Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s presidential campaign largely avoided engaging with hostile corporate media in its earliest days. While that strategy has started to change under donor pressure, the campaign has found a new media figure it is seeking to avoid – 15 year old Quinn Mitchell of New Hampshire.
At the First in the Nation Leadership Summit in Nashua, New Hampshire last Friday, Mitchell was escorted from the premises by police ahead of DeSantis speaking to those in attendance. According to reports, Mitchell – who had received guest credentials to attend from the New Hampshire Republican Party – was confronted by an unidentified woman who accused the 15 year old of being a Democrat campaign operative who intended to disrupt the event and film it. Mitchell was taken to a private room and removed from the premises by police. He was eventually allowed to return.
In June of this year, Mitchell confronted DeSantis at a town hall in Hollis, New Hampshire. The aspiring journalist asked the Florida Governor if he believed former President Trump’s action on January 6th “…violated the peaceful transfer of power, a key principle of American democracy that we must uphold?” DeSantis largely dodged the question with a canned response, emphasizing that Republicans needed to focus on President Joe Biden in order to win and not re-litigate events that happened several years ago. The brief interaction including DeSantis’s awkward response went viral at the time.
At a July 4th parade in New Hampshire, Mitchell said the DeSantis security team made a purposeful attempt to intimidate him in an effort to keep him – and his penchant for pointed questions – away from the Florida Governor.
