshire’s primary election. It was the right call. After Iowa’s caucuses, in which DeSantis trailed behind former President Donald Trump by more than 30 points, it was not a matter of if DeSantis would have to drop out, but when.
Still, DeSantis deserves Republican voters’ thanks for giving them a choice. Though no one anticipated the barrage of legal attacks Democrats launched against Trump and the rally of GOP voters behind the former president that ensued, toppling Trump was always going to be an uphill battle. DeSantis knew that, as did Trump’s other primary opponents, but he believed Republican voters should at least have the chance to express their will clearly. And they did — so DeSantis is out.
But DeSantis’s very presence in the Republican primary, indeed, the presence of multiple other options besides Trump and DeSantis, was important. Just consider how the other side of the aisle is treating its primary, if you can even call it that.
President Joe Biden might have the incumbent advantage, but that doesn’t mean he’s above being challenged, especially when he vowed during the 2020 campaign to be a one-term president and his approval ratings continue to plummet. In fact, Democratic voters have made it clear repeatedly that they want options. In New Hampshire, for example, thousands of Democratic voters have switched their registration to become undeclared or independent voters in recent weeks because they don’t want to vote for Biden. And even if they did, they would only be able to do so by writing in Biden’s name because the president hasn’t even bothered to fight for ballot access in the state. That’s how much he cares about his party’s voters.
Democrats are also trying to deprive all voters of their choice in November’s general election, if indeed the contest is once again Trump vs. Biden. At least two states have removed Trump from their 2024 ballots altogether, taking it upon themselves to decide that he is unqualified for the presidency. And then there’s the litany of criminal and civil charges against the former president, the timing and intent of which is clearly to hobble Trump’s campaign and even throw him behind bars.
So, DeSantis’s failures aside, Republican voters ought to be thankful their party still cares what they think. Because Biden is what happens when party leadership stops.