(Headline USA) Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has privately indicated he plans to run for president in 2024, according to the Washington Post.
DeSantis, who has been considered a frontrunner in the GOP primary, plans to visit Iowa and Nevada over the weekend — the clearest indication yet that he plans to launch a campaign. A super PAC in support of DeSantis, founded by Ken Cuccinelli, who served as acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services under the Trump administration, was also created Thursday as an outside spending vehicle for DeSantis’s campaign, the Daily Signal reported.
“Ron DeSantis doesn’t just talk — he acts, but most of all, he never backs down,” Cuccinelli said in a video announcing the Never Back Down Super PAC. “Gov. DeSantis, today, I’m asking you to run for president. You’ve had our back; now we will have yours.”
DeSantis plans to travel to Iowa first, where he will meet with Gov. Kim Reynolds. He then plans to head ot Las Vegas to meet with Adam Laxalt, the Republican nominee for Nevada’s Senate seat during the midterm elections. The visits are part of his promotional tour for his newly released memoir.
“You ain’t seen nothing yet,” DeSantis said during his State of the State address this month.
Former President Donald Trump also plans to make a trip to Iowa in the coming weeks. He’s attacked DeSantis sharply, accusing the Florida Republican of being in bed with the establishment.
“In 2016, I declared I am your voice,” he said during an address at the Conservative Political Action Conference. “Today, I add: I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed: I am your retribution.”
DeSantis, for his part, has avoiding criticizing the former president directly.
“I’m appreciative of a lot of things he did,” he told Fox News recently. “It doesn’t mean I agree with everything he’s doing lately.”
