Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to enter US presidential race next week
- DeSantis is viewed widely as the strongest potential challenger to former president Donald Trump in the 2024 race
- But the Florida governor has been losing ground in the polls to Trump, the Republican Party’s front runner
Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis will officially enter the 2024 US presidential race next week, according to two sources familiar with the decision, immediately becoming Donald Trump’s biggest rival for the Republican nomination and shaking up a contest that largely has been one-sided.
DeSantis will likely file paperwork declaring his candidacy on May 25 to coincide with a donor meeting in Miami, with a more formal launch the week of May 29, according to a source.
The invitation for the May 25 event stated that donors would be put to “work”, an apparent allusion to raising money for DeSantis, according to a source familiar with the event.
Representatives for DeSantis did not immediately return a request for comment.
Although weighed down by heavy legal woes, former US president Trump retains an undeniable hold on the Republican Party.
He was indicted in April on 34 felony counts for his role in paying hush-money to a porn star during his 2016 presidential campaign, and was found liable last week for a sexual assault in 1996.
Trump, who has built a 36-point advantage in the RealClearPolitics average of polls, has hammered DeSantis on issues from Ukraine to Florida’s economic record as well as his social skills and dealings with state legislators, with the aim of weakening DeSantis before he can even declare.
