Florida governor Ron DeSantis’s attempt to defeat former president Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination is clearly floundering. But so was Ronald Reagan’s primary challenge to then-president Gerald Ford in 1976. DeSantis should study Reagan’s comeback to engineer a similar rapid turnaround.
The possibility of a Reagan presidency looked very dim in mid-March 1976. Reagan had lost the Iowa caucus and five straight primaries to the incumbent. Many of those battles were close, but a loss is still a loss. The campaign was running out of money, and many leading Republicans were calling on Reagan to drop out and endorse Ford. Reagan had to win the North Carolina primary or his campaign — and political future — would be over.
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