Ron DeSantis and Progress of Italian Americans

As Ron DeSantis rumbles toward the Iowa caucus that has taken on make-or-break status for his campaign, it is worth taking a moment to notice a dog that hasn’t barked in his presidential bid: his identity, in particular the fact that, if elected, he would become the first Italian-American president.

There’s more than one reason why there has been comparatively little comment on some of the identity-politics aspects of this primary. The biggest reason is simply that Donald Trump has predominated in the media coverage and the polls. A second reason is that press coverage of DeSantis in particular has been so hostile that a good deal of his biography has gotten lost in the shuffle. Republican voters are also just not as interested in this stuff as Democratic voters are (even the primary electorate’s history of sympathetic hearings for black conservatives wasn’t enough to keep Tim Scott afloat). And DeSantis doesn’t much like to talk about it.

About the Author

Dan McLaughlin

Dan McLaughlin is a senior writer at National Review Online and a fellow at National Review Institute.

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As Ron DeSantis rumbles toward the Iowa caucus that has taken on make-or-break status for his campaign, it is worth taking a moment to notice a dog that hasn’t barked in his presidential bid: his identity, in particular the fact that, if elected, he would become the first Italian-American president.

There’s more than one reason why there has been comparatively little comment on some of the identity-politics aspects of this primary. The biggest reason is simply that Donald Trump has predominated in the media coverage and the polls. A second reason is that press coverage of DeSantis in particular has been so hostile that a good deal of his biography has gotten lost in the shuffle. Republican voters are also just not as interested in this stuff as Democratic voters are (even the primary electorate’s history of sympathetic hearings for black conservatives wasn’t enough to keep Tim Scott afloat). And DeSantis doesn’t much like to talk about it.