Helen Lewis/Atlantic:
The humiliation of Ron DeSantis
The Florida governor is no Trump plus talent; he’s Trump minus the jokes.
Before his stump speech on his re-election campaign last year, Ron DeSantis used to play a video of him being rude to reporters at press conferences. It was small and graceless – and received a warm welcome from the Florida governor. At DeSantis’ conference in Melbourne, Florida, last fall, I watched the video from an elevated press box along with local reporters. The dissonance between the unspoken respect that DeSantis’ young volunteers showed the media and the pride of his rival was frightening.
Ramaswamy, who has an advertising budget, is all over the polls. Currently:
Dan Pfeiffer/“Message Box” on Substack:
Is Ron DeSantis’ Campaign Over?
Florida’s governor has little in common with the few who have returned to epic flops.
Since his peak, DeSantis has suffered a steady decline in the polls, has become a national joke for his awkward encounters with voters, and announced the worst campaign in history. In the I&I/TIPP poll, DeSantis lost five points in the last month and is now 39 points behind Trump.
Will Bunch/ Philadelphia Inquirer:
Political fugitives: Why Ron DeSantis’ Florida family chose Swarthmore
Why the top two Fla. Dems fled to the Philly area, joining the political exodus from Gov. Ron DeSantis’ growing presence.
“I didn’t want them to grow up thinking it wasn’t normal,” Stacey said of what Florida was like under DeSantis. “When it was me and Sanjay, we wanted to fight. We wanted to do everything we could to make Florida a better place. But the price of a two-year-old is too high to do that. He can’t live thinking that people hate him like that.”
Asawin Suebsaeng/ Rolling Stone:
Secret GOP Polls Reveal Why DeSantis’ Campaign Is Struggling
The governor of Florida sought to free Trump in some way by drawing on voter anger over Covid and vaccines. The internal data shows that I am losing the betSix Republican aides, campaign officials, and pollsters were profiled or shared Rolling Stone internal information and research conducted or reviewed in the past year. Some of these sources are Trump allies, some support DeSantis, and some back the 2024 GOP presidential hopeful. Across the polls, issues related to Covid – including vaccines and the role of vaccines – did not appear to be a major concern for voters. This was true even when voters were given a choice of Covid policies when asked about their concerns. Since the middle of last year, the policies related to Covid have not appeared in the top 10, or the top 15, in any way, leading various campaigns and consultants to declare, in fact, useless.
Max Burns has a great video summarizing Ron DeSantis:
Greg Sargent /Washington Post:
The hidden ways of Bidenomics are undermining Trump’s 2024 hopes
When discussing “Bidenomics,” feel free often do The Rust Belt as a base for US presidential politics. Because of the difficulties that Donald Trump won in 2016 in this area, he is looking for signs President Biden’s efforts to rebuild the nation’s manufacturing sector put the unit firmly in the blue column for a long time.
But that goal misses the story hidden in plain sight. Bidenomics has the potential to reshape presidential politics in another way: by accelerating the changes that are making Sun Belt states like Arizona and Georgia crucial to the Democratic path to more electoral colleges.
The two countries are seeing huge gains from the three major economic bills that Biden signed in 2021 and 2022, which are boosting big businesses in green energy, semiconductor manufacturing and infrastructure.
Celinda Lake and Mac Heller/ Washington Post:
2024 will not be a repeat of Trump-Biden. You can thank Gen Z for that.
It is easy to imagine the 2024 presidential election will be the third race in a row where the former Democrat is running against Donald Trump. Again, Democrats win the popular vote but swing states are tight. It could go either way – and it has, right?
But things have changed a lot this time, and here’s why: The electorate may not be changing – but the electorate is.
Every year, almost 4 million Americans have reached the age of 18 and get the right to vote. In the eight years between the 2016 and 2024 elections, that’s 32 million eligible voters.
And every year, 2½ million older Americans have died. So in the same eight years, that’s 20 million fewer voters.