DeSantis stumps in South Carolina before primary — but not for Trump – Tampa Bay Times
A month after suspending his 2024 presidential campaign, Gov. Ron DeSantis was back in South Carolina on Tuesday, days before the state’s key primary pitting former President Donald Trump against former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
He wasn’t there to reenter the race, though. Or even stump for Trump, whom he endorsed upon dropping out.
DeSantis was invited to speak to state legislators in the capital city of Columbia about his support for state-backed constitutional amendments, including congressional term limits. He’d also been to Indiana earlier in the day, he said, speaking to lawmakers there.
But with South Carolina’s primary coming up on Saturday, DeSantis also faced questions about the state of the presidential race.
His chalkboard analysis?
“I haven’t really been following this much,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, the primary’s over.”
DeSantis said that after he finished a distant second to Trump in the Jan. 15 Iowa caucuses, he “took four or five days to analyze all the data, look at the path forward.” When he saw that Trump was all but certain to win big in New Hampshire, he stepped aside.
“I didn’t make a flippant decision, but I looked at it, and there was no question for me that what was going to happen in New Hampshire was what would happen, and it did,” he said. “And there’s no question that South Carolina is going to be a big victory for Donald Trump, because he appeals to core Republicans in a way that Nikki Haley just does not or is not trying to.”
DeSantis criticized Haley for courting centrist Republicans, independents and even Democrats, saying that wasn’t a viable path to success this early in the race.
“To try to appeal to people who aren’t a part of that base for a primary, I just didn’t understand,” he said. “It’s just not a strategy that can work.”
DeSantis had little to say about Trump himself. When asked if Trump bore some responsibility for the Republican Party’s nationwide Election Day struggles in 2018, 2020 and 2022, he pointed to his own landslide gubernatorial reelection in Florida. He said he supported leadership changes within the national GOP, but did not back any specific candidate.
But as for the South Carolina primary, he said he’s “not following the back and forth” — and he’s not expecting any last-minute shake-ups that would keep Trump from victory.
“I don’t think anything’s going to change at this point,” he said. “I think it’s pretty much set.”
• • •
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Jay Cridlin is a reporter covering politics. He can be reached at jcridlin@tampabay.com.
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