Ron DeSantis is gearing up to announce a run for President in 2024 as the Republican has been seen to be making moves to set up his campaign team. The Florida Governor is the preferred candidate to face off against Joe Biden in the next election according to polls but has so far kept quiet on whether he would run. DeSantis is likely to face severe opposition from former President Donald Trump, who has ramped up his attacks on the Governor who he endorsed in 2018.
Over the weekend, Trump said: “Ron would have not been governor if it wasn’t for me.”
However, reports say DeSantis’s political team has already identified potential campaign hires in states like Iowa and New Hampshire.
Republican sources also said the Governor is in talks with Phil Cox and Generra Peck, who already work for him, about possible senior roles in any 2024 run.
Generra led the day-to-day operations of DeSantis’ 2022 midterm reelection campaign, while Phil is a campaign general consultant.
Republican delegate Bill Bowen told the Washington Post, which reported DeSantis’ new moves towards a Presidential campaign, that New Hampshire would likely be receptive to DeSantis.
“I’m convinced there’s a good network of establishment party people in New Hampshire that will quickly have a very effective DeSantis campaign,” he said.
Over the weekend, a super PAC backing DeSantis for president attended the New Hampshire GOP meeting.
Ron to the Rescue was in attendance at Saturday’s annual meeting in Salem, with founder John Thomas saying it was what he “would call our opening salvo in New Hampshire”.
Trump attended the meeting, where he fired back at claims he was off to a slow start campaigning for 2024.
“I’m more angry now, and I’m more committed now, than I ever was,” Trump said.
READ MORE: 6 dead and 3 injured after truck collides with bus in ‘gruesome’ crash
After his South Carolina speech, Trump said in an interview that it would be “a great act of disloyalty” if DeSantis opposed him in the primary.
“If he runs, that’s fine. I’m way up in the polls,” Trump said.
“He’s going to have to do what he wants to do, but he may run. I do think it would be a great act of disloyalty because, you know, I got him in.
“He had no chance. His political life was over.”
Trump also criticized DeSantis for closing businesses during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, saying Florida was “closed” for a long time.
