'Death by 1000 cuts': How 'rookie' DeSantis is dropping the ball in New Hampshire

26 June 2023

To right-wing firebrand author Ann Coulter and other Ron DeSantis supporters, the Florida governor offers Republicans their best chance to move on from Donald Trump and vote President Joe Biden out of office in 2024. Trump, as Coulter sees it, has a ton of baggage that DeSantis doesn't have.

But polls released in late June have found Trump continuing to dominate the Republican presidential primary field. According to recent polls of Republican primary voters, Trump leads DeSantis by 38 percent (Emerson College), 29 percent (NBC News), or 24 percent (Yahoo News).

Trump's performance in the primary come as no surprise to The Lincoln Project's Rick Wilson, a Never Trump conservative, North Florida resident and former GOP strategist who believes the Republican Party will eventually "bend the knee" to Trump and give him the nomination. Wilson isn't the least bit bullish on DeSantis as a presidential candidate.

Many of DeSantis' cheerleaders view the New Hampshire GOP primary as his opportunity to overtake Trump among Republican voters. But Politico journalists Lisa Kashinsky and Meridith McGraw, in an article published on June 26, stress that DeSantis' "breakthrough in New Hampshire" is not materializing.

"The Florida governor topped Trump in one New Hampshire poll in January," Kashinsky and McGraw report, "and he sold out the state GOP's biggest annual fundraising dinner in April, helping the party bring in a record haul. But in the month since DeSantis formally entered the presidential race, he's stumbled in the first-in-the-nation primary state…. There are signs that even inside DeSantis' orbit, they see New Hampshire as a challenge."

The Politico journalists report that DeSantis' visit to New Hampshire this Tuesday, June 27, "is being met with backlash from a major Republican women’s group," the New Hampshire Federation of Republican Women. DeSantis, they note, is being criticized for scheduling a campaign event "at the same time as their annual fundraising lunch."

An adviser to another Republican candidate, interviewed on condition of anonymity, told Politico, "If there's one thing you don’t do in New Hampshire, it's piss off the grassroots women. Don't mess with them, they remember everything. Rookie move."

GOP strategist Mike Dennehy was equally scathing in his criticism of DeSantis, telling Politico, "It's the worst strategic move he has exhibited thus far. It's just stupid, actually. You don't take on the New Hampshire Federation of Republican Women. If he doesn't turn it around, it could be death by 1000 cuts.

Read Politico's full report at this link.

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