Republicans in Florida call for DeSantis to end his 2024 run and focus on the state

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is being asked to give up his presidential aspiration by a group of Republicans in Florida so that he can focus on his current position as governor and get down to the business of running the state. 

The Florida Republican Assembly published a statement on its social media demanding that DeSantis return to the role he was reelected to in November 2022 in what might be the biggest setback for the governor in weeks. 

DeSantis has been steadily slipping in the polls Donald Trump solidifies his grasp on the Republican nomination and rival GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley is increasingly being seen as the next best contender to Trump. 

A new Iowa state poll showed that the former president now has a roughly 30-point lead ahead of his nearest political rivals DeSantis and Haley, both of whom are sitting at 16% according to the Des Moines Register/ NBC News/ Medicom poll.

It was against this backdrop that the Florida Republican Assembly, which is a grassroots conservative organization, released its message to DeSantis, in which they explained DeSantis was elected governor to serve the people of the state and his full four-year term. 

DeSantis was accused by the assembly of using his position as governor to help campaign for the Office of the President, explaining that this was taking him away from his duties and responsibilities to the citizens of the state. 

It's difficult to argue with the logic presented by the Florida Republican Assembly, which twisted the knife even harder into DeSantis’ back when they noted that the governor has not been doing well in his bid for president. 

“Governor DeSantis' Presidential campaign has been met with a lack of enthusiasm by voters nationally and has not gained any significant momentum,” the assembly wrote before adding that the failed campaign was hurting Florida. 

“Governor DeSantis' Presidential campaign has caused a distraction in the mechanism of government within Florida and the interests of Florida residents have been placed secondary to those of his presidential campaign,” the assembly continued. 

The Florida Republican Assembly's declaration noted that there were a variety of policy issues that were in “dire need of attention or correction,” including growing homeowners and auto insurance costs and issues with the state’s open carry laws.

The assembly called on DeSantis to end his presidential campaign and return to Florida so he could serve out the remainder of his time as the state’s governor and tend to the issues that required his attention. 

“Furthermore,” the assembly wrote,” the Florida Republican Assembly requests that Governor DeSantis rededicate himself to the needs of Florida residents and prioritize their interests over his personal political ambitions.”

“Public service is a privilege, not a career advancement opportunity, and elected officials must always place the interests of their constituents first,” the assembly added. But why would such a message be necessary?

Newsweek’s Ewan Palmer noted that DeSantis and his team are hoping that a positive performance in Iowa, the first state to vote in the Republican primary for a nominee, will give the Governor’s campaign a boost. 

However, political experts had previously warned that DeSantis could end up spreading himself too thin while on the campaign trail, which was something that happened when Florida was experiencing major flooding while DeSantis was promoting his new book in Ohio. 

That piece of political impropriety helped catapult Trump in the nomination race Palmer noted, and it gave DeSantis’ political enemies an opportunity to hit the governor where it hurt according to University of Akron political science professor David B. Cohen. 

"Appearing to look like he is neglecting his duties running the state gives his potential primary opponents easy material with which to criticize him," Cohen told Newsweek at the time, and that may be what’s happening now. 

The Florida Republican Assembly could be capitalizing on the weakness of DeSantis’ latest failures to assist one of the Governor’s primary opponents. In such a scenario the likely candidate they support would be former president Trump. 

In their declaration against DeSantis, the assembly mentioned that they wanted their governor to address legislation aimed at prohibiting “Capitol Police” in the state and also wanted to get “justice” for January 6th political prisoners.

The assembly called the January 6th capitol attack a Pelosi and Schumer sponsored “uniquely American replay of the 1933 Berlin Reichstag fire.” They also found a way to work in the World Economic Forum and World Health Organization into their complaints into their message for DeSantis.

How much this will affect DeSantis and his campaign has yet to be seen. But it’s unlikely to help a candidate who has been struggling to gain traction in a primary campaign that looks all but won by the former president.