News broke this afternoon that Ron DeSantis intends to announce the launch of his presidential campaign tomorrow, May 24. Unlike traditional campaign launches, however, which involve setpiece speeches in front of cheering throngs of handpicked supporters, DeSantis has thrown a curveball: His announcement will take place at 6 p.m. Eastern Time on Twitter in what is being billed as a “conversation” with its new owner Elon Musk. What that exactly entails is left for us to discover tomorrow night.
This has set plenty of heads to scratching, mine among them. At first blush, it seems like the decision of a campaign that is “terminally online,” i.e., far too embroiled in the navel-gazing bubble of online media and political commentary. Elon Musk is the “main character” of this kind of Twitter, many of whose denizens think he ruined their favorite toy. But what kind of real-world influence does he have? What sort of voter reach does this event have compared with regular coverage by the evening news and cable networks?
Upon further thought, however, I see certain advantages. It breaks the mold, if nothing else. By not going the traditional route, DeSantis gets a brief nod as an innovator but, more importantly, puts himself out where the voters (in the age 18-49 demographic) he needs to persuade congregate. And if you say, “Yeah, but I won’t be watching,” then don’t worry — at least 40 percent of the people you follow will be, so you’ll hear all about it regardless. Because do you know who else tends to disproportionately congregate on Twitter? That’s right, mainstream media journalists and commentators.
Second, to be blunt: Elon Musk, while intelligent, is not exactly a hard-hitting interviewer. It’s impossible to know whether this “conversation” is meant as a frank exchange of opinions — a chance for DeSantis to explain why he believes what he does in the context of a friendly back-and-forth — or just an exercise in “Hello Ron, can you explain to America how wonderful you are?” But the man who bought Twitter only to devolve into @catturd2’s reply-guy will likely be even more easily rolled by DeSantis’ self-assured freight train approach than Kaitlan Collins was by Donald Trump. That is, of course, entirely the point. As long as DeSantis remembers his lines, he functionally has called his shot here; this is going to be his attempt to put his most competitive foot forward in the primary race.
And Musk is assisting him. This matters. While Elon Musk may be utterly loathed by activist left-wingers, he is not thought of nearly so negatively by the country as a whole. To the greater public, he’s the richest man in the world, who makes electric cars, launches rockets, and recently bought a social media website. That is all. They are not as upset about “Twitter Blue” as the Left seems to be. They don’t even know what it is.
I do not expect Musk to offer anything as vulgar as an outright endorsement of DeSantis. He has his own ulterior motives for wanting to be involved in this (one of Musk’s long-term goals is to turn Twitter into a news-making site). But by giving DeSantis a Twitter platform and his personal presence in DeSantis’s formal introduction to the national stage, Musk is offering his unmistakable imprimatur regardless, and DeSantis’s opponents are whistling past the graveyard if they pretend it doesn’t come with real advantages.