'Cold and awkward' Ron DeSantis’ 'lack of charisma' may sink his presidential hopes: journalist

17 July 2023

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' presidential campaign received some more bad news on Monday, July 17, when a new I&I/Tipp Insights poll showed him trailing GOP primary frontrunner Donald Trump by 39 percent. The poll wasn't an anomaly; a Morning Consult poll released earlier in the month also found Trump with a 39 lead over the Florida governor, and an Economist/YouGov poll showed DeSantis losing to Trump by 26 percent (The Economist/YouGov).

Poll numbers, of course, are hardly written in stone. In late 2019 and early 2020, some pundits were declaring that Joe Biden's presidential campaign was doomed; he went on win the Democratic nomination and defeat incumbent Trump by more than 7 million votes in the general election.

President George H.W. Bush had an 80 percent approval rating, according to Gallup, in parts of 1990 but was voted out of office in 1992; President Barack Obama struggled in the polls in 2009 and 2010 but enjoyed a decisive reelection victory over now-Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) in 2012.

But if DeSantis' current poll numbers hold up, the U.S. will likely be seeing a Biden/Trump rematch in 2024.

The New Republic's Alex Shephard, in an article published on July 17, offers some reasons why DeSantis' presidential campaign is struggling. At the top of the list, Shephard argues, is the Florida governor's "lack of charisma."

"Where did it all go wrong for Ron DeSantis?" Shephard writes. "You could point to Donald Trump's first indictment — or his second, for that matter — when Republican voters rallied behind the former president in droves. You could point to the Florida governor's disastrous, glitchy campaign launch on Elon Musk's disastrous, glitchy Twitter…. But Ron DeSantis' biggest problem is existential: It’s that he's Ron DeSantis."

Shephard continues, "Polling has consistently shown that the more voters get to know him, the less they like him. His numbers have been trending steadily downward since speculation about his campaign began to ramp up in earnest."

DeSantis was arguably the MAGA movement's biggest success story of the 2022 midterms. In a year when the GOP suffered many disappointments and Democrats in general performed much better than expected, DeSantis ran a far-right campaign and was reelected by 19 percent. Moreover, he did it in what used to be considered a highly volatile swing state.

But the rapport DeSantis had with Florida voters in 2022 isn't holding up in a national campaign.

"Stories about DeSantis' lack of charisma and general off-puttingness abound, reinforcing the idea that he's cold and awkward," Shephard observes. "He has entered what can only be called the Ted Cruz zone: a self-perpetuating narrative in which tales of a candidate's aloofness, to put it mildly, are constantly being pushed to the fore.

Nonetheless, Shephard acknowledges that DeSantis still has "plenty of time to reset" his "flagging campaign" and turn things around.

"Not so long ago, DeSantis had everything going for him," Shephard notes. "Ever since he rose to national prominence by defying public health warnings during the pandemic, the Florida governor was touted as both the future of the Republican Party and Donald Trump's natural successor. He was supposed to be the Goldilocks candidate — one just radical enough for the barbarians and just posh enough for the guys who sign the checks."

Read Alex Shephard's full New Republican article at this link.

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