It’s been a bumpy Tuesday for Ron DeSantis — literally. The governor’s day began with a car crash (no one was injured, thankfully) and ended with a mass layoff of one-third of his campaign staff. A DeSantis memo sent this afternoon to supporters notes that the campaign is “leaning into the reset.”
Kamala Harris has gifted DeSantis a golden opportunity to begin that reset by recentering his cultural message on issues that Republicans care about. The common critique of the DeSantis campaign is that it is disproportionately focused on “anti-wokeism.” That’s true, of course — polls show that the economy is the top issue even for Republican primary voters. But DeSantis would do well to adjust his cultural message rather than throw the whole enterprise out altogether. And he should start by attacking the narrative pushed in recent days by the Vice President that Florida’s history curriculum is teaching that slavery was good for slaves.
Charlie Cooke has convincingly demonstrated that Harris’ brazen abuse of what he calls “Ctrl+F politics” is dishonest to the core. If National Review can make these points, so can DeSantis. And by recentering his “anti-woke” message on quality education for Florida’s children rather than obscure examples of “woke capitalism” (I’m still slightly unsure what ESG is, exactly), DeSantis can retain a focus on the cultural battles that made him famous without falling prey to the “terminally online” aura that has defined parts of his campaign. He should start right now.