(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) Exactly seven weeks since Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis first dipped his toe into the stream of the 2024 presidential campaign, as the keynote speaker at the Heritage Foundation’s leadership conference, a lot has already changed in the political landscape.
To begin with, DeSantis himself is now a declared candidate.
And in a close second, DeSantis’s speech on Friday at the North Carolina Republican Convention’s Old North State Dinner in Greensboro came just one day after the GOP frontrunner—and DeSantis’s main primary rival—former President Donald Trump, confirmed publicly that he had been indicted yet again, this time on federal charges stemming from the FBI’s raid last year on his Mar-a-Lago estate.
That action was almost universally condemned by Republicans during the day’s news cycle, including by DeSantis—although he was bashed by Trump, nonetheless, for his reticence.
It is likely to be a topic of considerable discussion on Saturday when Trump delivers his speech to the NCGOP convention.
But DeSantis delicately tiptoed around the topic, even when discussing the problem of a weaponized federal government, which along with cultural wokeness infiltrating the school systems was one of the biggest issues to garner audience applause.
“There’s obviously very high profile examples, but there’s examples of ordinary people who may not get the same headlines,” DeSantis said of the Biden Justice Department’s partisan attacks on conservatives, part of a two-tiered justice system that has led some to suggest America as we know it may no longer exist.
“A pro-life advocate may have 20 FBI agents storming their house at 6 o’clock in the morning,” DeSantis said.
“You may have parents going to a school board meeting in Virginia that are being surveilled by the FBI,” he continued. “So the weaponization of these agencies strikes at the heart of what it means to have a free society, and it’s not just affecting people at the top, it’s affecting people all throughout our country.”
Despite never mentioning Trump by name, DeSantis was preaching to the choir, and hitting all the right notes—on paper, at least.
He offered up his definition of wokeness as a “war on truth itself,” something many have come to recognize in the ongoing debate over what defines womanhood.
But the question Republicans will face soon, if not already, is whether a candidate striking all the right chords in flawless execution is enough.
Much of DeSantis’s speech was, in fact, an exact replica of the one he gave seven weeks ago, outlining his successes as governor in Florida, with anecdotes, such as his story about rebuilding the Pine Island bridge in record time, that seem downright quaint in comparison to the existential crisis that is confronting America.
DeSantis understandably focuses on his state leadership record because it is his best way of contrasting himself with Trump. Florida has, indeed, seen a remarkable transformation from national laughing stock to conservative utopia during the tenure of DeSantis and his predecessor, current Sen. Rick Scott.
As DeSantis points out, he took the narrowest of margins in his 2018 victory and turned it into a landslide reelection mandate last year.
“Here’s the thing about what we’ve done in Florida,” he said on Friday. “It shows that this can be done. We’re not unique—I mean we’re kind of the microcosm of the country.”
Hearing him speak may inspire in listeners a fleeting glimmer of hope, like the spark made by striking a rock against a flint.
Yet, nothing in the substance of his speech quite manages to stir the passions, as Trump does by speaking bluntly off the cuff of his own lived experiences.
DeSantis’s speaking approach is instead reminiscent of a story about his baseball career, which the father of the former Little League World Series champ and Harvard team captain once told the New Yorker, according to a recent Politico profile.
“I must have thrown a half-million pitches to Ron, and I think he swung at about 500 of them,” said DeSantis’s father, noting that his son had followed the advice of legendary slugger Ted Williams to be choosy in what to bat at.
DeSantis’s strategy of playing it safe and selective has served him well in a distinguished career that borders on perfection. He is certainly the most formidable Republican challenger Trump has yet encountered in any of his three primary fights.
Yet, without tapping into some of the same chaotic risk-taking that ignites MAGA outrage and enthusiasm, he may soon strike out looking.
Ben Sellers is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/realbensellers.
