DeSantis was once seen as a serious threat to Donald Trump’s candidacy, but his polls have tanked over the last couple of months, causing strife within his campaign.
Schoen writes: “DeSantis’s campaign is reportedly short on cash, firing staff, shaking up key leadership positions and failing to court small donors, indicating a lack of voter enthusiasm.”
The Florida governor has rebooted his campaign. He’s engaging more with the mainstream media and doing more retail politicking. But that won’t help DeSantis with his main problem, says Schoen, which is that he’s just not very charismatic.
“He’s described by his own donors and Republican insiders as ‘reserved and dry’ as well as ‘arrogant’ and ‘awkward.’”
And though DeSantis’s anti-wokeness crusade may be popular with GOP primary voters, it’s not their top concern. Schoen cites a poll showing that “84 percent of Republican primary voters say economic issues — which DeSantis often sidesteps — are ‘very important’ when deciding whom to vote for, while only 51 percent said the same of ‘fighting woke ideology.’”
Schoen thinks DeSantis still has time to right the ship and make a serious run for the nomination, but only if he can run “an intensive ground game to turn out conservative voters in early primary contests.”
Yet, he suspects a Scott Walker-style flameout is the most probably outcome.
Read the op-ed at TheHill.com.
