Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign is in a death spiral after only two months

Remember when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) was going to be the Trump slayer? He was flying high in the polls, Fox News all but canonized him, and rumors of a Trump indictment seemed to doom the former president.

Then DeSantis stepped onto the national stage, opened his mouth, and promptly fell through a trap door.

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Not even Florida Republicans support Ron DeSantis

DeSantis likes to say that “Florida is where woke goes to die.” His home state is also becoming a graveyard for his presidential ambitions.

The past week has shown just how poorly DeSantis is doing in his quest for the presidency. After spending a ton of money on his campaign – only to see his poll numbers plummet – DeSantis has been forced to cut campaign staff. It’s not as if DeSantis has had a hard time raising money. He has raked in $20 million, but he’s already blown through $8 million in just the first six weeks of his campaign, with little to show for it.

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Indeed, Federal Election Commission filings showed that DeSantis’ campaign had a large number of staffers for so early in the campaign. Some of the staffers aren’t even DeSantis supporters, just hired hands. The Washington Post reported that in at least one case a canvasser for DeSantis appeared stoned and yelled at a homeowner who asked him to leave.

If that wasn’t embarrassing enough, the financial news is actually a lot worse. DeSantis has already maxed out on some of his top donors, which means he can’t go back to them for more money. (They can always fund his Super PAC, of course.)

According to NBC News, the numbers point to a potentially fatal problem for DeSantis’ campaign: solvency, which, in NBC’s words, the campaign “has touted its fundraising ability as a key measure of viability.” In short, DeSantis could run short of cash before primaries begin, putting him at a distinct disadvantage.

DeSantis likes to blame his woes on the “corporate press.” He has kept his appearances to friendly outlets, primarily Fox News, but even there the luster is off his campaign. Rupert Murdoch is plainly disenchanted with DeSantis, and the governor is no longer getting the glowing coverage he used to from Murdoch’s media empire. In fact, Murdoch reportedly has written DeSantis off and is now hoping that Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin jumps into the race.

In a sign that he knows he needs to expand his reach, DeSantis is doing something he pledged he never would do: he’s going to appear on CNN. Two months ago, his campaign spokeswoman mocked Trump for his CNN townhall on the grounds that Republican voters don’t watch the network.

Meantime, the Florida governor is trying to argue that if people would only meet him, they would vote for him.

During a Fox News interview Sunday, DeSantis cited his experience with voters at a religious right conference in Iowa. “We were able to talk to thousands of people over a two-day period, and the number one thing I hear from people is this,” DeSantis said. “They’re like, ‘Yeah, you know, I knew you did good things in Florida, but I hadn’t seen you yet, and now that I’ve seen you, I’m for you.’”

By all accounts, meeting DeSantis is akin to meeting a lamp post. At best, he’s awkward with voters; at his worst, he’s oblivious to them. Then there’s the laugh.

But people don’t even need to meet DeSantis to dislike him. He’s making it incredibly easy for voters he needs to despise him with his radical anti-woke agenda. His rabid anti-LGBTQ+ video is already losing him potential voters.

The majority of a focus group of swing voters in Minnesota who were shown the video found it “troubling,” according to a report on Axios. “Minnesota swing voters fall into two camps; either they don’t know what DeSantis is saying, or they don’t like it,” said Rich Thau, who moderated the focus groups. Many of the voters were open to voting for a Republican alternative to President Joe Biden, but DeSantis clearly wasn’t going to be it. In the words of one attendee, the governor was just a “wannabe dictator.”

Way to win voters, Ron. Keep up the good work.