The Turning Point USA 2023 AmericaFest Straw Poll had little good news for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Among conference goers, securing the border, preventing election fraud, and dismantling the deep state ranked as the top three policy priorities – with border security being overall the most intensely important issue. The policy fight of the least importance for attendees at AmericaFest was ending Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and Critical Race Theory (CRT) programs in government – an issue set which has been a core component of DeSantis’s bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
When the DeSantis presidential campaign launched in late May of this year, the Governor’s ‘war on woke’ and handling of the COVID-19 pandemic took center stage over more kitchen table issues like the economy, immigration, and trade. Jeff Roe, who until his recent resignation served as the chief strategist for the pro-DeSantis SuperPAC Never Back Down, had convinced the campaign and PAC the path to primary victory was in relitigating the pandemic and leaning in to the culture war. Some inside the DeSantis campaign viewed this strategy as an attempt to ‘Out-Trump Trump.’
Unfortunately for Gov. DeSantis, Republican primary voters have by-and-large moved on from COVID politics – poll after poll of Republican primary voters show immigration, inflation, the economy, and national security being the top, most intense issues. In most surveys, COVID-19 barely registers a result.
In hindsight, choosing to build a presidential campaign around two low-intensity policy issues explains a high degree of DeSantis’s inability to gain traction among Republican primary voters. The Florida Governor’s campaign has experienced a steady and unrelenting decline in popularity since his late-May announcement.
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