This Ron DeSantis ally could be his 'most significant prospective policy hire to date': report

31 March 2023

To Ron DeSantis' cheerleaders — a group that includes author Ann Coulter, the Daily Wire's Ben Shapiro and Fox News' Rupert Murdoch — the far-right Florida governor offers the Republican Party its best opportunity to move on from former President Donald Trump in the United States' 2024 presidential election. DeSantis, as they see it, has considerable MAGA appeal, but with a lot of more self-discipline than Trump and minus the ex-president's legal baggage.

DeSantis has yet to formally announce a presidential run. So far, the only declared Republican candidates are Trump and Nikki Haley, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (UN) and ex-governor of South Carolina. But DeSantis is certainly acting like he plans to run.

According to New York Times reporters Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman, one of the things DeSantis is doing in preparation for a likely 2024 presidential run is talking to long-time ally Dustin Carmack — who was DeSantis' chief of staff during the now-Florida governor's years as a congressman. DeSantis was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2012 and was reelected in 2014 and 2016.

The Florida governor, Swan and Haberman report in an article published on March 30, plans to "install" Carmack as a "senior adviser specializing in national security" when he "formally begins his presidential campaign," according to New York Times sources.

"The planned appointment makes Mr. Carmack the most significant prospective policy hire to date for a DeSantis campaign," Swan and Haberman explain. "It indicates the governor will continue his pattern of filling key roles with trusted loyalists. Traditional Republican foreign policy elites, who are monitoring Mr. DeSantis' every move for clues about his intentions, will most likely be relieved that, in Mr. Carmack, Mr. DeSantis will have an adviser who leans more hawkish than the governor’s allies on the Tucker Carlson-adjacent New Right."

Carmack is presently with the Heritage Foundation, a major right-wing think tank. But according to Times sources, he plans to leave that position in order to join DeSantis' 2024 campaign.

"Mr. Carmack’s portfolio with an eventual DeSantis campaign will be broadly focused on policy," Swan and Haberman report. "But one of his key areas of expertise is national security, with a focus on cybersecurity…. During his most recent stint at Heritage, Mr. Carmack took a hawkish approach to his foreign policy writings, especially as they related to cybersecurity and Russia and China."

Read the New York Times’ full report at this link (subscription required).

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