Florida governor Ron DeSantis has filed with the Federal Elections Commission to run for president in 2024 ahead of his expected public announcement on Twitter spaces.
DeSantis is set to participate in an interview with Twitter CEO Elon Musk on Wednesday at 6 p.m. He is then scheduled for a radio interview with the Mark Levin Show and an interview with Trey Gowdy on Fox News at 8 p.m. The governor will also participate in a tele-townhall with voters across the country.
DeSantis enters the race as the current runner-up to former president Donald Trump, who continues to dominate 2024 polling. In a RealClearPolitics average of national polling, Trump leads with 56.3 percent support, while DeSantis comes in second at 19.4 percent. Former vice president Mike Pence, who has not yet entered the race, is in third at 5.6 percent, followed by former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley at 4.3 percent, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy at 3.6 percent and Senator Tim Scott at 1.8 percent.
DeSantis’s bid for president has been widely expected since at least November, when he pulled off a massive 20-point reelection win despite a predicted red wave having failed to materialize in many other parts of the country.
Ahead of the filing on Wednesday, a pro-DeSantis PAC released a new ad touting DeSantis as a would-be “President for the People.” The ad features a narrator declaring that “America has fallen” as crime videos play in the background.
The ad, produced by Never Back Down, then pivots toward optimism, presenting DeSantis as a restorative leader capable of bringing the approach he’s employed in Florida to the entire nation.
“Who will stand? From a family of steel workers, Ron DeSantis served our nation… and stood for what was right,” the narrator says.
The ad then recaps some of the governor’s biggest achievements, including his efforts to fight back against Covid-inspired government overreach and progressive capture of schools and corporations.
Never Back Down is planning a $100 million voter outreach push, per the New York Times. An effort that includes knocking on the door of every possible DeSantis voter at least four times in New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina and at least five times in Iowa. The group plans to hire more than 2,600 field organizers by Labor Day.
A key part of the efforts, according to the report, is a facility on the outskirts of Des Moines. The facility, which has been nicknamed “Fort Benning,” has already put 189 staffers through an eight-day training program.
“No one has ever contemplated the scale of this organization or operation, let alone done it,” Never Back Down executive director Chris Jankowski told the outlet. “This has just never even been dreamed up.”
The PAC expects to have a budget of at least $200 million.
Trump, meanwhile, has been attacking DeSantis for months now. His super PAC, MAGA Inc., has now spent more money on attack ads targeting the Florida governor than it previously did on supporting Republican candidates in the 2022 midterms.
MAGA Inc. has spent $15.3 million attacking the Republican governor and just $1,500 on supporting Trump. In the 2022 midterms, the PAC spent $15 million to support Republican candidates in the key swing states of Arizona, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Ohio and Nevada. Republicans lost Senate races in four out of those five states, with only Ohio Republican J.D. Vance securing a win.
DeSantis joins a crowded 2024 field that includes Trump, Haley, Ramaswamy and Scott, as well as former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson and conservative talk show host Larry Elder.