“I’m running for president to lead our Great American Comeback.”
With this, Ron DeSantis announced his bid for the Presidency of the United States. The Florida governor, who rose to prominence as a defender of Trump, will now run against the returning president.
“Decline is a choice,” says the governor in his campaign’s inaugural video, sounding similar notes to Trump’s 2016 run. Decline, in this context seems to refer primarily to domestic societal and political decline, including to do with migration and crime: “Righting the ship requires restoring sanity to our society, normalcy to our communities, and integrity to our institutions.”
Trump has begun targeting his Floridian rival for the Republican nomination, running an ad, presenting the former president’s one-time endorsement of DeSantis as the cause of the latter’s success.
Indeed, DeSantis’ “Great American Comeback” slogan shares more than words with Trump’s “Make America Great Again,” promising the return of past prosperity. It also somewhat anticipates Trump’s possible reference to his own “Comeback.”
Both candidates have a political record to point to, albeit it is an open question whether the Republican electorate can be convinced that Floridian successes are nationally reproducible, or that Trump will deliver on his original platform if re-elected.
It also remains to be seen whether Trump’s popularity has declined enough for his party’s primary voters to prefer another candidate with similar policies, which may rest on how distinct their policy proposals turn out to be.
