DeSantis launches his extremely elite campaign, very online
Tiana Lowe Doescher
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After months (if not years) of avid anticipation for his inevitable presidential campaign, including in the pages of the Washington Examiner, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) launched his 2024 bid not with a bang, but with a bust. Standing up to former President Donald Trump, the celebutante who became a working-class hero by blasting the corporate and media elites, the Florida governor made the inexplicable decision to debut the GOP’s best chance to beat President Joe Biden during a glorified Twitter advertisement, flanked by two left-wing billionaires who are overt champions of corporate welfare.
When Twitter owner Elon Musk and Big Tech angel investor David Sacks actually let DeSantis speak, the runner-up in the Republican presidential primary was his usual, erudite self. It took 20 minutes of the app repeatedly crashing after the Twitter Space’s scheduled start, and DeSantis sounded — that’s right, you could not see anyone else involved — like he was phoning into the company Zoom call. But after a lackluster and rehearsed speech, DeSantis was finally allowed to do what he does best: pivot from question to question about the minutiae of topics ranging from gun control to Chevron deference. (By far, the highlight of his policy slate is his plan to dismantle the administrative state.)
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But at the end of the day, we must call a spade a spade, and that Twitter Space, dear reader, was a glorified radio segment hijacked by two bloviating billionaires who have been using DeSantis’s candidacy to profit personally. It was riddled with audio glitches, it was inaccessible to most of the senior citizens who are both crucial to voter turnout and are often technologically illiterate, and it was way too online.
There was no iconic golden escalator. Unlike just months ago, when DeSantis celebrated his devastating 20-percentage-point victory in the midterm elections, there was no iconic golden dress, as there was no Casey, and there were no adoring fans. When he could actually get a word in, it was just DeSantis wonking out and a string of right-wing pundits (and two wannabe Bruce Waynes) trying to capitalize on the Florida governor’s fame.
One crummy campaign launch won’t last long in the electorate’s memory, should the actual campaign progress as smoothly and surely as his gubernatorial reelection did. Whatever time he lost in campaigning in early states while finishing Florida’s legislative session will be made up for by the GOP donor machine, which is going into overdrive for DeSantis already. But allowing Sacks, the most vociferous venture capitalist to demand the federal government bail out the bank run he helped trigger, and corporate welfare queen Musk to supersede the actual campaign team demonstrated a near-fatal error in thinking. It’s one decision that almost surely helped a certain former president rest easier in Mar-a-Lago last night.